Sweetsmoke

"The year is 1862, and the Civil War is in full flame. Cassius, a slave and carpenter on a tabacco plantation owned by the indomitable Hoke Howard, risks everything - extreme punishment, sale to a cotton plantation, even his life - to learn the truth concerning the murder of a freed black woman, a woman who secretly taught him to read and once saved his life. No one gives a damn about his small, rude, unimportant death in the midst of a brutal and hellish war. No one but Cassius, who braves unimaginable dangers to escape the plantation and avenge her death."--Back cover.