A Dangerous Search: Black Patriots in the American Revolution. Book 1 – From Lexington to Bunker Hill
by Nancy I. Sanders

Based on actual events in the Revolutionary War and some of the African-American men who shaped those events, A Dangerous Search tells the story of Tobias Gardner, a twelve-year-old free black in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1775, who steals away on a dangerous journey to find his uncle in Boston as the Revolutionary War begins.  After meeting up with Minutemen on the road to Boston, Tobias befriends African-American militia men Peter Salem, Lemuel Haynes, and Barzillai Lew, all real figures from history, and helps out in the Minutemen camp outside of Boston while planning a way to sneak into a heavily-guarded Boston.

Finally making his way past British sentries on the road to Boston, Tobias searches for his uncle’s workplace and there meets Prince Hall and George Middleton, two African-American men who were leaders of Boston’s black community at the time.  From Hall and Middleton, Tobias learns of his uncle’s work as a spy for the Sons of Liberty and the cause of freedom embraced by Boston’s black population.  After being reunited with his uncle in the Minutemen camp outside Boston, Tobias becomes a drummer in a regiment and joins other black patriots, including actual African-American hero Salem Poor, in the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Primary sources relating to and biographical information about the historical figures featured in the book are included at the end of the book.

ISBN: 978-1-932663-22-8     Publication Date: 2013     Price: 7.95     103 pages, paperback