When Property Flees — A Novel of Courage
With the publication of my historical novel When Property Flees in 2019, I fulfilled a longstanding ambition to write a compelling and accurate tale of America’s past. The mid-1800s just prior to the Civil War beckoned me.
When Property Flees is a novel of courage. It tells of the lives and struggles of people in two farming communities, one in southern Ohio and the other across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky. It tells of lives threatened by cruelty and hatred and of people’s fight for dignity when their neighbors, their government, and its laws are against them.
When Property Flees looks beyond the romantic legend of the Underground Railroad. Through the story of an enslaved family’s desperate flight, we meet fellow travelers, helpers both eager and reluctant, and pursuers, and we come to understand the issue of slavery from these complicated perspectives. It offers insights into the political, economic, religious, cultural, and moral issues fiercely dividing the United States in the years leading quickly to the Civil War.
Paperback $16.95
Ebook $7.99
Read a few sample pages here
Purchasing Information
Genre: Fiction SubGenre: Historical Language: English Pages: 378 Format: Paperback eBook ISBN: 9781543954111 Paperback ISBN: 9781543954104
Selected Amazon Reviews
“When Property Flees” is a book I could not put down. Reading it was like watching a really good mini-series on TV where the characters all came to life and I got involved in each of their lives. One thing that’s really interesting is how Gregory LeFever is able to weave a lot of actual history into the book, but do it in a way where it doesn’t stop the flow of action. I learned a lot about the conditions and laws in America during the 1850s and I now understand more about why the Civil War occurred. For me, I related to a number of the strong women characters in the book. His descriptions of home life back then are very informative. There’s a lot of emotional scenes in the book, and they too are handled with grace and compassion. It’s just an all-around excellent book!”
— Loves Life
“Besides being just a plain good read, this debut novel from Gregory LeFever offers great insight into the complex times following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, which made aiding or harboring escaped slaves a crime. This compellingly told tale weaves through the lives of enslaved people, their owners, slave hunters and traders, abolitionists and regular folk and the decisions and actions they take as they grapple with moral ambiguities and exigencies of their time and place. The prose is fluid and flawless, the history impeccable. I highly recommend this engrossing and informative book, which will leave you pondering long after the last page is turned.”
— Mary L. Cohn
“With skill, grace, and courage, LeFever takes you inside the troubled times before the US Civil War, when the forces for and against slavery swelled to a dramatic and bloody crescendo. With LeFever’s detailed portrait of life on either side of the Ohio River, we come to know families whose lives are intimately bound to the slavery problem, as well as those victimized by it. A literary achievement you won’t forget.”
— Peter Eichstaedt
A skillfully written period piece about slave families, slave hunters, traders and abolitionists before the Civil War. One cannot help but wonder about the relativity of the story and the human trafficking dilemma in this day and age. I appreciate the perception of the cultural conflicts, attitude changes and overall empathy of the book.”
— Maura Van Ness
Sometimes a story exaggerates or focusses on the horrific in order to drive a point home. This book is more insidious in that it tells the story in a much more nuanced way, showing so many points of view that you can come close to understanding it. Of course you can easily see a cruel whip-wielding master as a monster. But in this book we can see how the middle-aged plantation wife was a monster in her own way, too — and how easy it would be, given the right circumstances and societal norms and expectations, to become monsters ourselves. Scenes shown in the calm light of a normal day leave the reader with a deeper appreciation of how awful slavery was. And that such a huge swath of the population actually considering it acceptable made it even more horrible.
— Kathleen Mattson
“Wonderfully descriptive. Vivid. Emotional. Educational. Riveting! Gregory LeFever did an incredible job creating characters that were very believable, and I won’t forget them. Reading this book felt like watching an epic movie in full color, and I would not be surprised if someone wants to turn it into a screenplay. Historical fiction is how I try to learn about the past, and this impressive story and its sad truths will not be forgotten.”
— Karen English Rabe
“Greg LeFever writes simply, yet dramatically about the horrors of slavery endemic in American culture during the 1850s. Not only do LeFever’s slave owner characters, as the title suggests, face the dramatic consequences triggered by their “chattel” deciding to run away, but so, too, must those who try to help liberate the slaves through the perilous maze of The Underground Railroad face moral dilemmas with dramatic consequences. At its core, of course, is the plight of the slaves themselves and a clear parallel to today’s political landscape, where those in power create laws designed to keep men and ESPECIALLY women locked in onerous situations, leaving them feeling hamstrung and without recourse for change. LeFever’s no-nonsense style is perfectly poised to morphing into a bingeable TV series (not unlike the successful “ROOTS” from decades before).”
— Donna L. Pizzi
"Greg, I find your novel "When Property Flees" utterly captivating. Even the title grabs. Your sparsely worded (thank you) yet pointed descriptions bring me right into the scene with full emotion. I am reading it as slowly as I can because I do not want to finish it. An epic journey. Congratulations!"
— Noirior