When Peabody frees over three hundred slaves and offers them equal shares of land, runaways from all over the South converge on the farm. But when the Virginia state government charges him with property theft, Peabody's estate wages war with the Virginia militia.
Underestimating the training skills of two battle-experienced British officers, the militia is ill prepared. To end the tension, Peabody offers Virginia a proposal that will alter the country's destiny.