TANA-MARA: The Saga of Jackson Cornwall Harlow, opens with a family who settled a small farming community in Grassy Cove, Tennessee during the Civil War. A ruthless band of renegade guerillas posing as Union soldiers destroy the settlement, but not before William Harlow sets his oldest son, Jackson, bareback on a horse to escape the brutal murder of his family. Days later, Jackson appears at a tobacco plantation in Jimtown, Kentucky, and is taken in by a family of slaves. Jack’s horse dies from sand colic, and he finds himself stranded on the plantation.

With the promise of the 13th Amendment, Jack and his acting big brother, Ben Jackson, embark on a trip to Princeton, Indiana, to be present at a speech given by Ben’s luminary, Frederick Douglass, about “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July.” Jack and Ben successfully evade a lynch party by hiding inside tobacco stalks shaped as teepees utilized for field drying. When they return to the plantation, Ben discovers Master Wes had sold off his beautiful and expecting wife, Joleen, to a plantation in the deep south. A struggle ensues and Ben tragically kills himself. Jack leaves the plantation on foot and ponders what he will do for a living. He decides to cross two states and seek work with the Transcontinental Railroad headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.