The Book Prize Index

I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad

Karolyn Smardz Frost

As his bride, Lucie, was about to be "sold down the river" to the slave markets of New Orleans in 1831, young Thornton Blackburn planned a daring escape from Louisville. Discovered by slave catchers in Michigan, they were slated to return to Kentucky in chains, until the black community rallied to their cause in the Blackburn Riot of 1833. The couple was spirited across the river to Canada, but Michigan's governor demanded their extradition. The Blackburn case was the first serious legal dispute between Canada and the United States regarding the Underground Railroad, and set precedents for all future fugitive-slave cases. The Blackburns settled in Toronto and founded the city's first taxi business. Working with prominent abolitionists, Thornton and Lucie made their home a haven for runaways. The Blackburns died in the 1890s, and a chance archaeological discovery in a downtown Toronto school yard brought their story to light.--From publisher description.

HistoryAmerican History · medium confidenceAmerican History81 signalsLlm Classifier: American History -> American HistoryOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: African americans, biography -> BiographyOceans, Rivers & WaterScience & DiscoverySlavery & EmancipationBlack History & Culture

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Governor General's Literary Awards: English-language Non-fictionMajor2007WinnerSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Thornton Blackburn86%
    • Lucie Blackburn72%

  2. 02 Central places

    • Toronto78%
    Show lower-confidence suggestions

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Louisville62%
    • New Orleans56%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The Blackburn case, involving Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, was the first serious Canada–United States legal dispute over the Underground Railroad and set precedents for future fugitive-slave cases.

    Model confidence 86%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    33 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 74%.