title: Path to Freedom: A Slave's Journal
author: Caroline Grace Wood
description: Caroline Grace Wood is an eleven-year-old author, and this is her first novel. She lives with her parents and her younger brother in Cumming, Georgia. She became fascinated with slavery in America after learning about it in fifth grade history class. She always enjoyed writing and decided to combine this love of writing with her new-found interest in early-American history.
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  [Contents](0671578758_toc.htm)
  
  # CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  
  The _Sailing Directions_ said the Selma pirates took slaves along  
  with their other loot, so Daniel was surprised to see that the only servants
  in the semicircular council chamber were a half-dozen adolescents and the two
  aged cripples who'd brought the cup around at the assembly. From the freedom
  with which they bantered with the officers, all were freeborn Dalbriggans.
  
  Adele walked beside him, holding the heavy service pistol as gingerly as a
  spinster with a baby. She could put it in a cargo pocket since the barrel had
  cooled by now, or she could lay it on the scarred table. Daniel didn't say
  either of those things because Adele was as able to see the possibilities as
  he was; and as with the spinster, there was more than a little pride in her
  expression.
  
  She leaned close and said, "Interesting. They don't allow slaves to be present
  during governmental deliberations. Tha