Researching True North

• Research

Where did you get the idea for True North?

Well, because I live in Boston, I knew that there had been many abolitionists living in Boston and there'd been an active Underground Railroad program in Boston. I also knew that although Boston was considered a bastion of liberal thinking, they were Yankees — but I knew there was an element of very wealthy people whose businesses depended on slavery. The Boston economy did — we had the textile mills. All the cotton picked down south was often sent here to put into fabric. So, I thought that made it kind of an edgy place to set a book about the Underground Railroad.