Hope's Path to Glory: The Story of a Family's Journey on the Overland Trail

Written by Jerdine Nolen

An enslaved girl sees a chance at freedom on the trail west.

3.5 Goodreads · 47 ratings

240 pages· 770L· AR ~5

$17.99Save 6%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

In 1849 a struggling slave-owning family in Alexandria, Virginia, sends its eldest son to the California gold fields, along with enslaved workers to cook, wash and tend the horses. For Hope, the long journey on the Overland Trail may be her chance to find freedom.

From the publisher

From the author of Eliza's Freedom Road and Calico Girl (a Kirkus Best Book of the Year) comes a dramatic historical middle grade novel that is "a unique lens through which to examine the 1849 Gold Rush" (School Library Journal) following an enslaved girl taking the chance to find freedom on the Overland Trail to California. In Alexandria, Virginia, in the mid-19th century, a slave-owning family is facing financial trouble. The eldest son, Jason, thinks going to California to mine for gold might be the best way to protect his father's legacy. He'll need a cook, a laundress, and a hostler for the journey, and one of them is twelve-year-old Clementine, whose mother calls her Hope. From Independence, Missouri--the "Gateway to the West"--she and the others join a wagon train on the Emigrant Overland Trail. But what Jason didn't consider is taking the three enslaved people west will give them an opportunity to free themselves--manifesting their destiny.

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