THE SALT ROAD

Cora Bell, a free Black woman from Ohio, is nine months into the overland crossing to Sacramento when the Cross settler party claims her wagon under a bill of sale signed by a dying man. With her freedom papers locked inside the seized wagon, Cora walks three miles back on the trail and finds the real dead man's wagon, proving the two wagons are entirely different. Her private confrontation with Cross fails. At Sweetwater Crossing, before forty assembled travelers, she presents her case with physical evidence. The resolution hinges on Ruth Cross, who has known the wagon was wrong since the morning of the seizure. Ruth speaks. The wagon is returned.