The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Chevalier chooses to set her latest novel in the area where she went to college--Oberlin, Ohio.  Honor Bright is a Quaker from Dorset, England.  When her fiance throws her over for another woman--a non-Quaker woman--Honor is so hurt and humiliated that she decides to emigrate to America with her sister Grace.  Grace is to marry a Dorset man who has a dry goods store in Oberlin--Honor is unsure why her sister chose this somewhat humorless man, but off they go.

The crossing is very hard on Honor, but the overland journey to Ohio kills Grace--she gets yellow fever and dies soon thereafter.  Honor is now alone and without prospects.  She continues her journey westward, hitching rides with strangers until she gets to her new home.

Honor has two things that distinguish her--she is an outstanding quilter.  Her sewing skills are outstanding, and while she sticks with simplicity in her dress, she puts all of her artistry in her quilts.  The second is that she is an ardent abolitionist in a land that is conflicted about slavery.  Over the course of the book Honor tries to stop helping runaway slaves, but she becomes physically ill as a result.  She feels loyalty to the family that takes her in but when she is made to stop her efforts, small as they are, she realizes that she has to leave them.  The book describes mid-ninteenth century life in the Midwest in a way that rings true while telling a good story.  The setting is just a decade before the Civil War, and even in a free state, the life of the African American was by no means good.  Very enjoyable read about a dark and difficult part of the American past that we have not yet resolved.