In The Fire Of Spring — Thomas Tryon

"Unforgettable." The Washington Post Book World.
The Civil War is still twenty years away when Rose, an escaped mulatto slave girl, arrives in the town of Pequot Landing. Soon after, a school for "colored misses" is established. This fuels a firestorm between the abolitionist Talcott family and the wealthy Grimes family, owners of mills that depend on slave-picked cotton. Into the blaze steps schoolmistress Georgiana Ross and rakehell sea captain Sinjin Grimes. Now all these players find themselves caught up in the dramatic sweep of history . . .