Across the Great Divide book series

The man smiled, but his eyes did not. Handing Luther a paper, he said, “What you can do is get out of Indiana. We don’t want your kind here. I’m the sheriff and part of the Superintendent Board for the Colored just formed here in Madison. Maybe you can’t read that, but it says that you came into this state illegally, in violation of the Indiana constitution. You’re an escaped slave from Kentucky. War or no war, slavery is still legal in Kentucky, and unless you have freedom papers or permission from the state of Indiana to be here, you need to git! Someone recognized your wagon—you were at the riots in Evansville. The sheriff there sent me a wire. You’re a troublemaker. You fired a gun at white men. You slaves are just a bunch of escaped monkeys, trying to overrun us. You have twenty-four hours to get out of the state, or I’ll be back with chains and ship you to your owner in Kentucky.”