As a child, I didn’t have imaginary tea parties. I was an outlaw fighting alongside the greatest rogue in Sherwood Forest, the notorious Robin Hood. The stories kept me sane when I had no control. They freed me from a bleak existence of abuse and neglect. If life taught me anything, it was that living was hard, and only the dreams you made happen came true. At nineteen, living in my uncle’s cabin in the Oregon Cascades, my life was anything but the fantasies of my childhood. I was free, but I was alone. I was surviving. Until I hiked into the mountains and carelessly challenged the universe to notice me. A door made of white light appeared in front of me, compelling me to step through. I took it. I stepped through. Into the greatest trials, both physical and emotional, I’d ever face—into another time and unknown world that would test my strength to my core. I would fight… I would kill… I would love... Most of all, I would live.

This text traces the growth and social development of the Florida frontier through its experience with crime and punishment. Using court records, government documents, newspapers and personal papers, it explores how crime affected ordinary citizens in antebellum Florida.

Lorraine London is a beautiful waif whose stepfather has sold her to a tavern keeper with a harridan of a wife. She is rescued from the tavern by a roguish gun runner, whose love sweeps her off her feet and exposes her to danger as the two supply guns to the American ReVolution.