No Man's Property

Linda, a gifted, self-educated nurse enslaved by Doctor Flint, dreams of practicing medicine and marrying her childhood friend Nate, a free Black carpenter in Savannah, Georgia. Though Doctor Flint allows her to study his medical books and assist with patients, his "generosity" masks a darker purpose – he's grooming her for his perverse sexual desires while refusing all offers to purchase her freedom. As Doctor Flint's sexual advances escalate and his wife's jealous cruelty intensifies, Linda finds solace in medically treating Georgia's white community, primarily the children. Her medical brilliance emerges when she saves Kate, the daughter of notorious slave hunter Matthew, from Doctor Flint’s botched attempt to treat her. Linda’s reputation grows among the white communities, though each successful treatment risks exposing her owner’s medical incompetence and enraging him to respond violently. When Nate returns with enough money to buy Linda's freedom, Doctor Flint's obsessive refusal forces Linda toward a desperate escape plan. On her perilous journey to Savannah, she discovers an underground network of allies: the many white patients she once treated, their families, and eventually even Matthew himself, who chooses to repay his daughter's life by helping Linda evade capture. Doctor Flint relentlessly chases after Linda and nearly captures her; however, she uses her cunning to outwit him with a series of correspondence she has secretly mailed from the Northern states, thus sending him on an underground railroad wild goose chase that results in his demise when the northbound ship he travels on founders in a storm. Yet Linda's triumph is bittersweet. Though free from Doctor Flint, she faces new battles as an educated Black woman in the South that would relegate her medical practice to the shadows. Determined to walk in the same sunshine as white doctors, Linda and Nate begin their fight for professional recognition, refusing to let her healing gifts be diminished by prejudice. This opens the door for a sequel in which Linda’s fight against social injustice for a legitimate medical career could be explored in even greater detail.