Jonathan Miller, a Beech Island, S.C. planter, bought Albert Taylor, a ten-year-old slave boy, on credit terms for $1,000 in 1860. This transaction would continue to haunt him for nearly 20 years in the aftermath of the Civil War and the collapse of the Southern economy. Taylor became a free man, but Miller still owed the price of his purchase. This book raises an extensive array of issues and questions about slavery, and important constitutional, economic, and legal questions in tumultuous times. Tom Robertson is president of Cranston Engineering Group, P.C. of Augusta, Georgia, where he practices civil engineering, city planning, and land surveying. He is an avid student of history, having authored numerous articles and works, including Resisting Sherman: A Confederate Surgeon’s Journal and the Civil War in the Carolinas, 1865.