Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

Jamie Pyke was just a minor character in Grissom's earlier novel, The Kitchen House but his struggle is the focus of this one.  A murder on the Tall Oaks plantation forces him to become a runaway slave.  He makes it to Philadelphia with the help of another runaway slave, Henry.  His light color allows him to pass as a white man but it is a secret that has dangerous consequences for Jamie and the forbidden woman he loves.  Years later, after Jamie has become a successful silversmith, Henry asks Jamie to care for his son Pan.  When Pan is captured by slave runners, Jamie feels obligated to return to the south to get Pan back.  His search leads him back to the Tall Oaks area and many of the characters from the earlier novel appear in this story.  You don't need to read TKH first but it might affect how much you care about what happens to the characters in this one.  This book has all the tension and cruelty of the first book with occasional satisfying revenge.  Not sure that I liked Jamie as much as I liked Lavinia and Belle and Sukey in the first novel but it was a worthy almost sequel.