The pair start their journey together, but they decide to separate to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Paul and Mitchell are working in a lumber camp and wish to escape. If Mitchell hadn't used violent force to ensure that the white man kept his word by paying Paul his money, Paul would have never seen any dime of 'four times a rider's pay.' After this incident, the two flee aboard a train with the help of a white woman. Due to Paul being of mixed heritage, the owner of the horse doesn't even have to give Paul his earned money. The owner of the horse will not give Paul his pay. Paul wins the race but has trouble collecting his pay. Edward Logan forbids it, saying that it would be unwise of Paul to ride, let alone race, a horse with whom he is not acquainted. Paul comes across the opportunity to race another man's horse. Paul and Mitchell soon grow tired of obeying Edward Logan (Paul's Father). Their deal states that if Paul teaches Mitchell to 'read English, write English, and figure,' then Mitchell will teach Paul how to fight and to fend for himself but as he reminded Paul, Mitchell 'can't teach him how to win.'

After several months of incessant bullying, Paul strikes a deal with Mitchell. In 'Childhood,' Paul's parents are constant reminders of the trials of being born biracial. Paul's father and brothers' only advice for Paul is to 'use his head,' and come up with a solution by himself. In the beginning, Mitchell continually bullies Paul for being multiracial. The book is narrated from Paul's perspective, and quickly introduces his three brothers, his sister, and Mitchell Thomas, a black boy whose father works for Paul's father and who becomes a vital member of the story-line. It describes how Paul's life has been different from that of most freed slaves. The novel begins with Paul-Edward, as a nine-year-old. The dialogue uses the Southern dialect from the 1870s and 1880s. Paul has three entries from Paul's journal, after the main story ends. Paul is the child of a white man and a woman with Black and Native American ancestry. The Land follows the life of Paul-Edward Logan. This was originally the final book in the series before the release of All the Days Past, All the Days to Come in 2020 which continues the story of the Logan family chronologically from the last book, The Road to Memphis set twenty years later. This book won the 2002 Coretta Scott King Author Award and the 2002 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. It is a prequel to the whole series that recounts the life of Cassie Logan's grandfather Paul-Edward as he grows from a nine-year-old boy into a man in his mid-twenties. It is the sixth and penultimate book of the Logan Family saga that began with Song of the Trees (1975). The Land is a novel written by Mildred D.

Mildred d taylor books in order