Why do the MacIveys choose to stay isolated and apart from the rest of the world at this point in their lives?

At the core of the MacIvey family is a commitment to integrity and relating honorably with each other and with those they encounter. Since Tobias comes of age in the South during the period just prior to the Civil War, it would be expected that he would be prejudiced against the Negroes and Indians he encounters but just the reverse is true. Tobias views each man as his own person regardless of skin color and takes the ex-slave Skillit into his family and maintains a long-standing honorable relationship with Keith Tiger and the Seminole Indians.