Coyote

An interstellar adventure of earthborn people seeking freedom from tyranny on another world from a Hugo Award–winning author.
The totalitarian United Republic of America rose from the ashes of a nation that once represented democratic liberty on Earth. Its rulers wish to expand their ideological ambitions to the stars where they will establish a new colony on an inhabitable moon known as Coyote.
The crew and colonists aboard the Alabama undertaking this mission are not representatives of the Republic. They are those who have suffered under its cruelty and seek the free life that has long been denied them.
More than two hundred years have passed since these intrepid rebels stole the starship and left Earth. The colonists have endured tragedies during their journey and struggle to survive with scant resources on an alien world with dangerous life forms to make Coyote their home.
But those still living on the despotic planet they left behind have not forgotten them . . .
"Full of pleasant surprises." — The New York Times Book Review
"One of the best space-exploration novels." — Rocky Mountain News
"An homage to wonder, hope and determination . . . Steele has constructed this glorious tale of a new starflung Mayflower from the legacies of Heinlein, Twain, Hemingway and others—and he has founded it on the essence of America." —Stephen Baxter, multi-award–winning author