The abolitionist Garretts and the Slaver McCunes are border state natives still haunted by the moral ghost of the Garrett patriarch, Valentine, and the evil machinations of the McCune patriarch, Jake. Together, or on their own, family members experience, Slaughter’s Mountain, an Indian uprising on the Plains, a German uprising in Texas, as well as the battles of Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.
They enter common homes and glittering mansions. They interact with historical characters as well as fictional, and along their journey, they visit the capitals of Richmond and Washington, allowing you the reader to peer behind the curtain, to participate in historical decision-making.
In 1862, both North and South were certain of victory. The four-million-strong black population knew one of them would win but, either way, where would it leave them? Slavery and Abolition, one or the other were intertwined in every political decision. Slavers and abolitionists drove the politicians to war, for after all, aren’t politicians the spearpoint of any conflict.
