The time was during those halcyon days in the deeper American South. Life inched along like the pace of the river in late summer, 1860, that is, slowly, gently, harmoniously. If you were moving about Charleston, South Carolina's busy central market at that time, you probably would have gotten the impression that most Charlestonians were innocently happy or somewhat content. They moved about town in their daily routines unaware - in fact having no idea - that soon they would reap the terror of the cannon fire that would rip the very air they breathed and blast their fine architecture and green landscapes to pieces - forever altering the path of American life.
Jeremy, Jack, and Brooksy, at the tender ages of 14-15 years, as Book One begins, were about to fight the civil war in their own way, months before Fort Sumter in the nearby harbor surrendered, establishing the opening act of the War between the States. Their war was not against the northern invading armies nor against the southern rebels, nor soon-to-be rebels. They pitted themselves against a cruel schoolmaster - a former preacher on a slave ship - who disliked them intensely because they were poor, illiterate to a point and "uncivilized" in his oh-so-modest opinion. Mainly though, he hated them because these poor, somewhat illiterate and uncivilized "street beggars" and "gutter snipes" refused to accept his grand teachings about the "glorious plantation slavery system that made Charleston, South Carolina, the envy of the world and set it at the pinnacle of advanced civilization." And so the conflict began.
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Jack: Book One in the Trilogy, the Battle Begins
Teen FictionIn Book 1, Jack conspires with friend Jeremy to undermine their racist, secessionist teacher's efforts to poison his students' minds with his benefits-of-slavery lectures. Will the students buy into it? Not if Jack has any say. The book is dedicated...
