When Cotton Was King

Three generations of a Southern family during the antebellum and civil war periods provide the novel’s story. Andrew Blackstone, family patriarch, son of an alcoholic father and bastard mother, and raised in poverty, acquires a fortune through the illegal slave trade. Determined to achieve economic and social dominance in Williamsburg, Virginia, he marries into the aristocratic Wellworth family, which is rich in ancestry but poor in purse. His wife, Rebecca Wellworth, is raised by slave Momma Joe until the age of eight years when her father sells Momma Jo. Years later, Rebecca wants to buy back Momma Jo but learns that she died, leaving two sons, Michael and Gabriel, whom Rebecca buys then frees. Michael meets John Brown and participates in the Pottawatomie massacre. Other antebellum events, including the Fugitive Slave Act, Underground Railroad, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act incorporated into the story, also severely impact the family. Rebecca gives birth to twins, Jackson and Arabella, who grow up during a time of increased tension between north and south that progresses to civil war. The twins die as young adults after marrying and having children—Arabella, a son Robert; and Jackson, twins Luke and Lydia. The twins are raised by their grandparents. Robert is raised by his father. The grandchildren are young adults when the civil war begins. Robert is a physician, and Luke is a West Point cadet. Lydia is married to Luke’s roommate Clayton Driscoll. It’s the grandchildren who are most affected by the civil war, most notably the Battles of Bull Run, Winchester, Gettysburg, and the Saltville Massacre, where Robert’s best friend, a former slave named Samuel Black, is killed. The novel ends with the death of Andrew Blackstone.