Book Summary

Born the second son of a woman farmer, south of Salem, North Carolina, young Jonathan Henry Hamilton strikes out on his own in 1835, and becomes an overseer on a large slave Plantation. His actions and rapport with others, especially his gang of Bounders, as the slaves were called on the Bethania Plantation, made him very popular, particularly with the daughter of the plantations owner.

With his bride, and four bounders, whom he frees, Jonathan strikes out for the territory, and soon to be state of Arkansas, embarking on an arsenal of adventure. This includes helping a group of Eastern Cherokee from Georgia, who had escaped the Trail of Tears and taken refuge in the Great Smoky Mountains after the discovery of gold on their homelands caused them to be chased out of Georgia by the greed of whites and US President Andrew Jackson.

Jons' reward for this help was enough gold to purchase all the lands, manpower, materials, and even a little town on the Saint Francis River in Northeast Arkansas to build a rice empire. The struggles of empire building finally start paying off, and Jonathan's family and Moses Landing Ark begin to prosper. But, there is trouble on the horizon!

The issue of slavery causes problems in all the western states, and Arkansas orders all free Negroes to leave, including the now 100 plus workers at Moses Landing. Soon, the Civil War breaks out, and Jonathan's oldest son joins the Union Army in Saint Louis, while his second son and son-in-law join the Confederacy. An encounter in Missouri, pitting his sons against each other, along with the absence of news of their whereabouts, only adds to the stress Jonathan faces, trying to get his crops to market down the Mississippi to New Orleans, through a gauntlet of gunboats and emplacements.

If all climates, then Union gunboats and troops ascend the Saint Francis River to do battle with the Empire of Jonathan Henry Hamilton.