When Ambrose Byrd, retired Buf­fa­lo sol­dier, arrives in the all-black town of Wil­low Bend, Mis­sis­sip­pi, he’s look­ing for peace, but he walks into trou­ble. The town’s may­or, Jim True­hart, bought the land from his for­mer mas­ter Hiram Lit­tle and trans­formed the Delta swamp into the best cot­ton land in the coun­ty. Now Lit­tle wants the land back, and he hires a man for the job that every­one in Wil­low Bend knows too well — for­mer Klans­man Ben­jamin Love­less, who car­ried out a mas­sacre in the neigh­bor­ing coun­ty ten years before. Byrd thought he was done with being a sol­dier. But his friend­ship with True­hart — and his love for Truehart’s eigh­teen-year-old daugh­ter Bernie — pull him into Wil­low Bend’s fight. As dan­ger comes ever clos­er, Byrd decides to join with Wil­low Bend for bat­tle. Will it be a fight for freedom…or a massacre?

Read Sabra Wald­fo­gel’s Posts for the Vis­it­ing Scribe

The Jews of Mound Bay­ou

Dry Goods Mer­chant and Free­dom Fight­er: Samuel Fleish­man of Mar­i­an­na, FL