FREEDOM CALLING - Book Highlights
Character - "Big Jake"

The Great Dismal Swamp on the Virginia - North Carolina border has been surrounded with legend and myth as long as anyone can remember, and the stories run the gamut from the divine to the demonic. It had once been thought to be the miraculous and elusive Fountain of Youth, as its water was very pure and thought to have healing properties. It also was thought to be the dwelling place of cannibal witches and red-eyed demons, and that hidden somewhere in its murky, wet expanse, was a portal to hell.

The earliest known legend was handed down from the Native American Nottoway and Meherrin tribes and describes how the swamp was created. The legend tells about a Great Phoenix, the firebird. Its eyes like hot coals and its fiery wings big enough to blot out the sun. It flew low to the earth and its wings set fire to the land. Where the great bird nested, a hole was burned into the ground. That deep bowl became Lake Drummond, at the center of the swamp. The area cooled, and the scorched depression that remained around the lake became the Great Dismal Swamp.

There is another tale of the Dismal originating from the early antebellum era preceding the Civil War. It is the legend of Big Jake, giant of a man who stood seven foot-two and weighed over three hundred and fifty pounds. No one knew where Big Jake came from. It is supposed that he was born in the swamp to an escaped slave who had sought refuge there. Jake worked for the logging company and lived in the swamp. He had no last name and could not read or write, but he had a heart that was bigger than he was. He most always had a smile on his face.

Jake loved three things, Jesus, cutting timber, and making wood carvings of all the creatures that dwelt in the swamp. He was a very gifted artist and his carvings were exquisite! He would spend hours whittling scrap cedar and cypress into bear, raccoons, deer, cougar and other native wildlife. He captured every nuance and detail,… including the spirit of each animal. He gave his creations to friends and neighbors. After he died, woodsmen who went into the swamp to cut timber would sometimes find a little wooden statue at the base of a tree, - placed where they would certain to see it. To this day, it is said that campers and hikers continue to find similar wooden carvings on the paths around the outer rim of the swamp.

The legend of “Big Jake” was an inspiration in the development of one of the characters in Freedom Calling.

SEE PICS on FACEBOOK BOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarHist...

BUY BOOK NOW at AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...

Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea