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Two Kingdoms
The year is 1908. The Bluegrass region of Kentucky is experiencing its third year of a desperate farmer’s strike against the American Tobacco company and its heavy-handed manipulation of their tobacco markets. Vigilante violence has become endemic to the landscape as the farmers fight to keep all the tobacco under their control and force James Buchanan Duke back to the bargaining table. And to show their determination, they have pledged that not one more stalk of tobacco will be grown until Duke capitulates. Planting time finds the entire countryside locked in a dangerous stalemate.
Rafe Jackson is one of those farmers living a double life with the Night Riders, hooded vigilantes bent on enforcing the will of the Burley Association on any farmer daring to break ranks with his neighbors. And it all has begun to take a toll on Rafe. His night life is beginning to eclipse his days, and both his farm and his pregnant wife are starting to suffer in his absence. Yet quitting is hardly an option. Everything he owns hangs in the outcome of the strike. And to increase the stakes, Kentucky’s governor has called out the militia against the Night Riders and put a $1000 bounty on each of their heads, dead or alive.
Dub Burnett is a cattle drover, one of a small troop of adolescent boys that drive the animals to market for Old Man Greene as he moves across the countryside, trading with cash-strapped farmers along the way. Lost Boys to varying degrees, these ragtag drovers operate largely outside the realm of adult supervision, but not outside the sphere of adult influence. As their nominal leader, Dub finds himself tested at every turn as the boys shepherd an overlarge and unruly herd through the strike-torn landscape. With the accidental addition of a few man-sized accessories to the boys’ provisions, a violent collision with the adult realm seems assured.
Centerpiece to both realms is Two Kingdoms, a crossroads cluster of two churches and outbuildings that are born of the same congregation, now split and feuding. Not far from the county seat which is soon to be the target of the Night Riders’ most daring attack, Two Kingdoms also provides the night ground for the drover boys and their herd before Market Day, and affords a magnificent view of a world in flux.
Rafe Jackson is one of those farmers living a double life with the Night Riders, hooded vigilantes bent on enforcing the will of the Burley Association on any farmer daring to break ranks with his neighbors. And it all has begun to take a toll on Rafe. His night life is beginning to eclipse his days, and both his farm and his pregnant wife are starting to suffer in his absence. Yet quitting is hardly an option. Everything he owns hangs in the outcome of the strike. And to increase the stakes, Kentucky’s governor has called out the militia against the Night Riders and put a $1000 bounty on each of their heads, dead or alive.
Dub Burnett is a cattle drover, one of a small troop of adolescent boys that drive the animals to market for Old Man Greene as he moves across the countryside, trading with cash-strapped farmers along the way. Lost Boys to varying degrees, these ragtag drovers operate largely outside the realm of adult supervision, but not outside the sphere of adult influence. As their nominal leader, Dub finds himself tested at every turn as the boys shepherd an overlarge and unruly herd through the strike-torn landscape. With the accidental addition of a few man-sized accessories to the boys’ provisions, a violent collision with the adult realm seems assured.
Centerpiece to both realms is Two Kingdoms, a crossroads cluster of two churches and outbuildings that are born of the same congregation, now split and feuding. Not far from the county seat which is soon to be the target of the Night Riders’ most daring attack, Two Kingdoms also provides the night ground for the drover boys and their herd before Market Day, and affords a magnificent view of a world in flux.
568 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 21, 2013
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