PULASKI'S WORLD
Historical Novels set in and around Havre de Grace, Maryland in the mid-1800s. A husband and wife team steals slaves from the south and smuggles them north.
KEEP SCROLLING! PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS AND DIAGRAMS BELOW (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Pulaski History:
Ben is born the first moment of 1800. His experiences, and those of Sonja (born 1805), reflect the major moments of the 1800's, as well as the life styles and challenges of everyday people living then. Ben is the renegade son of a Baltimore ship captain, and grandson of a Polish immigrant. Ben rarely attended school and in the first novel cannot read.
Sonja is the daughter of a successful North Carolina farmer and the granddaughter of a German immigrant who settled in Catawba County. Ben and Sonja live in Havre de Grace, Maryland. They have two sons, Isaac, born in 1825, and Aaron, born in 1827.
Ben left home in early 1839 during the depression that began in 1837, signing onto a sailing ship bound for the Orient. A daughter, Alisha, was born to Sonja several months after Ben left, but was torn from her arms during the ice gorge and flood of that year. The Pulaski home was swept away. In mourning, Sonja was informed by a man who wanted her that Ben was lost at sea. The loss of Alisha and then Ben shatters Sonja's spirit, who thought herself a destitute widow until Ben's return in 1841 ("Pulaski's Canal").
Maryland is a slave state, bordering the free state of Pennsylvania. The line between them is the Mason-Dixon line. Both Ben and Sonja grew up around that "peculiar institution" of slavery. The Pulaski Saga follows them, as they awaken to the moral issues of slavery and are drawn into individual acts that become a commitment to helping runaway slaves escape to the north.
Pulaski Books Published under Heron Oaks Imprint:
Pulaski's Canal (2015)
Blood on the Chesapeake (2016)
Raven's Risk (2017)
Kingdoms in the Marsh (2018)
Brazen Deceit ( 2018)
Serpent's Compromise (2019)
Despot's Heel (2019)
Bloody Ground, Shallow Graves (Spring 2020)
Brutal Peace (Winter 2020)
Planned:
Pulaski's Redemption (Spring 2021)
Havre De Grace - A Novel (Winter 2021)
The Graw (Spring 2022)
KEEP SCROLLING! PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS AND DIAGRAMS BELOW (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)
[I've used historical photos where I could, but I am also sharing photos of period objects that I used in my imagination as I wrote the books. - Bob]
Historical Novels set in and around Havre de Grace, Maryland in the mid-1800s. A husband and wife team steals slaves from the south and smuggles them north.
KEEP SCROLLING! PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS AND DIAGRAMS BELOW (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Pulaski History:
Ben is born the first moment of 1800. His experiences, and those of Sonja (born 1805), reflect the major moments of the 1800's, as well as the life styles and challenges of everyday people living then. Ben is the renegade son of a Baltimore ship captain, and grandson of a Polish immigrant. Ben rarely attended school and in the first novel cannot read.
Sonja is the daughter of a successful North Carolina farmer and the granddaughter of a German immigrant who settled in Catawba County. Ben and Sonja live in Havre de Grace, Maryland. They have two sons, Isaac, born in 1825, and Aaron, born in 1827.
Ben left home in early 1839 during the depression that began in 1837, signing onto a sailing ship bound for the Orient. A daughter, Alisha, was born to Sonja several months after Ben left, but was torn from her arms during the ice gorge and flood of that year. The Pulaski home was swept away. In mourning, Sonja was informed by a man who wanted her that Ben was lost at sea. The loss of Alisha and then Ben shatters Sonja's spirit, who thought herself a destitute widow until Ben's return in 1841 ("Pulaski's Canal").
Maryland is a slave state, bordering the free state of Pennsylvania. The line between them is the Mason-Dixon line. Both Ben and Sonja grew up around that "peculiar institution" of slavery. The Pulaski Saga follows them, as they awaken to the moral issues of slavery and are drawn into individual acts that become a commitment to helping runaway slaves escape to the north.
Pulaski Books Published under Heron Oaks Imprint:
Pulaski's Canal (2015)
Blood on the Chesapeake (2016)
Raven's Risk (2017)
Kingdoms in the Marsh (2018)
Brazen Deceit ( 2018)
Serpent's Compromise (2019)
Despot's Heel (2019)
Bloody Ground, Shallow Graves (Spring 2020)
Brutal Peace (Winter 2020)
Planned:
Pulaski's Redemption (Spring 2021)
Havre De Grace - A Novel (Winter 2021)
The Graw (Spring 2022)
KEEP SCROLLING! PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS AND DIAGRAMS BELOW (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)
[I've used historical photos where I could, but I am also sharing photos of period objects that I used in my imagination as I wrote the books. - Bob]
A few words about Havre de Grace, that exquisite gem sitting at the top of the Chesapeake Bay, with its toes dangling in the water and it roots reaching back to the beginning moments of the United States. It is still there. You can breathe the history. Stand in the place that watched the British invade, the Union march and the Doughboys come back from the Great War. Look across the Susquehanna Flats to Perryville, where Washington, Lafayette and other notables crossed the Susquehanna to meetings that created this nation. The foundation of Lapidum remains just up the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal where the Pulaski characters presented real life as it was. Walk the streets and see the buildings of both history and settings for the books, still alive and breathing. Step back in time with me, and then come out to see the most appealing little town protected from the glass and chrome of citidom, but still enjoyable as a welcomed visitor. - Robert F. Lackey
Links to interesting internet resources:
Havre de Grace, Maryland
The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal
Concord Point LightHouse
Havre de Grace Maritime Museum
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Museum
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
St Michael's Island Museum
The South Carolina Maritime Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Georgetown County Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Gullah Museum Georgetown, South Carolina
The Rice Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
Capt'n Rod's Lowcountry Tours, Georgetown, South Carolina.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE PULASKI SAGA.
The Pulaski Saga is a series of historical novels, and writers of novels take liberties with dates and incidents to blend them into the story. We are known to fold the actions of multiple historic incidents and people into a single character for continuity. Although no academic work is actually cited, I would be neglecting due homage to my interesting sources of historical information, without sharing a bibliography with the reader. At least here, I can identify the original truths I ‘massaged’ in writing this story. I also offer my humble apologies to the historic researchers I so crudely burglarized.
A NOTE ABOUT RAVEN'S RISK:
First, a confession of a blatant lie: The historic A.P. McCombs House in Havre de Grace, Maryland, was actually built in 1880. I was compelled to pro-create it in 1843 and litter it with iron stoves, spittoons and a couple extra rooms, as a setting for the larger-than-life Mamie Stewart. Cautionary Notes: (1) Please note: Do not dig in the garden for gold French coins. They are not there, and you might be shot. (2) Spesutie Island is real, but belongs to the U.S. Army and may only be visited by aerial software on computers.
BOOKS & PAMPHLETS READ WHILE DEVELOPING THE PULASKI SAGA:
REFERENCES – BOOKS READ WHILE DEVELOPING THE PULASKI SAGA
Anbinder, Tyler , Nativism & Slavery, The Northern Know Nothings & Politics of the 1850s, New York, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Bates, Bill, Images of America, Havre de Grace, Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
Berry, David, Maryland's Skipjacks, Image of America Series, Arcadia Publishing, 2008
Blight, David W., Race and Reunion - The Civil War in American Memory, Cambridge, Belknap Press, 2001
Boyle, Christopher C., Mansfield Plantation – A Legacy on the Black River, History Press, Charleston, 2014
Brewington, M.V. , Chesapeake Bay Sailing Craft, , Portland, The Calvert Marine Museum and The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Printed by the Anthoensen Press, 1986.
Carey, George G., Maryland Folklore, Centerville, Tidewater Publishers, 1989.
Clifford, J. Candace and Clifford, Mary Louise, Nineteenth-Century Lights, Historic Images of American Lighthouses, Cypress Communications, 2000.
Cumbo-Floyd, Andrea, The Slaves Have Names, Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2013
Dickey, Christopher, Our Man in Charleston - Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South, New York, Broadway Books, 2015
Diggins, Milt, Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line – Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland Historical Society, 2015
Diouf, Sylviane A., Dreams of Africa in Alabama – The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans brought to America, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 2007
Downs, Jim, Sick From Freedom, Oxford University Press, 2012
Dwyer, Eddie, A Trip Into Yesteryear and a Tale of Granpa’s Life Aboard a Canal Boat, The Havre De Grace Record.
Early, Jubal Anderson, Memoirs of Jubal Early – The American Civil War (Originally published 1866/67), New York, Konecky & Konecky, 1994
Foner, Eric, Reconstruction – America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877, New York, Harper-Collins, 1988.
Frassanito, William A., Gettysburg : A Journey in Time, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975
Glatfelter, Heidi L., Havre de Grace in the War of 1812 ‘Fire on the Chesapeake’, Charleston, History Press, 2013.
Goodwin, Floyd Alister, Survival of an Old Rice Plantation – Belle Isle, Georgetown, SC, Publish America, 2009
Floyd, Claudia, Maryland Women in the Civil War – Unionists, Rebels, Slaves & Spies, Charleston, History Press, 2013
Floyd, Claudia, Union Occupied Maryland – A Civil War Chronicle of Civilians and Soldiers, Charleston, History Press, 2014
Foner, Eric, Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, HarperPerennial, 1988, 2002
Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 58, The Tidewater Canal: Harford County’s Contribution to ‘The Canal Era’, The Historical Society of Harford County,Fall 1993.
Holly, David C., Tidewater by Steamboat, A Saga of the Chesapeake, The Calvert Marine Museum, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991
Holly, David C., Chesapeake Steamboat - Vanished Fleet, The Calvert Marine Museum, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994
Jay, Peter A., Editor, Havre De Grace - An Informal History, Havre De Grace, Sparrowhawk Press, 1994.
Klein, Maury, Days of Defiance – Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War, New York, Vintage Books, Random House, 1997
Kopczewski, Jan Stanislaw, Kosciuszko and Pulaski, Warsaw, Interpress Publishers, 1976.
Levine, Bruce , Half Slave and Half Free - The Roots of the Civil War, New York, Hill and Wang, Noonday Press, 1992.
Linder, Suzanne Cameron and Thacker, Marta Leslie, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001
Loker, Aleck, A Most Convenient Place, Leonardtown, Maryland - 1650-1950, Leonardtown, Solitude Press, 2001
McAlister, Robert, Wooden Ships on Winyah Bay, Charleston, History Press, 2011
McAlister, Robert, Life and Times of Georgetown Sea Captain Abram Jones Slocum, 1861-1914, Charleston, History Press, 2012
McAlister, Robert, The Lumber Boom of Coastal South Carolina, Charleston, History Press, 2013
McAlister, Robert, Georgetown’s North Island, Charleston, History Press, 2015
Mingus, Scott L. Sr., Flames Beyond Gettysburg – The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863, California, Savas Beatie, 2013
Mingus, Scott L. Sr., The Ground Swallowed Them Up – Slavery and the Underground Railroad in York County, Pa, York,York County History Center, 2016
Phillips, Christopher, Freedom’s Port - The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860, Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Pogue, Robert E.T., Yesterday in Old St. Mary's County, Pogue Pub, 1968
Ray, Pedro (Petey), ‘White Feline’ (Woods of Coulds), from Poems by Pedro, Volume Two, Author House, 2013.
Roach, Brett R. “Prejudice Against Blacks Freed In Post-Civil War Washington”, Negro History Bulletin © 1985, Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Rogers, George C., Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown Historical Society, Reprint Company, 2002
Rothmiller, Mike, The Confederate General of America's Civil War, Arena Publishing, 2017
Shaw, Ronald E., Canals for a Nation - The Canal Era in the United States 1790-1860, Lexington, The University Press of Kentucky, 1990.
Shomette, Donald G., Pirates on the Chesapeake, Being a True History of Pirates, Picaroons, and Raiders on Chesapeake Bay 1610 - 1807, Tidewater Publishers 1985
Stranahan, Susan Q., Susquehanna – River of Dreams, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Sydnor, Charles S., The Development of Southern Sectionalism 1819-1848, Louisiana, Louisiana State University Press, 1948.
Waugh, John C., The Class of 1846 – From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan and Their Brothers, New York, New
Haven and London, Ballantine Books, 1994
Whitney, Milton, Esq., Defence of COL. WM. S. Fish, U.S.Army, Submitted by his counsel, Washington [D.C.], April 11, 1864
Woodward, C. Vann, Mary Chestnut’s Civil War, Yale University Press, 1981
OTHER GENEROUS SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
The Susquehanna Museum at the Lockhouse, Havre de Grace, Maryland.
The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, Havre de Grace, Maryland.
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, Maryland.
The Saint Michaels Museum, St. Michaels, Maryland
The South Carolina Maritime Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Georgetown County Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Gullah Museum Georgetown, South Carolina
The Rice Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
Capt'n Rod's Lowcountry Tours, Georgetown, South Carolina. Well worth the modest fee for his narrated boat ride along the Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers
Links to interesting internet resources:
Havre de Grace, Maryland
The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal
Concord Point LightHouse
Havre de Grace Maritime Museum
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Museum
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
St Michael's Island Museum
The South Carolina Maritime Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Georgetown County Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Gullah Museum Georgetown, South Carolina
The Rice Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
Capt'n Rod's Lowcountry Tours, Georgetown, South Carolina.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE PULASKI SAGA.
The Pulaski Saga is a series of historical novels, and writers of novels take liberties with dates and incidents to blend them into the story. We are known to fold the actions of multiple historic incidents and people into a single character for continuity. Although no academic work is actually cited, I would be neglecting due homage to my interesting sources of historical information, without sharing a bibliography with the reader. At least here, I can identify the original truths I ‘massaged’ in writing this story. I also offer my humble apologies to the historic researchers I so crudely burglarized.
A NOTE ABOUT RAVEN'S RISK:
First, a confession of a blatant lie: The historic A.P. McCombs House in Havre de Grace, Maryland, was actually built in 1880. I was compelled to pro-create it in 1843 and litter it with iron stoves, spittoons and a couple extra rooms, as a setting for the larger-than-life Mamie Stewart. Cautionary Notes: (1) Please note: Do not dig in the garden for gold French coins. They are not there, and you might be shot. (2) Spesutie Island is real, but belongs to the U.S. Army and may only be visited by aerial software on computers.
BOOKS & PAMPHLETS READ WHILE DEVELOPING THE PULASKI SAGA:
REFERENCES – BOOKS READ WHILE DEVELOPING THE PULASKI SAGA
Anbinder, Tyler , Nativism & Slavery, The Northern Know Nothings & Politics of the 1850s, New York, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Bates, Bill, Images of America, Havre de Grace, Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
Berry, David, Maryland's Skipjacks, Image of America Series, Arcadia Publishing, 2008
Blight, David W., Race and Reunion - The Civil War in American Memory, Cambridge, Belknap Press, 2001
Boyle, Christopher C., Mansfield Plantation – A Legacy on the Black River, History Press, Charleston, 2014
Brewington, M.V. , Chesapeake Bay Sailing Craft, , Portland, The Calvert Marine Museum and The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Printed by the Anthoensen Press, 1986.
Carey, George G., Maryland Folklore, Centerville, Tidewater Publishers, 1989.
Clifford, J. Candace and Clifford, Mary Louise, Nineteenth-Century Lights, Historic Images of American Lighthouses, Cypress Communications, 2000.
Cumbo-Floyd, Andrea, The Slaves Have Names, Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2013
Dickey, Christopher, Our Man in Charleston - Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South, New York, Broadway Books, 2015
Diggins, Milt, Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line – Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland Historical Society, 2015
Diouf, Sylviane A., Dreams of Africa in Alabama – The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans brought to America, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 2007
Downs, Jim, Sick From Freedom, Oxford University Press, 2012
Dwyer, Eddie, A Trip Into Yesteryear and a Tale of Granpa’s Life Aboard a Canal Boat, The Havre De Grace Record.
Early, Jubal Anderson, Memoirs of Jubal Early – The American Civil War (Originally published 1866/67), New York, Konecky & Konecky, 1994
Foner, Eric, Reconstruction – America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877, New York, Harper-Collins, 1988.
Frassanito, William A., Gettysburg : A Journey in Time, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975
Glatfelter, Heidi L., Havre de Grace in the War of 1812 ‘Fire on the Chesapeake’, Charleston, History Press, 2013.
Goodwin, Floyd Alister, Survival of an Old Rice Plantation – Belle Isle, Georgetown, SC, Publish America, 2009
Floyd, Claudia, Maryland Women in the Civil War – Unionists, Rebels, Slaves & Spies, Charleston, History Press, 2013
Floyd, Claudia, Union Occupied Maryland – A Civil War Chronicle of Civilians and Soldiers, Charleston, History Press, 2014
Foner, Eric, Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, HarperPerennial, 1988, 2002
Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 58, The Tidewater Canal: Harford County’s Contribution to ‘The Canal Era’, The Historical Society of Harford County,Fall 1993.
Holly, David C., Tidewater by Steamboat, A Saga of the Chesapeake, The Calvert Marine Museum, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991
Holly, David C., Chesapeake Steamboat - Vanished Fleet, The Calvert Marine Museum, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994
Jay, Peter A., Editor, Havre De Grace - An Informal History, Havre De Grace, Sparrowhawk Press, 1994.
Klein, Maury, Days of Defiance – Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War, New York, Vintage Books, Random House, 1997
Kopczewski, Jan Stanislaw, Kosciuszko and Pulaski, Warsaw, Interpress Publishers, 1976.
Levine, Bruce , Half Slave and Half Free - The Roots of the Civil War, New York, Hill and Wang, Noonday Press, 1992.
Linder, Suzanne Cameron and Thacker, Marta Leslie, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001
Loker, Aleck, A Most Convenient Place, Leonardtown, Maryland - 1650-1950, Leonardtown, Solitude Press, 2001
McAlister, Robert, Wooden Ships on Winyah Bay, Charleston, History Press, 2011
McAlister, Robert, Life and Times of Georgetown Sea Captain Abram Jones Slocum, 1861-1914, Charleston, History Press, 2012
McAlister, Robert, The Lumber Boom of Coastal South Carolina, Charleston, History Press, 2013
McAlister, Robert, Georgetown’s North Island, Charleston, History Press, 2015
Mingus, Scott L. Sr., Flames Beyond Gettysburg – The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863, California, Savas Beatie, 2013
Mingus, Scott L. Sr., The Ground Swallowed Them Up – Slavery and the Underground Railroad in York County, Pa, York,York County History Center, 2016
Phillips, Christopher, Freedom’s Port - The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860, Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Pogue, Robert E.T., Yesterday in Old St. Mary's County, Pogue Pub, 1968
Ray, Pedro (Petey), ‘White Feline’ (Woods of Coulds), from Poems by Pedro, Volume Two, Author House, 2013.
Roach, Brett R. “Prejudice Against Blacks Freed In Post-Civil War Washington”, Negro History Bulletin © 1985, Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Rogers, George C., Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown Historical Society, Reprint Company, 2002
Rothmiller, Mike, The Confederate General of America's Civil War, Arena Publishing, 2017
Shaw, Ronald E., Canals for a Nation - The Canal Era in the United States 1790-1860, Lexington, The University Press of Kentucky, 1990.
Shomette, Donald G., Pirates on the Chesapeake, Being a True History of Pirates, Picaroons, and Raiders on Chesapeake Bay 1610 - 1807, Tidewater Publishers 1985
Stranahan, Susan Q., Susquehanna – River of Dreams, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Sydnor, Charles S., The Development of Southern Sectionalism 1819-1848, Louisiana, Louisiana State University Press, 1948.
Waugh, John C., The Class of 1846 – From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan and Their Brothers, New York, New
Haven and London, Ballantine Books, 1994
Whitney, Milton, Esq., Defence of COL. WM. S. Fish, U.S.Army, Submitted by his counsel, Washington [D.C.], April 11, 1864
Woodward, C. Vann, Mary Chestnut’s Civil War, Yale University Press, 1981
OTHER GENEROUS SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
The Susquehanna Museum at the Lockhouse, Havre de Grace, Maryland.
The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, Havre de Grace, Maryland.
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, Maryland.
The Saint Michaels Museum, St. Michaels, Maryland
The South Carolina Maritime Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Georgetown County Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
The Gullah Museum Georgetown, South Carolina
The Rice Museum, Georgetown, South Carolina.
Capt'n Rod's Lowcountry Tours, Georgetown, South Carolina. Well worth the modest fee for his narrated boat ride along the Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers