Moccasin Trace


Fiction - Historical - Event/Era
242 Pages
Reviewed on 08/15/2014
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    Book Review

Reviewed by Karen Pirnot for Readers' Favorite

If you're looking for a good historical fiction read, pick up a copy of Moccasin Trace by Hawk MacKinney. In this novel set in Georgia in the 1860s, we get an in-depth look at two plantations. Wisteria Bend is a traditional slave plantation with proud owner Andrew Greer, his wife Corinthia, daughter Sarah, and son Ben in charge. Their house slave Bessie and her son Sam are considered part of the family and, indeed, oftentimes have a great deal to say in interpersonal decision-making. Then there is Moccasin Hollows, with its owner widowed Rundell Ingram and his strapping young son Hamilton. Best friends, Andrew and Rundell have divergent opinions when South Carolina secedes from the Union. Andrew helps to form a militia while Rundell and Hamilton busy themselves attempting to protect the land which they feel will soon be inundated by Yankees. Hamilton and Sarah form a permanent bond between the families when they marry. It is a bond that will carry them through tragedy and commitment.

Even though I felt the story was a bit slow in developing, I did love the research that went into the authentic plot. All of the characters were marvelous, but I particularly loved the way author MacKinney portrayed Corinthia, a traditional Southern mistress. His chapter on Corinthia meeting the Union Soldiers was one of those pieces of writing that stays with you because of its simple dignity. It is the poignant accounting of an individual who knows the past is gone and the future is uncertain. Nobody really wanted what happened in the war between the states and this book portrays how the traditional South yielded to the inevitability of history.