Prologue

In Book 1, Jack conspires with friend Jeremy to undermine their racist, secessionist teacher's efforts to poison his students' minds with his benefits-of-slavery lectures.
Will the students buy into it? Not if Jack has any say.
The book is dedicated to my brother and to my old friend, Jack, the latter who, at 19, was killed speeding in his too-fast car, alone, in 1971. We met when I was a first grader at a Groton, Massachusetts parochial school. Jack was in second grade, I was in the first grade. One day Jack began teasing on the bus ride home so we got off at his bus stop to fight. I was little - he much bigger. He pinned me to the ground, forced me to quit. That kicked off our friendship that lasted years.
Jack was a pitcher on the high school baseball team. He was so fast - somewhat wild. I was afraid to bat against him. He tried out for a professional farm team but didn't make it. He worked in the local factory and had no real career designs other than in sports which were the center of his life. Not long after his failed attempt(s) at major league baseball, he smashed into a tree at high speed on a quiet road early one morning.
Jack had a 'hero complex' - needing to be the center of attention. He excelled at sports but wasn't interested in academics. He bet everything on his sports abilities that wowed neighborhood friends growing up.
This story also is dedicated to both Jack and my brother, Paul, a friend of Jack's. Paul passed in January, 2016.
I finally started Jack's story in 2000 when I began teaching in New York City. It dawned on me one day to transport Jack as a composite character - i.e., a character who has qualities and characteristics that Jack had but who also possessed ones he didn't have - into 1860's America.
In the book, Jack becomes the hero - a status that mostly evaded him in real life. I think he would have been proud of the story. Many events are entirely fictional - some are not. All characters are fictional or partially so.