Sparrowhawk

The American Revolution did not just happen. It was the culmination of two centuries of Enlightenment ideas that entered men's minds and were refined and honed until they expressed themselves in an unprecedented rejection of tyranny in the name of individual rights and political freedom from the whims of arrogant monarchs and conniving, power-lusting politicians.

Book Two introduces the second young hero, Hugh Kenrick, a member of the British aristocracy. While he has all the advantages that his rank bestows on him – family, wealth, prestige, and an assured future – his quest to preserve his self identity, his liberty, and his independence clashes violently with the demands of his station.

It is fall,1759. The saga of Jack Frake and Hugh Kenrick moves to Caxton, a small trading town on the York River in Virginia, some miles up the wide river from Yorktown. Jack Frake, after having served his eight-year indenture, is a successful tobacco planter, having inherited his property from his former master, with whom he formed a close father-son relationship. He married the master's daughter, but she and her son died in childbirth.

British friends of colonial rights fight to defeat the Stamp Act in Parliament in 1765, led by Dogmael Jones. In the meantime Patrick Henry takes the floor, advocates the rights of the colonies to self-governance without interference from the Crown, and denounces the Stamp Act. Hugh Kenrick, now a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, helps Henry voice the opposition.

As the British Crown plans to exact its Stamp Tax on the North American colonies, Hugh Kenrick, Jack Frake, and their friends in Caxton, Virginia, plot to foil the arrival of the hated stamps in the colony. Edgar Cullis and George Mercer, also Virginians, however, scheme to switch sides. Reverdy Brune returns to Hugh's life, and Etáin, Jack's wife, acquires a new friend.

Jack Frake and Hugh Kenrick resign themselves to the likelihood of war with the Crown. Hugh returns to England on urgent personal business, while Jack prepares for the coming conflict. In the meantime, Jared Turley, an agent of Earl Basil Kenrick, posing as a Customs official, sets his sights on Hugh Kenrick to punish in the name of his employer. He allies himself with the detested new royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, and confiscates the Sparrowhawk.