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The seeds of this country’s disunion were planted before the ink of the Constitution was dry, and by 1830, they were growing in profusion. The bitterly contested elections of 1824 and 1828 saw the re-emergence of political parties, and a new level of acrimony swept the country. Westward expansion stoked the fires of the great controversies of the day: slavery and the displacement of Native Americans. Perhaps nowhere in the country were the tensions more evident than Macon County, North Carolina. Newly formed from lands ceded by the Cherokee, rugged Scots-Irish pioneers clashed with wealthy slave owners, and they both fought with the Indians.
Tom Love is a product of that world, and he embodies its divisions. A member of one of the wealthiest families in the region, he has enjoyed the benefits of his status, including an education. But he has chosen to forge his own path as a small farmer and part-time frontier lawyer. Reeling from a family tragedy and personal misfortune, he is offered a lifeline from his powerful uncle. He accepts the job of census taker, and with it, two enslaved people.
Isaiah is also a product of that world, but he bears the scars of a lifetime of deprivation and servitude. Despite his circumstances, he is unbowed. He lives for two things: his family and the dream of freedom. Fate has brought him from Monticello to the woods of Macon County and the farm of Tom Love. They are two men with very different pasts, but their futures are now forever linked. They have more in common than they realize, but will the forces tearing apart the country destroy them as well?
In one sense, their time is not so different from ours. The passions and conflicts of today have their roots deep in those times. The players on today’s stage are not so different from Jackson and Calhoun and the other players on their stage. But the natural world has changed. Theirs was a time when men lived in closer proximity to nature, were more aligned with its rhythms, and more dependent on its gifts. That was especially true in Macon County, in the shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains.
“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” Ecclesiastes 1:4
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