Jacob's Ladder

Duncan Gatewood seventeen and heir to Gatewood Plantation falls in love with Maggie a mulatto slave who conceives a son Jacob. Maggie and Jacob are sold south and Duncan is packed off to the Virginia Military Institutehe will eventually fight for Robert E. Lee. Another Gatewood slave Jessewhose love for Maggie is unrequitedescapes to find her. Jesse finds his freedom and enlists in Mr. Lincolns army; in time he will confront his former masters. In his award-winning novel of the interlocked lives of masters and slaves Donald McCaig conjures a passionate and richly textured story in the heart of Americas greatest war.