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The Planters
by
Bill Rogers

"They sought their fortunes.  They kindled the birth of a nation."

The Planters is the story of two brothers, John and George Hanks who journey to the Crown Colony of Virginia in the mid-1600's.  Near the settlement of Jamestown they make their lot, learning to set aside their London Gentry ways to gain an intimate knowledge of the land and its prior inhabitants.  They overcome many years of hardship and labor, serving initially as bonded indentured servants, working along side the African slaves, making friends -- and enemies. Both brothers prosper, but that prosperity is quickly threatened by the marauding Indians, and worse, Governor Sir William Berkeley and his "Tidewater Aristocracy" perverting the justice of the House of Burgesses and pilfering the wealth of the colony for their own gain.

The Planters is based upon exhaustive research into the period of the last half of the 17th century.  While this story a fictional novelization, many of the characters and events, such as Bacon's Rebellion, are actual historical events that took place a century before the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.  This vibrant portrait of American History will transport you to a different place and time, into the cradle of America's birth.  Yet it does so through the lives of three-dimensional characters, full of virtue and vice, ambition and greed, freedom and oppression.  It takes a candid look at an emerging culture and people, full of opportunity and optimism, yet doesn't shy away from the realities of the plight of Native Americans, the slave trade, and the class structure of the English imposed upon a virgin land.

If all history could be learned by the pen of the gifted storyteller, more people might actually learn it, and then perhaps might not be condemned to repeat it.