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The Work I Enjoyed Writing Most: “Buckingham Randolph Jefferson”
Available on Kindle Vella
I absolutely loved writing “Buckingham Randolph Jefferson,” and didn’t know what to do with it when I finished. The length was a problem, it came in just over 50,000 words when the Historical Fiction genre suggests a minimum of 70,000. I thought of ways to lengthen the book but really didn’t want to. BRJ is fast-paced, and I didn’t want to slow it down just to add more words. It’s a complete story that doesn’t need length, just exposure.
The main characters include a stuttering Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson really did have a stutter). Sally Hemings gets to have a few conversations you know she had, including being told she wasn’t accompanying Jefferson to the President’s House (White House) when Jefferson became President.
BRJ provides an insider look at the Denmark Vesey Revolution and the Underground Railroad. You’ll see the significance of the A.M.E. church and the roles played by Richard Allen, Morris Brown, and others in helping enslaved people to freedom.
The unlikely protagonist was born on Snowden Plantation, owned by Thomas Jefferson’s younger brother Randolph. Buckingham was raised and educated at Monticello, where he met a slightly older Sally Hemings after she returned from Paris with Thomas Jefferson…
