The Slave Players

The book is titled The Slave Players, and takes place in modern day rural Alabama, perhaps a year or two in the future. Racial unrest is sweeping the nation, church bombings and campus rioting have become commonplace, and outbreaks of violence reach epidemic proportions. An advisor to the president thinks that one major incident could set off the sparks leading to an explosion such as America has never before seen. THE INCIDENT: A church bus makes a wrong turn deep in the Alabama countryside, and a dozen black teenage girls become victims of a heinous crime. A coverup ensues, reaching all the way to the governor, who concludes that if the truth were known the resulting uprising could plunge the state into anarchy. Eventually, the truth does leak out, and there is little that can be done to abate the bloodbath that slams into Alabama from all sides. Enter a disgruntled colonel who has been denied promotion for what he calls ?racial impairment.' Behind him is a flock of equally disgruntled young soldiers who believe the colonel to be their oracle, and they his disciples. This is a situation and an incident for which he has waited much of his professional life. They take over a small county in the southernmost section of the state. His plan is to return the south, or his little portion of it, to the glory days before the Civil War, but this time with blacks as slave masters, and enslaved whites forced into servitude. He knows his time frame is limited, but intends to martyr himself for what he deems to be a greater good. It's a game he wants to play, with rules as close to historically accurate as possible, and demonstrating what persecution and tyranny do to the human spirit.