I have met two authors who have written compelling historical novels about life on my “Tobacco Road.”
TALMADGE FARM
Leo Daughtry, 2024[i]
This story takes place in my college and early professional years, and I relate to so many of the characters. The story opens the day I left home to become a freshman at NC State.
The drama opens in 1957 North Carolina, a time and place when tobacco reigns supreme, but society is undergoing significant cultural shifts. The story centers around three families, particularly wealthy landowner Gordon Talmadge, who represents the lingering remnants of the antebellum South. Gordon lives a lavish lifestyle, relying on two sharecroppers—one white and one Black—to work his land while he remains detached from the harsh realities of their lives.
The plot intensifies when a violent incident between Gordon's son and the sharecroppers' children triggers a series of events that impact everyone involved. Over the course of a decade, Gordon struggles to maintain his family's legacy as the old Southern order begins to crumble, making way for the New South.
Through the intertwined lives of the landowner and his tenants, the story explores themes of resilience, hope, and reconciliation as the South is finally pulled into the 20th century. The novel poignantly reflects on the region's complex history. It tells the tragedy of those unable to adapt and the triumph of those who embrace change.
The Author
Born in Newton Grove, NC, Leo Daughtry grew up in tobacco farming country at the eastern end of the mythical highway that I call “Tobacco Road.” He holds a B.A. in 1962 and an L.L.B. in 1965 from Wake Forest University. He was a Captain, Judge Advocate General, USAF. After military service, he founded a law firm in Smithfield, NC where he still practices. Active in politics since 1976, he was elected to the NC Senate in 1989. His political career included both the NC Senate and the NC House where he has been Majority Leader and Minority Leader. He has served on the UNC Board of Governors. Leo and his wife, Helen, reside in Smithfield. Talmadge Farm is his first book.
THE TANNERY,
Michael Almond, 2021
The setting for The Tannery is two towns separated by the Yadkin River, the boundary of Wilkes and Yadkin Counties, a few miles upstream from where I spent most of my life. This is the western terminus of my “Tobacco Road.” I can relate to the setting and the people even though the story takes place 40 years before my birth.
July 5, 1900, Wilkes County, North Carolina: The beautiful young daughter of tannery owner Jakob Schumann is found dead on the bank of the Yadkin River, brutally beaten, a tannery skinning knife in her chest. Who killed her? And why? Ambitious Wilkes prosecutor Vincent Taliaferro has arrested Virgil Wade, a mixed-race boy, and is convinced the case is open and shut. But local lawyer Ben Waterman is not so sure. Ben uncovers evidence that undermines the prosecutor's case and points in an entirely different direction. But can he prove it? Can he convince an all-White, all-male jury of Virgil's innocence?
The Tannery takes readers to the turbulent world of the post-Reconstruction South. The events happened well over a century ago, but the story reflects issues prominent in today's headlines. Themes of voter suppression and intimidation and violent vigilante "justice," drive the story to a dramatic and surprising conclusion.
The Author
Michael Almond grew up in the town of Pilot Mountain, near the foot of the landmark mountain pictured on the cover of my book, Going Down Tobacco Road. In our first conversation, Michael and I discovered we had many friends in common.
A retired attorney, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC School of Law. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Mannheim, Germany. His career in global business and economic development spans more than 40 years. A partner at Parker Poe, a Charlotte law firm, he founded the firm’s international business law division. He has been a board member of the Charlotte Regional Partnership, the Charlotte Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and a member of the Senior Advisory Board, Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York, and a board member of the NC Community College Foundation. Currently, he is CEO of Antaeus Consulting, LLC, a business and economic development firm, active in Europe and the US. He and his wife, Helen Ruth, live on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Piney Creek, NC.
Michael is currently working on a quasi-sequel to The Tannery, tentatively titled The Factory, another historical fiction/legal thriller set in Winston in 1910 and revolving around R. J. Reynolds and his young tobacco company.
[i] Editorial assistant J. J. Holshouser contributed much to the story with her in-depth research on 20th century tobacco farming in eastern NC.
Thank you Gene for sending these two recomendations of books here in NC. I ordered both of them with my Ebooks and look forward to reading the,. Carole