Individual Chapters

By Aerin Toler

Britain has won the French and Indian War, but to control the newly-won land in North America, King George III taxes his American colonists and blocks them from rushing to settle the Ohio Valley.

By Stephen Kissel

Britain’s Stamp Act causes loud protests, including one at Tappahannock and a famous speech by Patrick Henry. More royal taxes on tea lead to splashy protests in Boston and Yorktown.

By Cecilia Crawford

Clementina Rind was the first woman to publish a newspaper in Virginia, and she dared to print a protest pamphlet by Thomas Jefferson that spread challenging ideas about how government should work.

By Patrick Harrington

Patrick Henry declares “Give me liberty or give me death!” in Virginia, and a few weeks later the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” begins the war at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.

By Karilee Park

The Continental Congress picks George Washington to go lead the ragtag volunteer army that has pinned the Royal Army in Boston.

By Lamont Wayne

This free Black man from Portsmouth takes vital action to delay Royal troops at the Battle of Great Bridge and leads to a defeat that spoils Lord Dunmore’s plan to retake control of Virginia with Blacks who leave their Patriot owners.

By Holly Reiber

The busy port city burns in early 1776 as Lord Dunmore’s fleet anchors in the harbor—but who torched the city?

By Camryn Carpenter

A minister rallies German immigrants in the Shenandoah Valley to support the revolution—by volunteering himself!

By Maely Herrera

The clamor for independence grows, locality by locality, until Thomas Jefferson is chosen in June 1776 to write the Declaration of Independence for the Continental Congress.

By Taylor Myers

Ann Ramsay travels across Alexandria and Fairfax County to gather donations from her neighbors to support the Patriot troops.

By Nat Amoateng

The enslaved man Cesar Tarrant joins Virginia’s navy and in 1778 steers a Patriot ship in battle with a British ship. After the war, the General Assembly grants Tarrant his legal freedom for his service.

By Fiona Aquilo

An orphan boy from Portugal shows up on the docks in Hopewell, grows up exceptionally strong and gains fame in the war for using his strength in battle.

By Aaron Kelderhouse

Unable to secure a decisive victory in New England or the Mid-Atlantic regions, the King’s forces move south to what they think will be more Loyalist territory.

By Julia Thomas

In 1780, men from Southwest Virginia march farther than anyone else who is gathering to stop Royal forces from expanding into the South’s Appalachian Region.

By Joe Lee

A barrel maker from Botetourt County is captured in South Carolina, talks his way out of prison and gets recruited to spy on Loyalists in the New River Valley.

By Lauryn Baynes

London Pleasants is an enslaved 15-year-old in Henrico County who runs away to join the Royal Army and become a trumpeter.

By Abi Gem Monteclaro

Legend says 16-year-old Susanna Bolling of Hopewell overhears Redcoats discussing a plan to capture the Patriot general Lafayette, so she rides through the night to warn him.

By Bentley Boyd

A Louisa County tavern keeper’s son sees Royal troops on their way to capture Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, so he races to warn the Patriot leader to flee to his more remote home, Poplar Forest.

By Jasmine Ly

The wife of a deputy court clerk in Isle of Wight County sees the British approach, and she buries court records to save them from destruction.

By Stan Webb

An enslaved Virginian joins Lafayette’s force and becomes a double agent, moving back and forth over the dangerous ground between the Patriot lines and the Royal Army at Yorktown.

By Ryleigh Ingle

General Washington’s army and French troops trap the overconfident Royal Army in the port of Yorktown and cause the surrender of the largest British force left on the American coast.

Meet the artists from around Virginia who created the novel and see more of their work.