Author Josie Olsvig transports the reader to a tumultuous time in American history, the mid-1800s in Charleston, South Carolina, neighboring Beaufort, and the surrounding Sea Islands. As the story unfolds, White aristocratic planters, determined to protect their tremendous wealth and rights as slaveholders, seek to form a separate nation. Walk the halls of the Citadel Military Academy where the sons of secessionists prepare to defend their “way of life” from the invading forces of the North. Listen to the steamy rhetoric of local plantation owners and their spouses under the influence of segregationists John C. Calhoun and newspaper publisher Robert Barnwell Rhett. Climb aboard the Union armada sent to block the flow of military goods from Europe to the Confederacy. Witness the liberation of over ten thousand enslaved workers, who later become known as “contrabands of war,” and the Union Army’s struggle to protect and assist the now liberated enslaved workers. This riveting historical novel has a compendium of the key players in the war and is filled with previously unknown facts, illustrations, and photographs.
The reviews are in…
“As a historical fiction novel, Freedom’s Tears is both vivid and gut-wrenchingly accurate. Was it cotton, or was it greed? The reader will have to decide as they unpack this unvarnished study of slavery’s marrow during one of the most divisive periods of American history.”
—Riccoh Player, CEO and founder, Parade Deck; retired base commander, Parris Island Marine Base
“Rich in detail, grounded in real events, this sweeping landscape of what took place in the heart of the South during this time is vividly portrayed. A riveting read!”
—Leslie K Simmons, author of Red Clay, Running Waters
“Captivating historical fiction! Olsvig writes with passion and empathic authenticity. Her words poignantly capture the emotional nuances her characters would have experienced in the situations she portrays."
—Richard E Thomas, founder and president, Legacy Leadership, LLC; chairman, History Department, Heritage Library; lecturer, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute–USCB; author of Backwater Frontier: Beaufort County, South Carolina, at the Forefront of American History
“As a historical fiction novel, Freedom’s Tears is both vivid and gut-wrenchingly accurate. Was it cotton, or was it greed? The reader will have to decide as they unpack this unvarnished study of slavery’s marrow during one of the most divisive periods of American history.”
—Riccoh Player, CEO and founder, Parade Deck; retired base commander, Parris Island Marine Base
“Rich in detail, grounded in real events, this sweeping landscape of what took place in the heart of the South during this time is vividly portrayed. A riveting read!”
—Leslie K Simmons, author of Red Clay, Running Waters
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