History Corner/ Book Review: Blood Moon: An American Epic of War and Splendor in the Cherokee Nation by John Sedgwick

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook,free of charge,from Simon & Schuster via Edelweiss, for review purposes on this blog, No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.

And now for an often unknown tale of the Cherokee nation, 

and how it affected our ancestors, that comes out next month!

Synopsis:

This sweeping American epic reveals one of the greatest untold stories of the nineteenth century: the fierce rivalry between two great Cherokee chiefs that led to war, forced migration, and the devastation of a once-proud nation.

Blood Moon is the story of the century-long blood feud between two rival Cherokee chiefs from the early years of the United States through the infamous Trail of Tears and into the Civil War. While little remembered today, their mutual hatred shaped the tragic history of the tribe far more than anyone, even the reviled President Andrew Jackson, ever did.

In this epic saga, John Sedgwick brings to life an untold chapter of American history through the relationship between one chief called The Ridge, a fearsome warrior who spoke no English but whose exploits on the battlefield were legendary, and John Ross, who was the Cherokees’ primary chief for nearly forty years, yet displayed the Scottish side of his mixed-blood heritage and spoke not a word of Cherokee. To protect their sacred landholdings from American encroachment, these two men negotiated with almost every American president from George Washington through Abraham Lincoln. At first friends and allies, they broke on the subject of Removal, breeding an enmity that lead to a bloody civil war within Cherokee Nation that culminated in the two factions battling each other in the War Between the States.

Dramatic, far-reaching, and unforgettable, Blood Moon paints a portrait of these two inspirational leaders who worked together to lift their people to the height of culture and learning as the most civilized tribe in the nation, and then drop them to the depths of ruin and despair as they turned against each other. Theirs is a story of land, pride, honor, and loss that forms much of the country’s mythic past today.

Review:

Most people have heard about how assimilated the Cherokees were (hence why everyone has a 'Cherokee Princess' (aka eyeroll) in the family, and about John Ross. But fewer people know about the fued between him and Major Ridge, and how it affected the ultimate loss of the Cherokee homeland. This book takes the reader back to the beginning, to their births and how they were raised and brought up. This allows the reader to see how they became so close, but also allows for the differences they had. From this the tribe was split, and ultimately suffered losses within the Civil War, and the loss of their land via the Trail of tears. Sedgwick does an amazing job with bringing an amazing amount of research to a readable prose, so that it is not dry and boring, but heartwrenching and understandable to the reader. From our family history, I knew some of this story, the rest I had researched on my own, but Sedwick filled out the story SO well, I fill there are no gaps for the reader! Once you read this story, it may give you a VERY different view about what was taken from the tribe and by whom, and make you realise race relations were an even bigger issue before slavery became the beacon for it in our country. This is a must read to learning the truth of American history!

About the Author:

John Sedgwick is the bestselling author of thirteen books, including Blood Moon, War of Two, his acclaimed account of the duel between Hamilton and Burr, two novels, and the family memoir In My Blood. A longtime contributor to GQ, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic, he wrote the first national expose of the exploits of Whitey Bulger in GQ in 1992.