Gilbert Keith Murphy

Where Long Beards Grow Gilbert Keith Murphy

Alpha is a slave, living and working in a cooperage on the banks of the Savannah River. Unlike his good friend Parae, Alpha is not willing to accept slavery as his destiny; he is prepared to risk everything to live free. Urged on by the voice of Mama Ruti, Alpha makes a bold move to leave Savannah and slavery far behind. It is the beginning of a journey filled with joy and tragedy, and the story of the making of a free man. ****************************************** The Timuquan tribe had ruled much of the Florida peninsula for centuries, but now there were only a few who had survived the diseases brought by the white man. Salee, Tomas and Martino, sons of a Timuquan chief, were now being warned by the Spanish Governor to leave their ancestral homeland: the Americans are coming! Reluctantly, the brothers accept the Governor's help and begin a hard and dangerous trip across central Florida to the Saint Marks River near the Indian village of Tallahassee. The Governor had given the Alito brothers a land grant of some beautiful property which held much promise, but on the way to their new home, their journey would bring an end to old dreams and give birth to new ones. ****************************************** About the same time, the Lady Merrimack had set sail from Boston harbor bound for the headwaters of the Saint Marks River. Its purpose was to establish a shipping port to move southern-grown cotton to a new textile mill being constructed outside Lowell, Massachusetts. The ship was commanded by Adam Toomey, a career military man who had served under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle for New Orleans and had also served during the Indian wars along America's border with Spanish Florida. He is a principled man, a good commander, and not someone to be trifled with. Yet, the 2000 mile journey from Boston to Spanish Florida would not prepare this able Commander and talented crew for what they would face upriver on the Saint Marks. ****************************************** And it was there where the long beards grow on old cypress trees at a place now known as Bloody Ten Bend where these honorable men with their different dreams and aspirations would meet and be forever changed.