Upcoming Book on Florida History

I am nearing completion of the research and draft stages of a book that has consumed my life since the mid-1980s. That is when a simple foray into my genealogy resulted in the surprising discovery that I was a descendant of slaves.

Lostmans Heritage follows my journey as I search for my ancestors from the slave country of Savannah to the wilds of the Florida Everglades.

The Everglades is shrouded in mysteries, a tangle of mangroves, waterways, and sawgrass that meanders every which way and is as mutable as the wind. Nothing is ever where you left it. This is where one came to get lost, to hide amongst the wild things and the Seminoles. The story begins with my ancestor, Richard Hamilton, an extraordinary and dangerous man, a man who, against all odds, untangled himself from the bonds of slavery…