Family Saga Moves from Pre-Civil War to Present Time by Bobby Dennis Jr. Great Street Lit Based Somewhat Upon Facts...

In the spring of that year a young slave girl, 15 years old, named Amanda ran away from a big plantation near Charlotte North Carolina. The plantation was the Kane plantation. They didn't grow cotton, born, or wheat. What they grew were slaves...

Since importing slaves had been outlawed, the country sought to grow its own. On the Kane plantation, they grew only enough food stuffs to feed the slaves and the Kanes. A work force was necessary, so they had to have an overseer, his name was Elmer Spivey... Elmer had also fathered at least 15 more children from slave women, and made sure they were quickly sold. There was one slave woman who wouldn't have him. A big, jet black slave, named Bessie... She was a pure blood Zulu from the coast of Africa... Bessie was the favorite of the plantation owner, one Thaddeus Matthew Kane...Thad Kane was Amanda's father. Bessie was her mother, the only slave woman Thad had ever had.

A pure blood Mandingo who came to America...by the name of Josh, fell in love with her and she with him. Her pregnancy was the result of their affections...Elmer pulled his pistol and shot Josh dead...Amanda waited in the shadows with an axe. As he passed her she stepped out and sung the axe, and cleaved his head in two...She took off running; six months pregnant...

BloodLine of A Kane

By Bobby Dennis, Jr.

If this is not a genealogical study of one family, I wouldn't know what was--Even if most of the names are fictional! The author has clearly demonstrated the emphasis of "putting family first" and how it was drilled into them right from the beginning--drilled in by love as well as guidance to each child.

The Kane family began when a pregnant teenager ran away from the slave plantation where her father was the master and her mother was a Zulu from Africa who was kept only for the master, as he wished... When Amanda had been born, the same message went out to everyone, but that didn't stop Amanda falling in love and then her lover being shot! She ran, not knowing where she will go!

Amanda was on the run for three months when she stumbled into a Cherokee Indian Camp. The women of the camp helped her but the tribe also had welcomed a shaman priest who also had "run away." When Tan Lao Tzu saw her, he claimed her immediately as a second wife, knowing that he would and did have to fight other braves who challenged him...

I think this was my favorite part of the book, as Tan Lae Tzu as well as his present wife and child took in Amanda and they became what would become the beginning of the Kane bloodline. Mandy and Yellow Bird became as sisters and cared together for the family. But they also learned about what they would do to ensure they could protect the family, including learning how to use all the weapons available to them as well as Kung Fu.

He was black as midnight with a
head full of dark curly hair...A
beautiful and health boy...

By the time Raven was 15 years old, he was
 the biggest man in the camp and he would grow
 bigger. He stood 6'3"and weighed 220 chiseled

pounds. He wore his hair in two thick braids

 that hung down his back. The only warriors

 in the camp who could stand with him her his

 father and brothers.

I couldn't help picking out my vision of the baby Raven hs he grew to head of the Kane family...I image he would have been a serious boy having learned so much--including how to read and write English, Indian and Chinese... He also learned much about being a shaman...

 "Raven and Little Bird. In time they will be the

greatest warriors this tribe has ever had.

 Each family group is attached to a clan. By virtue

 of Sparrow being my wife, we're a branch of the

 Bear clan. So we represent the head of the clan, 

the others will follow our lead...   

The next morning Lao Tzu went to the Tepee where Amanda was the night before. He brought her a buckskin dress and moccasins for her feet, and a bowl of food. He ducked thru the entrance as she lay there asleep with the baby in her arms. The baby was wide awake and quiet, his eyes followed Lao as he came across the room. Lao had never seen such awareness in one so young, or the eye control. He knew this would be a great one with the proper training and he planned to be the one to train him...

They headed to the trading post which was a weeks ride from the camp...
As the six Braves rode up to the trading post they noticed a group of horses with blue and yellow saddle
blankets, with crossed sabers and the legend U.S. on the corner...
They dismounted and each grabbed a bundle of pelts and entered the trading post...
As Raven and his crew came to the counter and laid down their pelts, Sam Purdy offered them a drink.
Ray and his band never drank the white man's fire water. They had seen its results so they turned it down.
Sam Purdy turned up his lips, sneered then asked. "You too good to drink with us nigger?"
~~~

At the time they began to have sufficient skins to trade, they went to the closest trading post. It only led to trouble...

But it was those that had been at the post, when they met the Kane clan, who faced their deaths... I really believe that it was how the white men treated them that brought about the inclusion of violence in their lives. I wish I could say that it would not have happened any place else, but history already proves what happened. Still, after the deaths were hidden away, They took over the trading post, planning to ensure that the Indians were no longer cheated! But soon the town had grown and one man from the white side of town learned that a railroad would be stopping there and started plans to take over all the land that would be needed... 

And so the Kate clan grew... As children married outside of the clan, Raven would talk to the family about his family and offer to bring them in as part of their protection for all family... But outside influences started to bring in drinking, drugs and more...

Ogilvey was turned into a killing field and the whites were running. Chaos reigned, as the whites approached the ranch of the Bird Clan.

Deaths of family members began... Revenge was sure to follow...

The Saga continues through decade after decade as family fought to stay together and to receive the honesty, integrity and  protection that the Clan offered to others. The book continues along historical activities that occurred to help readers keep track of the time line. 

Content is violence and graphic intimate sex within marriage is included. There were maybe a few instances outside of marriage but most connection resulted in marriage. Both of these areas, I felt, were handled as well as can be expected. There were few times when actions were initiated by Clan members, except in response to somebody's move against them. But when that happened, the whole Clan took over!

The only problem I had with the story had nothing to do with the story... There were lots of editorial issues...so beware... if that bothers you enough not to want to read the book... Myself, when I read up front--"like to thank the Florida D.O.C and their policy of not letting prisoners in disciplinary confinement have library books and the unnamed correctional officer that took the one I smuggled in; couldn't have done it without you! A word to those who hated and didn't! believe. I told you..." I don't know about you, but those in prison are meant to be helped, I thought...If they cannot read books, it seems that would lead to more trouble than if they could keep their minds occupied!

So...I'm going to recognize just what Bobby Dennis Jr. had to go through to get his book published! and Highly recommend it as an in-depth look of how a slave runaway became the matriarch of the Kane Clan who stayed together for almost 100 years! Great story!

Congratulations and I hope you keep writing and maybe make enough money that, next book, you can maybe get some helper from an editor! Good Luck with your future story telling.

GABixlerReviews

About the Author

Bobby R. Dennis was born on Oct.2, 1960 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He has lived through the turbulent 60's, the free love era of the 70's. He witnessed some of the most traumatic events of the century. He is the son of a convicted drug king pen, who has served time in several maximum security prisons in the Florida D.O.C. It was there that he discovered his knack for writing the stories of the life he has lived. It was there while serving 25 years for armed robbery that he met Ausha Rogers and the two developed a bond that was a strong as brothers. While both were on disciplinary confinement a shake down took place and a novel was taken from Bobby because the policy of the D.O.C was that the only reading material allowed in D.C was religious material. Bobby's anger coupled with boredom gave him the will to try and write a novel of his own. It was there that the draft for what would later be called The Redemption was written. Ausha was the first one to read the book and from his response the dream of Hoodwrittens as well as The Kane family saga was born. Ausha was released first and Hoodwrittens became more than a dream it became a reality. We intend to introduce to the world what we label as " Fac-tion, a combination of fact and fiction!