Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War

Jacob's Ladder follows interconnected lives during the American Civil War. Duncan Gatewood, a seventeen-year-old heir to a Virginia plantation, falls in love with Maggie, an enslaved woman of mixed race, and they have a son named Jacob. When Maggie and Jacob are sold south, Duncan is sent to the Virginia Military Institute to fight for Robert E. Lee. Jesse, another enslaved person on the Gatewood plantation who harbors unrequited feelings for Maggie, escapes north and joins the Union Army with the intention of confronting his former masters. Meanwhile, Maggie builds an unexpected life as the wife of a blockade runner. Through the interwoven stories of these three characters, the novel spans from a Vicksburg brothel to a Richmond salon, from a Confederate hospital to battlefields at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The narrative explores themes of love, racism, slavery, and war during America's greatest conflict.