Judy Henley Phillips

A Cause to Fight Judy Henley Phillips

Martin Luke Grigsby was a man of an unpredictable nature and a determined slaveholder. Abel Robertson was an attorney and a passionate abolitionist. Martin could not accept giving up his investments. Abel could not abide the practice of owning another human being. The slaves were caught in-between the passionate stances of the opposing sides. Everyone was affected by the occupation of the Northern invaders into their Southern way of life. To keep this historical novel true to the times, most of the people the characters interact with actually lived in the area: the sheriff, court clerks, census enumerator, merchants, military figures, doctor, and others whose lives were directly affected by the war. Governor Isham Green Harris lived his first fourteen years in Franklin County. Peter Turney had his law office at Winchester. The town of Cowan was home of Mary Montgomery, wife of Nathan Bedford Forest. A marriage record exists in the county for one Jno. W. Boothe (See Afterword). The war horribly impacted the everyday life of the citizens. After the war, the worthless Confederate money could not sustain them; their notes could not be collected with the wartime currency. I invite you to step back in time, and into the lives of these characters who are experiencing life as it occurred during this tumultuous period in Middle Tennessee history.