Insightful Chat with Author Stephen Estopinal: Texas Revolution to Trail of Tears (Youtube interview)
An Irish bondservant, Mary Fermoy, is sold with her infant son to a Cherokee, Billy Redhand. A veteran of the Red Stick Wars, Redhand settles on a farm and accepts Mary as his wife. Redhand names the boy John Circles-the-Tree. The death of John’s mother and the murder of Redhand leaves him orphaned and embroiled in political intrigue and danger. In an attempt to escape arrest, John flees to Texas and is caught up in the Texas Revolution. Guided by a mysterious girl in his dreams, he returns to the Cherokee Nation as the renowned warrior, The Man from Red Hill, just in time to become entangled in the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee Nation was at war with itself and many sought vengeance. Will the Man from Red Hill become an instrument of retribution?Stephen Estopinal grew up in the Louisiana swamps and bayous of Saint Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University (class of 1968), a US Army veteran (Combat Engineers 1969–1971) and is a Licensed Professional Land Surveyor and Civil Engineer.Mr. Estopinal was a living history volunteer at the Chalmette Battlefield National Park and a black powder expert. His love of history, particularly the history of colonial Louisiana, has prompted him to write a series of novels to bring that history to life. A descendent of Canary Islanders (Isleños) transported to Louisiana by the Spanish during the American Revolution, he draws on extensive research as well as family oral history to tell his stories of Colonial Louisiana from a Spanish point of view.