JAMES JESS HANNON – författare

THE BLACK NAPOLEON relates, in fast-paced storytelling, racial conflicts caused by unbending political and social attitudes meeting head-on with strong and determined black efforts to establish a free society. Color lines are crossed and re-crossed as the passions of the many-tiered society explode.

The coals of the revolution of 1795-1803 that overturned the Bourbon dynasty of the French royal house ignited a fire on the island of Haiti in the Caribbean more than two thousand miles west of France and light years distant in human affairs. French Colonists had established paradise for themselves and a living hell for five hundred thousand black slaves. A parade of memorable giants live within these pages: Toussaint L''Ouverture, Napoleon, Christophe, Leclerc, Dessalines, Rochambeau, Hardy, Rigaud, Jeannot, planter Henri Julian, Neville, Rubidoux, Susan L''Ouverture, Count de Noe, Minister Talleyrand and Pauline Leclerc, Napoleon''s sibling who brought an unprecedented level of social behavior to that licentious society.

Fifty years a slave, Toussaint L''Ouverture, liberator of Haiti, was a legend in his time. His passionate belief that the enslavement of his people must end carried through the terror and bloodshed that destroyed Napoleon''s legions and dispossessed the French colonists. Four words tell the story, ''war of the skin,'' as the parade of monumental historical characters intrigue and deceive in that garden spot of the Caribbean.

THE SAVAGE AMERICAN tells the story of Victorio, an Apache Indian, a Vietnam decorated war veteran and the last living member of a Willow Creek Reservation family.

His anger builds as he observes the continuous erosion of their Treaty rights and suffers the abuse of Dumbroff, a San Vicente County Deputy Sheriff.

Tribal efforts to build an earth fill dam to serve their cattle, all within reservation boundaries, is dynamited with the loss of many Indian lives as well as loss of agriculture property bordering Willow Creek. Elected Chairman of the Tribal Council, Victorio calls a Tribal Meeting and delivers a passionate plea to close the reservation to all non-residents until their rights are recognized by law enforcement and governmental authorities, Treaty rights established for more than a hundred years. He creates barriers on highway entrances to Willow Creek, pulls up railroad tracks and closes the Federal dam that services off-reservation ranchers.

The reaction explodes in a series of brutal killings. When the National Guard occupies the reservation Victorio leads his squads in a series of counter moves that receive international attention.

THE SAVAGE AMERICAN, with an appealing hero, plenty of villains and non-stop dramatic action is a gripping and shocking story of a wonderfully authentic Native American drama. Interwoven in the crisp, tight action is a poignant love story.