The Proud and the Free by Janet Dailey ****

 The Proud and The Free by Janet Dailey (historical fiction) follow two Cherokee families through the 1830s, The Trail of Tears. The novel open with the luxurious live on wealthy plantations with large manor houses, fancy furnishings, and black slaves. Over the course of the decade they are in denial of the serious efforts to remove them from Georgia until the army shows up. The ones that survive the ordeal start over in Oklahoma.

This is a brutal story. While the injustice is well represented. The mistreatment and abuse is mostly reported, but not shown. For example, when a young Cherokee girl is raped by a couple of soldiers, the aftermath includes observations and discussions, we never see the crime or anything from the girl’s point of view.

The action follows the two families. Their individual issues generally take precedence over the larger issues of the treatment of the Cherokee.

The book follows the history closely and repeats the apocryphal quote by President Andrew Jackson when the Cherokee won their case in the Supreme Court: “John Marshall has made his decision m let him enforce it if he can.”

An engaging novel which combines the Trail of Tears history with the lives and loves of these two families. Dailey is a romance author, but this book is more history than romance.

Interesting observation: the Cherokee were stuck on the wrong side of the Mississippi because the ice was too thick for the ferries to operate, but too thin for the wagons to cross.

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