The Voglers of East Blunt

The Voglers of East Blunt (1st book of series) is a historical novel about a fictional teenage boy named Willum. Though the central figure, he is overwhelmed by his stepfather, Dirk Chivers (i.e.: real life pirate during the last decade of the 17th century) and his storybook mother, Margareth Vogler whose husband is slaughtered in the historic raid Tuscarora Indians near New Bern, Carolina in 1711. This saga opens as Willum sees his father killed and scalped, his mother partially scalped and violently molested. Their rescuer, the real-world Rob Culliford, a pardoned pirate returns Margareth and Willum to East Blunt Island, but loses his long-loved gay partner in the effort to the Indian’s savagery.

Amid the story’s vibrant characters are Halleloo, a ‘free black’ woman from Jamaica who calls out, “Hallelujah, Sweet Jesus!” for most any reason. With Margareth brought to East Blunt Island, Halleloo adeptly sutures her scalp wound. Within days, Dirk and the other ex-pirate ‘real-world’ partner Long Ben Avory return. As Dirk gently talks with Margareth, the overprotective Willum attacks with flashing knife. Once resolving his presence, Dirk acclaims the boy, ‘Warrior Willum’ and their inevitable male bonding ensues.

Fearful of further Indian attack, the group flees to Bath Towne, NC and lives for several months, confined in a small log fort with many others. When finally rescued, history records the people are starved, diseased, and without fuel for warmth. The following year with the danger from Indian checked, the East Blunt clan returns home. Margareth marries Dirk. As stepfather and mentor, Dirk regards the Willum as if his own son.

Halleloo’s son Leafy spends his days fishing and hunting. However, once married to the ex-slave Cassie who as a child craftily attends a ‘white school,’ he becomes a traveling minister, recruiting skilled black slaves seeking freedom, that the E/B Brethren ‘sell’ to wealthy Yankees. Cassie opens the 1st school for Black children in North Carolina.

The Voglers having been Swiss millers for decades, inspires Willum to build a gristmill on the site selected and worked by his now-dead father. Too young to go-it-alone, Dirk enables the venture, linking it to E/B Brethren’s several ‘almost-honest businesses’. One venture frees forty ‘real-world Blacks captured by Indians. Dirk, negotiates with Governor Pollock for these ex-slaves to become ‘freemen & women, and awarded land, they farm as E/B sharecroppers.

Mid-story, a teenage woman, Annie Bonny who becomes a real-world pirate arrives with husband and lives among the E/B clan for many months. After fleeing her real-world father, she attacks an E/B storekeeper. Dirk arrives and defuses the teen girl. The two-year younger Willum befriends her; they confess their life’s sorrows to each other before a tiny bond fire. Willum falls in love with her. She treats him as a pup, choosing to leave her husband and find a mature lover.

From historical records: Annie Bonnie and her lover Calico Rackum (fictionally: 1st mate on the E/B ship) are tried and sentenced to death for piracy. Calico hangs in Port Royal, Jamaica. Annie disappears, only to reappear eight months later on her father plantation.

The E/B saga resolves this historic gap. In finality, fate spins Willum’s life anew. By an amazing effort, he rescues his long-sought Annie from Port Royal’s prison and certain hanging. With Dirk and Margareth’s support, they flee to a remote church on Jamaica’s north coast. There Annie births a son sired by Calico. During the ordeal, Annie Bonnie concedes love for Willum Vogler; their ‘live-happily-ever-after’ future looms on the horizon. Sadly, after a gleeful return to East Blunt Island, the upshot of Willum’s past indiscretions cruelly crushes their romance.