The Rebels (novel)

"The Rebels" is a historical novel written by John Jakes and originally published in 1975. It is book two in a series known as The Kent Family Chronicles or the American Bicentennial Series. The novel mixes fictional characters with actual historical events or people, to tell the story of the United States of America during the time of the American Revolution. While the novel continues the story of Philip Kent, started in The Bastard, a large part of the novel focuses on Judson Fletcher, a newly introduced character.

Plot summary

The story begins on June 17, 1775 at the Battle of Bunker Hill, in which Philip Kent participates, only two months after the events that took place at the end of The Bastard, book one of the series. One major event, the marriage of Philip and Anne Ware, took place in the intervening time. In September of that year Anne gave birth to her first son with Philip, which they named Abraham after her father. Then Philip participated in Henry Knox’s mission to transport cannons from Fort Ticonderoga.

Meanwhile, Judson Fletcher was a drunkard and a womanizer who lusted after married women, particularly Peggy Ashford McLean, the wife of Seth McLean, whom he had courted before she was married. Judson lived with his father on Sermon Hill, a large tobacco plantation on the Rappahannock River in northern Virginia, where they own a great number of slaves. Their overseer was particularly cruel to these slaves and after the Earl of Dunmore’s proclamation of emancipation the slaves revolted and took the life of Seth McLean, among others.

Judson’s brother, Donald, was a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress, but he suffered from gout and was unable to fulfill his duty. So he designated Judson as his alternate, who replaced him in the delegation. While attending Congress in Philadelphia Judson began an affair with Alicia Parkhurst, who now called herself Alice, a former lover of Philip Kent’s. When Tobias Trumball, Alicia’s uncle, found her, he tried to take her home, but Judson prevented him from doing that. So Trumball challenged Judson to a duel and scheduled it for July 3, 1776. The day before the duel, during a debate on the Lee Resolution, Judson was dismissed from the Virginia delegation for drunkenness and therefore missed his chance to vote on that important resolution. The next day he killed Trumball in the duel and shortly afterwards, Alicia committed suicide by drowning herself.

While Philip was camped with the rest of George Washington’s army in August 1777, he was reunited with his old friend from France, Gil, the Marquis de Lafayette. Philip, as well as the Marquis, participated in the devastating Battle of Brandywine, which left Philadelphia, the American capital, to be captured by the British. That winter Philip camped with the rest of the army at Valley Forge. There he was drilled by Baron von Steuben.

Having been expelled from the Virginia delegation, Judson returned to Virginia, but did not move back to Sermon Hill with his father. Instead he lived with Lottie Shaw at a place once owned by her late husband. One day, in a drunken rage, he expelled her from her own property. Feeling lonely he visited Peggy McLean and had a one time sexual encounter with her. Unbeknownst to him this encounter was to produce an offspring, Elizabeth. Later, when his brother told him that George Rogers Clark had returned to Virginia, Judson rode to meet him. Clark had been a childhood friend of his and was now recruiting men for a military expedition to the Northwest Territory. Judson enlisted with him, but when he returned home he was met by a disgruntled Lottie. Angry at having been thrown off her own land she shot him and left him for dead.

Because he had been shot by Lottie Shaw, Judson missed his rendezvous with George Clark. Once he recovered he set off to Pittsburgh alone in hopes of meeting Clark there. When he was reunited with Clark, Clark refused to include him in his detachment. Returning to his boat, Clark caught a spy in the act of stealing his orders. After a scuffle the spy shot a pistol at Clark, but Judson absorbed the blow and was killed.

Meanwhile, Anne Kent had taken the money she had inherited from her father, who had recently died, and invested it with privateers who were aiding the Americans on the high seas. During the time that Philip was away in with the army in Pennsylvania, one of the privateers that Anne invested her money with, Malachi Rackham, began to make overtures towards her that she did not welcome. In 1778 he abducted her and took her aboard his ship. After he beat and raped her, she fought for her freedom, but in the ensuring struggle both Anne and Rackham were knocked overboard and killed.

Philip participated in the Battle of Monmouth and was wounded in the leg. The wound caused him to limp and he was excused from duty. He was informed of Anne’s abduction and death in a letter from the privateer in which Anne invested. As the privateer had captured a British vessel, the investment paid off and provided Philip with the money he needed to begin his own publishing firm, Kent and Son. Almost a year later Marquis de Lafayette introduced Philip to Peggy McLean, who would become his second wife.

Historic figures Philip Kent interacts with throughout the novel:

George Washington

Henry Knox

Marquis de Lafayette

Anthony Wayne

Friedrich von Steuben

Historic figures Judson Fletcher interacts with throughout the novel:

George Rogers Clark

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Paine

John Adams

Richard Henry Lee

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Thomas Jefferson

John Dickinson

Books and Chapters

Book One: Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor

Chapter I: A Taste of Steel

Chapter II: Sermon Hill

Chapter III: Birth

Chapter IV: The Uprising

Chapter V: The Guns of Winter

Chapter VI: “The Seedtime of Continental Union”

Chapter VII: The Thirteen Clocks

Book Two: The Times That Try Men’s Souls

Chapter I: The Privateers

Chapter II: Deed of Darkness

Chapter III: Reunion in Pennsylvania

Chapter IV: Retreat at Brandywine

Chapter V: “I Mean to March to Hostile Ground”

Chapter VI: The Drillmaster

Chapter VII: Rackham

Book Three: Death and Resurrection

Chapter I: The Wolves

Chapter II: The Guns of Summer

Chapter III: The Shawnee Spy

Chapter IV: The Price of Heaven

Chapter V: The Woman From Virginia

Epilogue: The World Turned Upside Down