Pasco Conly: Buffalo Soldier

This is an American story told by a black school-teacher-turned-soldier one generation out of slavery.

What really happened at the charge on San Juan Hill? Teddy Roosevelt never claimed that his Rough Riders captured that hill.

How did some ex-slaves in America manage to prosper after Reconstruction failed?

The answers given by the hero of this book might amaze you.

The story of Pasco Conly begins in a community of ex-slaves living in virtual paradise until the peace is shattered by a vicious murder. The story then follows Conly as he travels to Cuba and back in search of the murderer. He abandons his occupation; he abandons home; he abandons love.

This fictional yet accurate foray into the American condition as the Nineteenth Century comes to an end gives an excellent first-person description of the Spanish-American War—better known as the Battle on San Juan Hill—and it describes the volatile mood of the country during that “excellent little war.” The story challenges what has been said about the Rough Riders and their famous charge. Our hero takes you into the heat of that battle, so much so that you will know he was there. You will cheer our hero on as he is transformed from a gentle school teacher into a fearsome Buffalo Soldier.

The story also heralds the struggles of a town made up of none but blacks and shows the passion they had to govern themselves as well as if not better than communities elsewhere in turn-of-the-century America.

Topping it all is a love story so passionate and so real that you might just fall in love.