Val L. McGee

YOKNAPATAWPHA PRESS is pleased to announce the publication of
 
Selma, a novel by Val L. McGee

Cloth: ISBN 9-781-4343-8079-1, 387 pages, $29.95.
Softcover: ISBN 9-781-4343-8078-4, 387 pages, $19.95

ABOUT THE BOOK

SELMA, by Val L. McGee, a WWII veteran and former Alabama trial judge, is an epic tale of the Civil War. Written with compassion and spirit, SELMA depicts the cruelties of slavery and Alabama’s role in the Confederacy. It tells the story of Burt, a slave who kills his master and is defended at his trial by two white lawyers who put their lives and careers on the line. In SELMA, hope is born of tragedy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

            Val McGee is a past president of the Alabama Historical Association and of the Friends of the Alabama Archives. He is also the author of Claybank Memories: A History of Dale County, Alabama, The Origins of Fort Rucker and A Cross Above: A History of the First United Methodist Church of Ozark, Alabama. He served as an infantry officer at Camp Rucker and in Europe during World War II, and as an armor officer at Fort Knox and Japan during the Korean War. An attorney by profession, he was Dale County's District Judge from 1981-1993. Selma is his first novel.

SELMA - SYNOPSIS

    In 1860 the threat of civil war hovers over Selma. Citizens are bitterly divided, unionists against secessionists. Fire-eating orators such as the brilliant William Lowndes Yancey keep the secessionists in a white heat. Selma lawyers Tate McLester and his son, Sam, who advocate staying in the Union, are outraged when the Alabama Secession Convention votes to secede. Like most of his peers, Sam volunteers to serve in a Selma infantry company. He fights in Virginia for three years and attains the rank of Major. In 1864, he is wounded and loses an arm by amputation.

    In the spring of 1865 the Confederacy suffers a series of disastrous defeats. A Union army moves to destroy Selma’s arsenals, defended by General Nathan B. Forrest’s limited forces. Major Sam McLester coordinates the small Selma militia. On April 2, 1865 Union forces overwhelm and occupy the town. The next day thousands of ex-slaves, tasting freedom for the first time, crowd every road into Selma.

    A viciously-beaten slave named Burt is jailed for killing his master. Tate and Sam undertake the legal defense of Burt. Sam makes an inspired defense before the Alabama Supreme Court, contending that the new post-war Alabama constitution has revoked the slave code against murder. As a vanquished state struggles to find direction, Burt, Tate and Sam are ready to build a new Selma, where hope is born of tragedy. 

Praise for Selma

“Selma is a tour de force. It is an eye-opener to aspects of Alabama in the nineteenth century, in particular the legal aspects of slavery. I don’t know of any popular or academic writer who has explored the law of slavery in such detail. Judge McGee has a gift for bringing together the
complexity of life on many levels: social, political and legal. The research is impressive and artfully woven into the story.”
                                                                          
                                                                                                               Jerry E. Brown, Ph.D.
                                                                                                               University of Montana

“Selma is especially vivid in describing the pre-war ‘Queen City of the Black Belt,’ where the economy and society are so inextricably dependent upon slavery that to express any qualms about the institution invited censure and ostracism. Moderate unionists, fire-eating secessionists, and free and enslaved blacks-Judge McGee gives voice to all with both precision and compassion.”
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                Norwood A. Kerr, Ph.D.
                                                                                                               Alabama Department of Archives and History       

“Ranging from the battlefields of Virginia to a romantic rendezvous on Mobile Bay, from the inauguration of Jefferson Davis to the nightmarish burning of Selma, Val McGee’s Selma brings the city’s Civil War past to life and gives us a vision of the New South yet to come. Judge McGee’s fictional McLesters share the stage with such historic figures as Stephen Douglas, William Lowndes Yancey, John Tyler Morgan, Ben Turner and Mary Boykin Chestnut.”

                                                                                                                Alston Fitts III, Ph.D
                                                                                                                author of Selma - Queen City of the Black Belt

“Judge McGee is a wonderful teller of a good story. I was intrigued with the clearing of the murderer, a story that beautifully entwines history, law and the essence of literature: our empathy and concern for the people we meet in novels.”
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                Mary Ann Neeley, Ph.D.
                                                                                                                Historian, author

From The Montgomery Advertiser:

MCGEE'S SELMA DEPICTS SECESSION
AND WAR IN ALABAMA'S BLACK BELT

        Val McGee's SELMA, A Novel of the Civil War (Yoknapatawpha Press,
Oxford, MS)  is a novel I would like to have written.  McGee is the
retired district judge of Dale County and a former president of both the
Alabama Historical Association and the Friends of the [Alabama] Archives.
He has written several works about Alabama history and particularly about his
beloved Dale County, but this is his first novel.

        Judge Val McGee recreates what it was like to live in Selma and
Montgomery during the years immediately before, during and after the
Civil War. His central character, Tate McLester, finds himself in a
difficult position. Though married into an aristocratic Selma family,
McLester is appalled by the South's move toward secession. His Indian ancestry makes
him skeptical about slavery. Also, he knows all too well that the
rebellion led by the "Red Sticks" or war party in 1813 led to the
destruction of the Creek Indian Nation, with the surviving Creeks being
sent off on the "Trail of Tears."

        His brother-in-law and son-in-law are ardent secessionists; his
Methodist denomination endorses secession; his only son Sam enlists in
the Confederate Army and goes off to fight at Bull Run. And what can Tate
and his wife Drucilla do but watch in despair and pray that their son
survives?

         Ranging from the battlefields of Virginia to a romantic
rendezvous on Mobile Bay. from the inauguration of Jefferson Davis to
the nightmarish burning of Selma, Val McGee's Selma brings Alabama's Civil War
past to life and gives us a vision of the New South yet to come.  His
fictional McLesters share the stage with such historic figures as Stephen Douglas,
William Lowndes Yancey, John Tyler Morgan, Nathan Bedford Forrest,
future Congressman Ben Turner and novelist Augusta Evans. They take part in the
1860 election, witness the founding of the Confederacy, take part in the
battle of Bull Run and the battle of Selma. And in a fascinating epilogue,
the descendants of the McLesters and their slaves witness President
Clinton's visit to Selma in 2000 and try to decide whether to march across
the Edmund Pettus Bridge together.

        McGee shows us not only the heroism of Confederate soldiers but
the horrors of slavery. The horrors are drawn from actual court cases --
the judge describes the specific cases in the Author's Notes at the close
of the book. He is particularly concerned with the sexual exploitation
of slaves--something that even his "good" slaveowners sometimes find hard to
resist.

        The book is soaked in Selma history. Its cover features Sturdivant
Hall; several episodes take place at the St. James Hotel; it includes a
funeral in Live Oak Cemetery, presided over by the pastor of St. Paul's
Episcopal; and people gather at the office of the Selma Times to hear
the latest election returns. Selmians like Judge Willam Byrd,
Rev.Alexander Small, and George W. Gayle stride through its pages.  The
names of some historical figures have been changed, though students of Selma history
will find it easy to guess the true identities of Selma Times editor
Brad Willett, hotel proprietor Jacob Gwynne and the black-bearded "fire-eater"
Peyton Ruckman.

        But while the novel begins and ends in Selma, some of its most
fascinating pages take place Montgomery as well. Young Sam McLester
studies law in Montgomery under his uncle Marcus, a prominent barrister.
His characters watch the debates at the Secession Convention in the House
of Representatives Chamber; enjoy parties at the Bibb Mansion; discuss
politics with Colonel  J.J. Seibels, the Unionist leader in Montgomery;
buy books at the  Exchange Hotel; and listen enthralled as Yancey welcomes Jefferson
Davis to Montgomery with, "The man and the hour have met."

Reviewed by Alston Fitts III, for THE MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER, Sept. 21,
2008