Rebel Bayou

By the mid-1800s, the residents of the Florida Parishes in Louisiana, including Ready Wright’s family, had endured decades of instability. Outlasting multiple national overlords, popular uprisings, the horrific Civil War, and fierce nightriders determined to continue the violence, this community is desperate for peace and a semblance of unity.

Ready’s life includes one bright spot, Mollie Stansbury, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. From New Orleans to Mobile to Pensacola, the challenges of life in the post-Civil War Gulf South play out in dramatic fashion as Ready and Mollie confront a world of risk to find elusive peace.

Historical fact and fiction merge in Rebel Bayou to create an exciting story of hardship and hope certain to both entertain and educate.

About the Authors

Samuel Hyde is Leon Ford Endowed Chair, professor of history, and director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. He is the author of nine books, including the award winning Pistols and Politics: Feuds, Factions, and the Struggle for Order in Louisiana’s Florida Parishes, 1810–1935, and screenwriter of five docu-drama films. 

Sarah Hyde is the author of Schooling in the Antebellum South: The Rise of Public and Private Education in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and professor of history at River Parishes Community College. 

Praise for Rebel Bayou

“The Hydes, historians both, put to good use their understanding of the Florida Parishes in the nineteenth century. The fictional world they create comes to life and with as much truth as any nonfiction author might hope to achieve. Rebel Bayou tells a somber and human story about space and time in the throes of great change, uncertainty, and inhumanity.”—Bradley G. Bond, Northern Illinois University

“Samuel and Sarah Hyde have drawn on their deep well of historical knowledge to craft a novel—and a hero in Ready Wright—that is sure to fascinate, educate and entertain Civil War buffs in the South and beyond.”—Paige Bowers, journalist and author of Overnight Code and The General's Niece

“Rebel Bayou is a gripping novel of love and conflict during the Civil War and its aftermath written by two historians who live in Louisiana and specialize in patterns of rural violence and Antebellum culture. Filled with passion and historically accurate adventure, Rebel Bayou is an antidote to all those romances about life on the old plantation and is well worth reading.”—Loraine Despres, author of The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc and The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell

© 2022 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press

Paperback | 6" x 9" | ISBN: 9781946160942