Set during the American Civil War, Black Cloud Rising is the powerful story of a man grappling with his own complicated history as he forges a future for himself--and his country. For readers of Edward P. Jones and Colson Whitehead
Told by Sgt. Richard Etheridge, the son of an enslaved woman and her former master, Black Cloud Rising is based on the true story of the African Brigade, an all-Black regiment led by General Edward Augustus Wild, a one-armed white abolitionist who terrorized the North Carolina countryside. Eager to prove his manhood and worth, but deeply conflicted about his own notions of Blackness and whiteness, Richard must navigate a world of violence and moral uncertainty, never knowing whether the shot that could end his life will be fired by his own white cousin, who has turned Confederate guerrilla, or his fellow soldier, the self-named Revere, who sneeringly sees through Richard's racial self-doubt.