The First Paper - A Prequel Story

Kentucky, 1865. The law freed the soldier. It said nothing of his family.

Kentucky never left the Union, and it never freed its slaves. In the winter of 1865, an enslaved Kentucky man has one lawful road to freedom: Camp Nelson, where the army will swear him in and hand him a paper. His wife and children stay behind, entered in another man's ledger with a price beside each name.

George Winkfield knows what that road costs. Then a peddler brings word from Washington, and his wife, Victoria, says it before he can: go now, and come back for us the minute the law lets you.

What follows is a night walk through the Kentucky snow, a promise kept across flooded fords on a condemned army mule, and a family's first spring of freedom, with everything it gave them and everything it cost.

Before the famous son, there were the parents. This is their story.

The First Paper is a free prequel story to the Winkfield Trilogy by Carl Williams. Their youngest son, Jimmy Winkfield, grows up to win back-to-back Kentucky Derbies in The Last Derby.

Free EPUB ebook.