Reviewed by Keith Jones
“A Passel of Hate” brings a little known, but pivotal battle of the American Revolution to life. In this book, Joe Epley crafts a tale surrounding the Battle of Kings Mountain that is worthy of historical fiction greats like John Jakes. Why the New York publishing houses and Hollywood have not discovered Epley is a great mystery, but hopefully they won’t waste too much time because this is a powerful story.
The story follows Jacob Godley and his divided family during the time leading up to the battle and in the wake of the aftermath. The Godley family is split down the middle between the Loyalist Tories and the Patriot Whigs. This family echoes the tracks followed by other such families during this time. It also brings to life a battle which has become a footnote in our history, but had a much greater impact to our independence. Many of the troops fighting for the King were not British at all. In fact a huge number of them were Colonial Loyalists.
The Battle of Kings Mountain was instrumental in depriving the Crown of the support it needed to win the conflict and pacify the Colonies. Many of the Colonists would have preferred to remain neutral. Not being able to do so led those caught in the middle to simply pick the side they thought most likely to win, or at least not get them killed. The devastating loss for the Loyalists there caused the fence sitters to either choose the Patriot side or simply hide at home until the conflict was over.
“A Passel of Hate” brings the Battle of Kings Mountain up close and personal. You don’t want to miss this one.
