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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Raymond Hackney’s A Plea for Freedom follows Daniel Asbury, a fifteen-year-old farm boy in Bedford County, Virginia, as the Revolution reaches his family in 1777. After Judge Charles Lynch punishes two captured Tories beneath the walnut tree in New London, Daniel’s desire for liberty becomes tangled with the violence used in its name. When Virginia drafts his father, Daniel takes the family’s place in Captain Charles Gwatkins’s militia and marches west with his friend Ben Kelly. Kentucky first seems like the adventure Daniel has long imagined on the Virginia farm, but the road to Boonesborough brings enemy fire before captivity takes him far from everyone he loves. As Daniel is carried through Shawnee life and British imprisonment, freedom becomes a question of body and soul.
Raymond Hackney’s A Plea for Freedom is excellent Christian historical fiction, and Daniel's first-person voice feels true to a boy learning war from the ground up. The historical detail works beautifully through daily survival. Training with the Pennsylvania rifle teaches trust between militia men before Boonesborough shows why that training is needed. I also appreciated the Fort Detroit prison material, where Daniel’s hunger makes remembered meals almost as real as food. The most moving passage is his return to Bedford County, when Rex recognizes him before his father does and the family has to take in the scarred man who comes home. The faith material shows naturally through Ma’s prayers and Rev. Gatch’s invitation to Christ. Revolutionary War and faith-forward historical fiction fans, this one is for you!
