United States, South, State & Local 

Compared by critics to the writings of Wendell Berry and James Agee, this richly detailed narrative has an unforgettable cast of historic characters and is based on documents found in the upcountry plantation home the author began to renovate in 1989. It is a metaphor of how Southerners carved out a wilderness, developed productive farms, and saw it all destroyed by invaders. Our Fathers’ Fields was the Winner of the Fellowship of Southern Writers Award for Nonfiction in 1999. 

"When James Everett Kibler purchased a dilapidated South Carolina plantation in 1989, he had no idea that his rehabilitation of the distinguished but deteriorated property would include the unearthing of a remarkable saga about the land and the people who had lived on it. But as he refurbished the Great House and restored its nineteenth-century garden, he felt the pull of the place to uncover and record its past. Kibler faithfully took part in an act of cultural reclamation, piecing together the story of the Hardy family, who purchased the tract along the Tyger River in 1786 and farmed it for two centuries"--Jacket.Compared by critics to the writings of Wendell Berry and James Agee, this richly detailed narrative has an unforgettable cast of historic characters and is based on documents found in the upcountry plantation home the author began to renovate in 1989. It is a metaphor of how Southerners carved out a wilderness, developed productive farms, and saw it all destroyed by invaders. Our Fathers’ Fields was the Winner of the Fellowship of Southern Writers Award for Nonfiction in 1999. 

Includes bibliographical references (p. 399-438) and index.