Biography

Sam Hyde is Leon Ford Endowed Chair, Professor of History, and director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. He is the author of nine books including the award-winning Pistols and Politics: Feuds, Factions, and the Struggle for Order in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1810-1935 and screenwriter of five docudrama films including American Crisis, American Shame: The National Consequences of Coastal Erosion, recipient of the docudrama Gold Medal at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

Sarah Hyde is the author of Schooling in the Antebellum South: The Rise of Public and Private Education in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and professor of History at River Parishes Community College. She is currently working on a project highlighting the struggle for women's suffrage in Louisiana.

Schedule

1:30 pm to 2:15 pm
State Capitol, Senate Committee Room E
Pen Pals: A Couple of Co-Author Couples
with Sam and Sarah Hyde and Ayan and Mike Rubin

2:30 pm to 3:15 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Rebel Bayou

By the mid-1800s, the residents of the Florida Parishes in Louisiana, including Ready Wright’s family, had endured decades of instability. Outlasting multiple national overlords, popular uprisings, the horrific Civil War, and fierce nightriders determined to continue the violence, this community is desperate for peace and a semblance of unity.

Ready’s life includes one bright spot, Mollie Stansbury, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. From New Orleans to Mobile to Pensacola, the challenges of life in the post-Civil War Gulf South play out in dramatic fashion as Ready and Mollie confront a world of risk to find elusive peace.

Historical fact and fiction merge in Rebel Bayou to create an exciting story of hardship and hope certain to both entertain and educate.