Word: lilburn
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Just before the earthquake hit on the night of Dec. 15, 1811, there were some truly terrible doings out at the Lewis place in old Kentucky. Doc Lewis' son Lilburn had murdered his manservant George with an ax. Then, before the terrified eyes of his younger brother Isham and the other slaves, the body was thrown on the fire, the flesh burned off, the bones gathered and buried. What was young George's crime to fetch such dire punishment? He had broken a pitcher that had been prized by the boys' dead mother...
...murder did not stay hidden long, and one day the sheriff came around to the Lewis place. Found out, the boys agreed to kill each other with pistols as they stood over their mother's grave. Isham did his part, and Lilburn went down dying. But Lilburn failed to kill his brother. Isham, unscratched, was tried, convicted and sentenced to hang. Instead, he broke out of jail, and later the rumor went that he was killed in New Orleans, fighting against the British under Andy Jackson...
...that runs to book length, with a cast that includes the shade of the murdered George, the murderers, their parents, and Tom Jefferson himself. Author Warren takes the part of commentator and uninvited amateur psychiatrist. Stripped of its turgid pretenses, Brother to Dragons asks two questions: 1) why did Lilburn do it? 2) how could Thomas Jefferson reconcile his own noble ideals with so dark a deed done by men of his own blood...