"Rachel, After the Darkness" is a continuation of the struggle in which Jane Gaddy intricately describes the South following the war and during the reunification of a broken Nation. Rachel's husband and son are gone, having fallen at Gettysburg. Three sons have married, and Rachel and her youngest, Samuel, are left alone to run the small farm in northeast Mississippi. The darkness represents a time that never should have been, and in her thoughts, Rachel relives the gloom of death and destruction; the disparities of Federal intervention during Reconstruction and the re-establishing of the Old South; and the harsh restrictions of the Radical Regime.
As the story progresses, Rachel receives a short-term offer to become an editorial writer for a major newspaper in New York City where she momentarily lives the Gilded Age, observes the abject poverty of Irish immigrants, and endures the sporadic and sometimes violent opposition to her southern-view editorials. She experiences love in great measure and the eventual return home where awaits unexpected news and heartache, and finally happiness and contentment once again.
With characters out of the playbook of times gone by and personal ?storytelling? writing style, Dr. Gaddy has created a memorable journey from the darkness of war and its aftermath to the light of a better time.