The Legend of Plough-Jogger

In all likelihood, you have never heard of my protagonist, Jedediah Peck, alias Plough-Jogger (1748-1821). Well, neither had I. But, from the very beginning of my research, this man's life played out like a Hollywood screenplay. There was a true sense of something magical about this extraordinary man that demanded a more imaginative storyline-hence, historical fiction. Merging together descriptive character development with historical relevance brings to life the evolutionary thought process of Peck's perspective for a radical, unfettered democracy. Given the Indian name "Plough-Jogger" by a Niantic Chief, young Jedediah's life takes an unexpected turn when the British authorities become obsessed with the capture of a half-breed the Indians call Plough-Jogger--who is thought to be resurrecting an Indian uprising amongst the tribes along the Connecticut River Valley. Then, in the autumn of 1765, young Jedediah Peck has been presented an opportunity to become carpenter's apprentice aboard John Hancock's sloop, The Liberty. He departs from the Peck homestead in Lyme, Connecticut for the seaport town of Boston, which has become a bastion of political discontent. Pushed to the brink of civil disobedience by the King George's Stamp Act, the underground movement (spearheaded by the Loyal Nine followed by the Sons of Liberty) rules the streets of Boston by night. The seeds for revolution are sowed and out of the seething turbulence emerges the "Legend of Plough-Jogger!" The significance of this forgotten American hero can best be summed up by quoting two-time Pulitzer author, Alan Taylor... "In an age of diminishing support for our public education, Peck warns us that we imperil the very foundation of our republic and risk succumbing to the rule of a latter-day aristocracy by the wealthy. If we forget Peck, we will sacrifice his great insight: that the republic is what we, the citizens, make of it, for without our vigorous, daily defense, it will become a hollow shell." Today-scarcely a handful of people are familiar with the deeds of Peck. It's despairing to think there could be so little remembrance of a time, when a once quite popular Jedediah Peck, traveled the Otsego countryside sharing with whomever would listen to his radical idealogies for an unfettered democracy. No one remembers old Judge Peck with that 'twangy' Yankee accent and those saddlebags that were always stuffed with political literature. Long forgotten-are the political wars in Otsego County that came to a climax one sultry, September night in 1799, when Peck was arrested and dragged from his home in irons cuffed to his wrists and ankles. The news of his arrest sparked protest riots from Cooperstown, all the way down the Hudson Valley-an incident that perhaps, spearheaded what some historians' postulate as, the 'Second American Revolution.' "...A hundred missionaries in the cause of democracy, stationed from New York and Cooperstown, could not have done so much for the repubican cause as thie journey of Judge Peck, as a prisoner, from Otsego to the capital of the state..." Jabez Delano Hammond, 1841