"Oral history has played a major part in the creation of human cultures the world over. It played an especially important role in the heritage of the Celtic peoples--a people who placed high value on personal honesty but were never hesitant to improve a story, just a little, for the dramatic impact while leaving the essential truth untarnished." --from the section "About the Truth in Uncle Seth's Stories" In his first foray into historical fiction, James Ronald Kennedy uses the "everyman" character of Uncle Seth to relay the Southern determination to be left alone by government and their strong commitment to community, God, and family. The atrocities he chronicles as part of his tales to the youngsters around him provide a glimpse of the horrors of subjugation and what was perceived as anti-Christian behavior.