Rayflin, now a forgotten place like a ghost town, was a vibrant, busy farm of over five hundred acres at the beginning of the twentieth century. This novel, based on true events and real characters, tells the story of life in the backwoods of South Carolina. The black waters of the Edisto River bounded the property of Kel and Peninnah Gantt. They raised a family of nine children, two girls, and seven boys. The story begins in 1910 on a stormy October night with the birth of their first grandchild, Leon. It is the true story of the way a desperate people worked hard to survive. The sons of Kel were tough, fighting with knives when cornered, hard drinkers, and hard workers. This is the first of the trilogy of my forbearers, fifteen years in the making; it is their story, true and uncensored and including pictures of the real characters and details of their personality, as provided by a master storyteller, Leon.