The Last Laird of Sapelo

The Last Laird of Sapelo is based on the tragic story of Randolph
Spalding, the youngest son of Georgia’s most well-known antebellum-era
coastal planter and influential political figure, Thomas Spalding. Following
his father’s death in 1851, Randolph parlays his father’s fame and gifted
landholdings on Sapelo Island, hobnobbing from Charleston to Savannah
to Milledgeville and ultimately failing to thwart Georgia’s decision to follow
South Carolina into secession by early 1861.

Within weeks after the assault on Fort Sumter, Lincoln’s naval
blockade threatens the entire southern coast. Colonel Randolph Spalding,
now a reluctant commander of militia, faces a storm of life-altering events in
the months that follow, imperiling his family’s legacy, livelihood, and lands.
He ultimately must decide between supposed justice and saving the life of
a slave who exacted revenge for the murder and rape of two children on
Sapelo Island.