Charleston (SC) The legends of the Carolina coast hang heavy like the salty mists over the marshes and the moss dripping from the branches of the gnarled oak trees. Into this historic landscape Chip Sturgis breathes new life into one of the oldest stories of a star-crossed couple from Africa that changed the English colonies forever.
Princess Ranjita dreams of running away from her Father King Jacka but where can she go? She falls madly in love with her bodyguard, the fierce warrior Sitaka. Their love is betrayed and they must escape once and for all. But they both wind up enslaved to terrible foreigners. Thanks to a shifty pirate captain the young lovers were reunited in Charles Towne. They found friendship with a strange mystical doctor who helps chart a new path for them.
Sitaka knew the secrets of growing rice that was found in many dishes on their island of Madagascar. No one in North America had solved the mystery of growing rice in the English colonies. Sitaka and his friend Dr. Henry Woodward would make Carolina the only successful rice growing colony.
Learn the secrets of the many kingdoms of Madagascar and the joys and woes rice brought to America. Discover the Rice Kingdom by Chip Sturgis. Future titles in the Saga of Carolina include: Book 2, A Savage Among Gentlemen: The Life and Travels of Dr. Henry Woodward, Book 3, His Majesty’s Pearl and Book 4, The Pirates of Whitehall.
Experts, such as Damon Fordham, who is an author and adjunct professor of history at The Citadel have said:
“Academics have written about the rice trade in South Carolina during the Transatlantic Slave trade, and authors have written historical fiction about various aspects of the Slave Trade. But few have combined the story of the rice trade and that of human cargo in the manner of Chip Sturgis in Book One of His Saga of the Rice Kingdom in South Carolina. This well researched and panoramic tale of Sitaka, the lovely Ranjita, and their adventures across three continents beginning in Africa and ending in South Carolina, is a welcome addition to the canon of historical fiction on this very important subject.”
Chip Sturgis is a tenth generation native of the Lowcountry and is active in many area charities. He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, father of two sons and husband to Karena Sturgis. Follow Chip for more fascinating stories of the first century of Charleston history before the Revolution and several Charleston heroes lost to history.