Rebecca Bruff heard the undertold story of Robert Smalls on her first visit to South Carolina. She was so captivated that she left her job and moved across the country to research and write this novel. Bruff earned her bachelor's degree in education at Texas A&M and a master's and doctorate in theology at Southern Methodist University. In 2017, she was a scholarship recipient for the prestigious Key West Literary Seminar. She volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, South Carolina. She has published nonfiction, plays a little tennis, travels when she can, and loves life in the lowcountry with her husband and an exuberant golden retriever.

Books by Rebecca Dwight Bruff

Trouble the Water

by Rebecca Dwight Bruff - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Inspired by the life of an unsung American hero and slave, TROUBLE THE WATER navigates the rich tributaries of courage, betrayal and redemption. In his inspiring journey, Robert Smalls witnesses great privilege and suffering alongside his owner’s daughter and the dangerous son of a firebrand secessionist. At the age of 12, he’s sent to work in Charleston, where he loads ships and learns to pilot a cotton steamer. When the Civil War erupts and his cotton steamer becomes a Confederate warship, Robert seizes the opportunity to pursue freedom for himself and the people he loves.