White Gold by Victoria Hopkins

White Gold is based on the true story of Thomas Griffiths, the agent sent by the English potter, Josiah Wedgwood, to obtain a prized white clay from the Cherokee mountains.

Driven by greed and vengeance for his wife’s death, Thomas accepts the dangerous mission and faces his old enemies the Cherokees, travelling through a hazardous wilderness, beset with outlaws and murderers.

Set in 1767 in the British colony of South Carolina, White Gold asks how far will a man go in his pursuit of wealth and revenge?  

With themes of war, forbidden love, slavery and Colonial greed, my novel is based on actual historical events, set against the backdrop of the political conflict on the eve of the American Revolution.

About the author: 

I worked as a solicitor in England and wrote the occasional article for a charity magazine, until in 2015, my husband’s work took us to South Carolina.

Finding myself with free time and in a state I knew very little about, I began researching local history. I discovered the remarkable story of Thomas Griffiths, made even more poignant because it connected me with my hometown in the Potteries in England. I began my own adventure, retracing his steps, visiting the Cherokee Reservation and an old British fort, hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, dodging bears and snakes, and eventually discovering the location of the white clay mine.