Adult backwoodsman and farmer who marries Jane Peyton, establishes a plantation in the Shenandoah Valley, serves as a captain in the Continental Army, and ultimately reconciles with his family after neglecting his son Peyton.
Their personal hostility develops into a broader conflict between revolutionary and royalist positions.
Matt feuds with Fleetwood in the Virginia legislature after becoming exposed to anti-British political thought.
Their friendship begins in childhood and continues through frontier life and the revolutionary struggle.
As a child, Matt is consoled by his schoolmate and friend Thomas Jefferson after learning that his father died.
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