Beadle's Dime Novels No. 213: Squatter Dick

# Squatter Dick: or the Swamp Fox's Oath

This 1870 dime novel by Jos. E. Badger, Jr. follows Dick Laflin, a poor white squatter living in the Florida swamps. Laflin, described as wiry and muscular beneath an unassuming appearance, is a skilled tracker and gambler. After Major Crosby recruits him to infiltrate a gang of bandits called the Keedy boys—whom Laflin recognizes as murderous Tories—he prepares to track their hideout. However, returning home, Laflin discovers his shanty burned and his mother and sister Sally killed by the Keedy brothers in retaliation. Laflin buries them and makes a solemn oath over their graves to hunt down and kill every one of the four Keedy boys, vowing they cannot all survive in the same world.