Baldwin High School senior releases debut novel

What began as a Black History Month assignment about seven years ago has grown into a published novel — the first part of a trilogy — for an 18-year-old high school senior who turned a family discovery into a deep exploration of history, identity and purpose.

Bruce Revels III, a senior at Baldwin High School, released his debut novel, “The Black Senator: Sons of Struggle,” earlier this month. The work of historical fiction, which Revels self-published, follows Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate and the author’s great-great-great-grandfather.

Blending documented history with imagined moments, the book traces Revels’s early life, from 1827 through the start of the Civil War, offering a window into slavery-era America and the antebellum period.

The idea took shape in 2019, during a school project, when Revels searched for a lesser-known historical figure in Black history. A conversation with an aunt led him to Hiram Revels, and later that year to journals, records and family documents that sparked a deeper curiosity.

“I thought it was really interesting,” Revels said about discovering his family connection to the senator. “I would ask people, ‘Do you know who Hiram Revels is?’ and they would say no. So I was like, there’s a story here.”

His research began years before the first chapter was written. Revels compiled historical records, timelines and primary sources, then built the narrative around known events. Where gaps existed, particularly in undocumented years, the story fills in with carefully imagined scenes grounded in historical context.

“I would go through historical records, voting records, different websites, magazines, and I would write down all of my historical facts and everything that I knew happened,” he said of his research process. “In any gap periods, I would try to come up with something that could have happened, but to my best knowledge, didn’t or wasn’t recorded.”

Writing the book was only part of the challenge. Revels completed multiple drafts, edited the manuscript himself and handled formatting independently, a process he described as both frustrating and rewarding.

“It was just a nightmare,” he said, “but it was kind of fun doing it.”

After facing obstacles with traditional publishing, including age-related barriers and contract concerns, Revels chose to self-publish. “I was hitting dead ends with traditional publishing,” he said. “When I was reaching out to literary agencies and publishing houses, they would say, ‘We would have to jointly do this with your parents’ or ‘We don’t want to take on someone so young.’”

The decision has already yielded success, with the book reaching bestseller status on Amazon in multiple categories, including teen and young adult historical fiction.

Revels’s family played a central role throughout the process, especially the author’s grandfather, who encouraged the project from the beginning. After his death last year, Revels briefly stepped away from the book before returning to complete it as a tribute.

At its core, the novel explores purpose, identity and moral conviction. The author hopes readers walk away with a clear message.

“Doing what is right matters more than doing what is expected,” Revels said.

The book is the first installment of a planned trilogy. The second part, which is already in progress, will cover the Civil War through Hiram Revels’ rise to the Senate, while a third will shift the focus to his daughter, a pioneering African-American journalist.

Revels plans to attend the University at Buffalo in the fall to study political science, with aspirations of becoming an attorney and exploring the world of politics — while continuing to write. He hopes to have the second installment in the trilogy published by the end of next year.