Brandon Marie Miller - Women of Colonial America: 13 Stories of Courage and Survival in the New World

From Women of Colonial America:

S arah Kemble Knights ultimate destination was New York City, where she had business settling a relatives estate. In her journal she recorded the five-month round-trip adventure: hours on horseback, traversing rough roads and dangerous rivers, sleeping in seedy inns and welcoming homes. At age 38 Sarah was not a young woman, middle-aged by any standard in 1704. She undertook such a harrowing journey because duty called, and Sarah Kemble Knight had proven her worth as a businesswoman.

Born in Boston in 1666 and raised in a merchant family, Sarah married Richard Knight sometime around 1689. The couple had one child, a daughter named Elizabeth. Referred to as Madame Knighta sign of respectSarah probably shared the duties of her husbands business ventures before his death in 1703.

As a widow, Sarah proved herself a capable businesswoman. Over the years she ran a writing school, owned a stationery shop, managed a boardinghouse, learned enough law to handle legal matters including settling estates, and owned several farms. Then, in October 1704, she made the journey to New York. Her travel journal captured Sarah Knights view of the world, often laced with her sense of humor, and it is through this record she still lives on the pages of history, vibrant as the year she penned her thoughts.

Other Books in the Women of Action Series

Code Name Pauline by Pearl Witherington Cornioley, edited by Kathryn J. Atwood

Double Victory by Cheryl Mullenbach

The Many Faces of Josephine Baker by Peggy Caravantes

Reporting Under Fire by Kerrie L. Hollihan

She Takes a Stand by Michael Elsohn Ross

Women Aviators by Karen Bush Gibson

Women Heroes of the American Revolution by Susan Casey

Women Heroes of World War I by Kathryn J. Atwood

Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn J. Atwood

Women in Space by Karen Bush Gibson

Women of Steel and Stone by Anna M. Lewis

Women of the Frontier by Brandon Marie Miller

A World of Her Own by Michael Elsohn Ross

Copyright 2016 by Brandon Marie Miller

All rights reserved

First edition

Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-55652-487-5

Parts of this book were originally published as Good Women of a Well-Blessed Land, Womens Lives in Colonial America (Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing, 2003). It has been substantially revised, updated, and expanded.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Miller, Brandon Marie.

Title: Women of Colonial America : 13 stories of courage and survival in the New World / Brandon Marie Miller.

Description: First edition. | Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press, 2016. | Series: Women of action | Parts of this book were originally published as Good Women of a Well-Blessed Land, Womens Lives in Colonial America (Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing, 2003). It has been substantially revised, updated, and expandedTitle page verso. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015028517 | ISBN 9781556524875 (hardback)

Subjects: LCSH: WomenUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. | WomenUnited StatesHistory17th centuryJuvenile literature. | WomenUnited StatesHistory18th centuryJuvenile literature. | United StatesHistoryColonial period, ca. 16001775BiographyJuvenile literature. | United StatesSocial life and customsTo 1775Juvenile literature. | BISAC: JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / United States / Colonial & Revolutionary Periods. | JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography / Women.

Classification: LCC HQ1416 .M555 2016 | DDC 305.4097309/032dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015028517

Interior design: Sarah Olson

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

Index

This book is for Anna and Audrey, with love.

Dedicated also to the women of Colonial America. How I wish youd left more of yourselves behind, your stories in your own words.

M ANY THANKS TO the wonderful people at museums, libraries, historical societies, and historic sites who helped with photo research for this book. A special thanks to staff at Colonial WilliamsburgMarianne Martin, Visual Resources Librarian; Allison Heinbaugh, Reference Librarian at the John D. Rockefeller Library; and Hope Evans at the Randolph House for sharing her insight into Eve and others. Many thanks to Cricket and Viv who went on an adventure to find Sarah Kemble Knight. Also, a special thanks to Mary Rose Quinn at the Stevens Memorial Library in North Andover, Massachusetts, who granted permission to use an image of Anne Bradstreets work written in Annes own hand. We are just so pleased, she wrote, to give more people access and spread the word about Anne Bradstreet in this way. Cant wait to read your book. Sweet music to my ears!

B RANDON M ARIE M ILLER
www.brandonmariemiller.com

I N THE 17 TH AND 18 TH centuries there were no common standards for spelling (even for names), punctuation, or capitalization. Writers spelled words as they sounded and capitalized words within sentences. In many instances, this book preserves the original spellings.

We were entertained with all love, and kindness, and with as much bounty as they could possibly devise.

Englishman Arthur Barlowe, writing of his welcome by Native Americans, 1584

T HE SUN WAS JUST slipping below the treetops when word spread that a rowboat ferrying two white men approached the Roanoke village. The wife of the chiefs brother hastened to the waters edge to greet the strangers. She gave a few quick orders and her people dragged the strangers boat onto the sand and carried the two white men ashore on their backs. The woman escorted the men to her home, a five-room lodge built from sweet-smelling cedar.