“Impressively Crafted” Novel Now on Kindle
It’s so rewarding when a professional book reviewer “gets” the book that you’ve worked on for several years. That happened recently when Midwest Book Review praised The Truth About Daniel. And to celebrate, we made the book available on Kindle! Click here to get a copy on your own device. And PLEASE review it. Reviews […]
Posse Hunts John Brown
Why was D.R. Anthony so fiercely abolitionist? Events such as the following would have fueled his anger. Today’s post gives us a typical example of how proslavery forces treated John Brown, an antislavery man whom Anthony revered and probably knew. (D.R.’s brother Merritt had fought with Brown several years earlier in southern Kansas.) Living only […]
Spymistress Elizabeth Van Lew
Today’s blog on one of my most-admired American women features my favorite historical novel (pictured) as well as a quiz on spies! During the Civil War, Union Spy Elizabeth Van Lew lived in Richmond, VA, the very heart of the Confederacy. A wealthy churchgoing woman, she cited simple compassion for prisoners as her reason for […]
Clarina Nichols: A Woman Alone
Clarina Nichols was a woman alone for most of her life. And some of the time she was married, she was miserable. Like D.R. Anthony, Nichols emigrated to Kansas in 1854 with one of the earliest parties of the Emigrant Aid Company. By the time she set foot in Kansas, D.R. had returned east to […]
Vineyard Woman with Nerves of Steel
Today’s heroine for Women’s History Month is Beulah Vanderhoop of Martha’s Vineyard, a maritime conductor on the Underground Railroad in the 1850s. She had the courage it took to assist as many as eight ex-slaves to safety and in my novel, profoundly affected Annie Osborn of Edgartown. Though Vanderhoop is firmly grounded in history, the […]
The death of Susan B. Anthony: when she retired her red shawl
Today we commemorate the death of Susan B. Anthony. According to Susan’s official biography, it was said that Washingtonians marked spring each year with two signs: the return of Congress to the nation’s capital and the return of Miss Anthony in her red shawl to lobby Congress. In her later years, the shawl was such […]
The Scandal of Speaking in Public
The National Women’s History Project salutes “countless millions of women who planned, organized, lectured, wrote, marched, petitioned, lobbied, paraded, and broke new ground in every field imaginable, [making] our world…irrevocably changed. Women and men in our generation, and the ones that will follow us, are living the legacy of women’s rights won against staggering odds in […]
Abolition Families Join Forces in Rochester, NY
In 1847, two prominent abolition families became neighbors when Frederick Douglass settled in Rochester, NY near the Anthonys. There, he began publishing his abolitionist paper The North Star (later called Frederick Douglass’ Paper). Douglass established his writing and speaking career in New Bedford (near Boston). Eventually, however, his rising fame threatened or inspired jealousy in […]
Catch my book on TV today!
The Truth About Daniel was featured today on FOX morning news. Click here to watch the newscast. I liked how they included images, but you may be confused about the picture of people standing in front of a house. It’s not Daniel’s house in Missouri, but the Anthony farm in Rochester. As far as we […]
Susan B. Anthony and the American press
Susan B. Anthony knew how to play the American press to her advantage, but speaking and writing were not always her strong suit.