An Uncommon Woman

Home > Romance > An Uncommon Woman > Page 30
An Uncommon Woman Page 30

by Laura Frantz


  Author Note

  Since childhood I’ve been fascinated by the remarkable captivity narratives of Jemima Boone, Mary Ingles, Jenny Wiley, Mary Jemison, Susanna Hutchinson, Frances Slocum, Elizabeth Archer Renick, Mary Rowlandson, Regina Leininger, Simon Girty, the Ruddell brothers of Kentucky (one Ruddell descendant is a reader of my novels), and others. The women’s stories most intrigue me and led to the creation of Keturah Braam.

  Researching these captivity stories led to a treasure trove of accounts involving those first settlers in western Virginia, now present-day West Virginia. Several scenes in this novel were inspired by the historical record, such as Jasper’s final fight in the field and Tessa’s serving a meal to the Indians. Much of this rich, even astonishing, frontier history has been buried and nearly lost to time. An Uncommon Woman is a tribute to those unflinching souls who risked so much in so dangerous a region. Their courage, fortitude, and faith are not forgotten.

  Many sources were of help to me when writing this novel, particularly the Diary of David Zeisberger: A Moravian Missionary Among the Indians of Ohio. Zeisberger and fellow missionaries, including John Heckewelder and other missions-minded men and women, had an extraordinary ministry among the tribes in their reach. Of special note is White into Red: A Study of the Assimilation of White Persons Captured by Indians by J. Norman Heard.

  Writing a book is always an education for the author. I quickly became immersed in the colorful world of the Lenape, also known as the Delaware tribe of Indians. While researching, I came across an account by the Florentine navigator Verrazano, who encountered the Lenape in 1524 along the East Coast before white contact and disease took a toll: “These people are the most beautiful and have the most civil customs that we have found on this voyage. They are taller than we are, they are a bronze color, some tending more towards whiteness, others to a tawny color; the face is clean-cut, the hair is long, and their manner is sweet and gentle, very like that of the ancients. They have all the proportions belonging to any well built men. Their women are just as shapely and beautiful; very gracious, of attractive manner and pleasant appearance.”1

  Several dialects were originally spoken among the Lenape in addition to Munsee and Unami. The Lenape Talking Dictionary (http://www.talk-lenape.org) includes audio that allows one to hear their language firsthand. Native languages are especially complex, and any errors within this novel are mine and unintentional.

  Often it is not till the end of a book that I grasp what the book is truly about. While writing, the theme of friendship stayed steadfast. Though Keturah Braam is not the heroine in the novel, she could be. Keturah is an uncommon woman and an uncommon friend. Her character is based on this beautiful passage from the commentaries of Matthew Henry, an English minister who lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: “Friends must be constant to each other at all times. That is not true friendship which is not constant; it will be so if it be sincere and actuated by a good principle. Those that are fanciful or selfish in their friendship will love no longer than their humour is pleased and their interest served, and therefore their affections turn with the wind and change with the weather. Swallow-friends, that fly to you in summer, but are gone in winter; such friends there is no loss of. But if the friendship be prudent, generous, and cordial, if I love my friend because he is wise, and virtuous, and good, as long as he continues so, though he fall into poverty and disgrace, still I shall love him. Christ is a friend that loves at all times and we must so love him. Relations must in a special manner be careful and tender of one another in affliction . . . A friend that loves at all times is born (that is, becomes) a brother in adversity, and is so to be valued.”2

  1. Fred N. Brown, Rediscovering Vinland: Evidence of Ancient Viking Presence in America (iUniverse, Inc., 2007), 126.

  2. Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament: Wherein Each Chapter Is Summed Up in Its Contents: Job–Solomon’s Song (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1839).

  Laura Frantz is a Christy Award winner and the ECPA bestselling author of eleven historical novels, including The Frontiersman’s Daughter, Courting Morrow Little, The Colonel’s Lady, and The Lacemaker. When not reading and writing, she loves to garden, take long walks, listen to music, and travel. She is the proud mom of an American soldier and a career firefighter. When not at home in Kentucky, she and her husband live in Washington State. Learn more at www.laurafrantz.net.

  LauraFrantz.net

  Sign up for announcements about upcoming titles.

  Twitter: RevellBooks

  Facebook: Revell

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Endorsements

  Books by Laura Frantz

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Epigraph

  Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  Excerpt from The Frontierman’s Daughter

  Acknowledgments

  Author Note

  About the Author

  Back Ads

  Back Cover

  List of Pages

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  56

  57

  58

  59

  60

  61

  62

  63

  64

  65

  66

  67

  68

  69

  70

  71

  72

  73

  74

  75

  76

  77

  78

  79

  80

  81

  82

  83

  84

  85

  86

  87

  88

  89

  90

  91

  92

  93

  94

  95

  96

  97

  98

  99

  100

  101

  102

  103

  104

  105

  106

  107

  108

  109

  110

  111

  112

  113

  114

  115


  116

  117

  118

  119

  120

  121

  122

  123

  124

  125

  126

  127

  128

  129

  130

  131

  132

  133

  134

  135

  136

  137

  138

  139

  140

  141

  142

  143

  144

  145

  146

  147

  148

  149

  150

  151

  152

  153

  154

  155

  156

  157

  158

  159

  160

  161

  162

  163

  164

  165

  166

  167

  168

  169

  170

  171

  172

  173

  174

  175

  176

  177

  178

  179

  180

  181

  182

  183

  184

  185

  186

  187

  188

  189

  190

  191

  192

  193

  194

  195

  196

  197

  198

  199

  200

  201

  202

  203

  204

  205

  206

  207

  208

  209

  210

  211

  212

  213

  214

  215

  216

  217

  218

  219

  220

  221

  222

  223

  224

  225

  226

  227

  228

  229

  230

  231

  232

  233

  234

  235

  236

  237

  238

  239

  240

  241

  242

  243

  244

  245

  246

  247

  248

  249

  250

  251

  252

  253

  254

  255

  256

  257

  258

  259

  260

  261

  262

  263

  264

  265

  266

  267

  268

  269

  270

  271

  272

  273

  274

  275

  276

  277

  278

  279

  280

  281

  282

  283

  284

  285

  286

  287

  288

  289

  290

  291

  292

  293

  294

  295

  296

  297

  298

  299

  300

  301

  302

  303

  304

  305

  306

  307

  308

  309

  310

  311

  312

  313

  314

  315

  316

  317

  318

  319

  320

  321

  322

  323

  324

  325

  326

  327

  328

  329

  330

  331

  332

  333

  334

  335

  336

  337

  338

  339

  340

  341

  342

  343

  344

  345

  346

  347

  348

  349

  350

  351

  352

  353

  354

  355

  356

  357

  358

  359

  360

  361

  362

  363

  365

  367

  368

  369

  370

  371

  372

  373

  374

  375

  376

  377

  379

  380

  381

  382

  383

  384

  385

 

 

 


‹ Prev