WRITTEN BY CAROL PRATT BRADLEY
REVIEW BY SUSAN MCDUFFIE

Boston, 1650: Susanna Hutchison, daughter of the heretic Anne Hutchison, and the only survivor of the Indian attack that killed her mother and siblings, has been ransomed from the Siwanoy tribe and returned to Boston, to the care of her eldest surviving brother, Edward. Susanna barely remembers her first language, English. She had accepted her adoption into the Siwanoy and had grown to love her foster family. Now, after seven years among the “savages,” Susannah is uprooted again and sent to the unforgiving Massachusetts Colony where her mother is remembered as a rebellious woman who needed to be reduced and eventually expelled from the colony. Can Susannah find a place among these strangers, her own family? Does she even want to?

https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/daughter-of-anne-hoeck/

Daughter of Anne-Hoeck tells a fascinating tale well. In choosing to recount Anne Hutchison’s story from the viewpoint of her outcast daughter, Carol Pratt Bradley creates a novel that will appeal to the young adult audience, as well as to older readers. Bradley’s research into the different cultures portrayed informs the story, and her sympathy for Susanna rings true. The questions of individual conscience versus conforming to the dictates of society, and the urge to find one’s own place and roots within that society, will surely resonate with many readers. Recommended.

In 1637, the same year that Anne Hutchinson was brought to trial in Boston by the authorities, The Desire left Salem loaded with Native Americans who had been captured during the Pequot war. They were to be sold as slaves on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, far from their homeland. Seven months later, John Winthrop recorded in his journal that the Desire had returned from the West Indies, laden with items to sell: cotton, tobacco and Negroes.

Native Americans. Africans. For sale.

Why would someone name a slave ship “The Desire?” What did they desire? Riches. Domination. Unheeding of the cost to others. It seems to me that all injustices come down to two things: Money and power.

In a June 7, 2020 op-ed for the Washington Post, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated: ” Our country has a birth defect: Africans and Europeans came to this country together–but one group was in chains.” How do people justify enslaving people in order to enrich themselves? How do they live with it day to day and not see the wrong of it? How did they justify evil? I’ve asked myself these questions over and over.

The only conclusion I can reach is one thing. Pride. When one person says to another in action and in word: I am better than you. You are lower than me. Humankind’s biggest lie.

That attitude must be how the people who came to America to seek freedom for themselves justified taking away the freedoms of others: slaughtering and enslaving Native Americans and bringing people from Africa as slaves.

We are all witnesses to the raw pain of the last ten days. Our country has a way yet to go to rid ourselves from this original stain. The whole world has joined in, grappling with their own history of racism. In the headlines today, the statue of a slave trader in Bristol, England was pulled down, rolled to the river and, amid deafening cheers, dumped in. His likeness stands no more. What does that act say? Rejection of the wrongs of the past?

In the research I did the other day for a new manuscript I’ve begun, I learned that Bristol was a major port in the slave trade. Many abolitionists in England worked tirelessly to end slavery, seeking to educate the public on its evils. Their efforts led to the abolishment of the slave trade throughout the British empire, with legislation in 1807 and ending with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Combined voices brought about change then, as it did when Abraham Lincoln’s efforts pushed Congress to pass the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in the United States of America. Yet we still struggle. There is so much pain and injustice. Native Americans were forced onto barren lands, still many of them without adequate water, government turning a blind eye to need. Inequities in the justice system and opportunities for education for many. This is wrong!

over the past two weeks it feels like major change could be happening. We see images of people at the protests coming together in understanding and compassion. These scenes make us weep and offers hope for a better future. Yet much more is needed. More than protests. More than legislation. Our Declaration of Independence clearly states: “…all men are created equal….” Equal opportunity. Equal respect. When will we act in every way to prove that truth? What will it take?

Every individual must look into what is in their own heart. Condoleezza Rice said: “The road to healing must begin with respectful but honest and deep conversations, not judgments, about who we were, who we are and who we want to become….We all have a role to play in moving our country forward, in ensuring that our democracy delivers not just for those who have but also for those who seek and for those in need.”

Healing will happen when people no longer say out of their own mistaken pride: “I am better than you. You are less than me.” It will happen when we all speak and act from this belief instead: “You and I are equal.”

Link

In the afterword of “Daughter of Anne-Hoeck,” I reflected on what I learned from studying the unusual life of Susanna Hutchinson. It seems particularly applicable to the time in which I find my own self living. It is too easy to feel the angst over circumstances I cannot control: the day to day grinding of political upheaval and warring of opinions, injustice and suffering, and now a world pandemic. How much the sun shines and how much it rains. Any yet I must remember:

“Men and women live inside a social and political world which affects their circumstances. But our lives are much more than world events, social mores, or the interpretations of current government and religious authorities. We choose our own beliefs and opinions and actions, deciding for ourselves the truths we will follow. In doing so, we build a world of our own creation inside of our larger world. Isn’t that what the designer of earth and mankind desires for each of us? Like Susanna, we choose and shape our own “space between.”

“Paul and I have been reading Carol Pratt Bradley’s new book “Daughter of Anne-Hoeck.” We are finding it exceptional! She is a very gifted writer, and I think this is her best yet. I would encourage you all to read it. Her book can be purchased on Amazon, so you don’t even need to leave home.”

With a title change, which I like much better, my fourth historical novel will be released on February 25, 2020. It is up on Goodreads and available for pre-sale on WiDo Publishing’s website.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49329260-daughter-of-anne-hoeck