Books | Author Suzanne Adair

Face of the Enemy: Internment on Both Coasts

Posted on September 4, 2012 by AdminNovember 8, 2013

Relevant History welcomes Joanne Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers, co-authors of the historical mystery Face of the Enemy, released 4 September 2012.

A former English professor at Fordham University, Joanne Dobson is the author of the Professor Karen Pelletier mystery series from Doubleday and Poisoned Pen Press. She won an Agatha nomination for Quieter Than Sleep, the first book in the series.

Her novels have been widely reviewed, including in the New York Times. In 2001 the adult-readers division of the New York Library Association named her Noted Author of the Year.

Face of the Enemy is her latest title. For more information, check her web site.

Beverle Graves Myers is a Kentucky native who’s always loved stories and always asked “why.” She made a mid-life career switch from Psychiatry to writing. Her latest project is a collaboration with fellow mystery author Joanne Dobson. Face of the Enemy launches a series that follows New York City through the challenges and triumphs of World War II. Bev also enjoys mixing murder and music in her Tito Amato Mysteries set in dazzling 18th-century Venice. Her work has been nominated for the Macavity, Derringer, and Kentucky Literary awards. For more information, check her web site.

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For decades the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was a barely acknowledged part of our national history. In February 1942, just over two months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 that led to the relocation of some 120,000 “persons of Japanese ancestry” in internment camps for the duration of the war. Almost all were relocated from the West Coast, mainly from California.

More recently, however, this injustice has received the attention it deserves. President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1988, granting each survivor of the internment camps a sum of $20,000. On the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President George Bush offered the internees a formal apology. Several relocation centers have now been designated National Historic Landmarks and are open for tours under the management of the Park Service, and many schools include the topic in the Social Studies curriculum.

In the entertainment world, there is even a new musical set to open later this month that follows a family relocated from Salinas, California to the wastelands of Wyoming. Allegiance stars George Takei as Sam Kimuro, an elderly war veteran trying to reconcile with his family and his past. As a boy, Takei and his family were actually interned at Camp Rohwer and Camp Tule Lake.

Before we began researching the early war years for the mystery novel that eventually became Face of the Enemy, we wished we could work something about the internment camps into our plot. But we’d made a commitment to follow New York City through the war years, and like so many, we believed that the relocation was confined to the West Coast. Were we in for a surprise!

Our first task was to construct a day-to-day timeline of events using back issues of the New York Times. We started with the week of the Pearl Harbor attacks, and one article from December 8, 1941 practically jumped off the computer screen. The front-page headline: Entire City Put On War Footing—Japanese Rounded Up by FBI. We quickly scanned the article and hunted for follow-up information. This is what we learned:

Throughout the night following the attacks, the FBI, assisted by New York detectives and plainclothes policemen, conducted the extensive round-up in a fleet of government vehicles. Most of those arrested (allowed to take only what they could carry) were transported to the Federal Building at Foley Square or straight to the Barge Office on the southern tip of Manhattan for transport to Ellis Island. A ferry, surrounded by Coastguardsmen with rifles and fixed bayonets, sailed back and forth all night. The well-planned, well-organized effort eventually cast a wide net over the city’s German, Italian, and Japanese residents. But the Japanese detention came first and was the most comprehensive. One man interviewed while waiting for the ferry to Ellis Island stated that he’d left Japan in 1917, graduated from New York University, and had lived and worked as a doctor in the United States for thirty-five years.

The Alien Enemy Hearing Board appointed by U.S. Attorney General Frances Biddle was sworn in right before Christmas 1941, and hearings quickly commenced. Some Japanese nationals of government interest or official status would be exchanged for Americans held in Japan. Most of the detainees were destined to be released, pardoned, or interned according the Board’s findings. People had to make their cases in closed session before the members of the Board with no legal representation present. Some ended up being held at Ellis Island for the duration, without familiar food, clean beds, or school for the children. A New York Times January 24, 1942 article describes the situation best, “For the time being New York has a concentration camp of its own.”

In Face of the Enemy, all this backstory sits on the slender shoulders of Masako Fumi, a brilliant avant garde artist married to a Columbia University professor of Asian history. Raised in Paris while her father was Japan’s ambassador to France, Masako has broken with her family and has not seen Japan since she was three years old. After she was picked up in the December 8th sweep, her troubles multiply: she is accused of murdering the art dealer who, due to public protests, was removing the paintings from her solo show. Is Masako guilty of murder? Or is she simply a victim of the prevailing racial paranoia?

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A big thanks to Joanne Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers. They’ll give away a hard cover copy of Face of the Enemy to someone who contributes a comment on my blog this week. I’ll choose the winner from among those who comment by Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. Delivery is available in the U.S. and Canada.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne’s free newsletter.

The Making of a Fictional Villain, Part 2

Posted on August 30, 2012 by AdminMarch 21, 2016

I took a six-week hiatus from my blog this summer to finish the first draft of another Michael Stoddard book, called A Hostage to Heritage. While that “cools,” I’ve been editing the second draft of book one of a science fiction series that was almost purchased by Warner in the mid-1990s. As fall is right around the corner, it’s time to resume my bloggery. So without further ado…

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Last year, I posted the first part of an essay about the origins of Dunstan Fairfax, my series villain. His character developed in my imagination over a lifetime. He continues to evolve as my series progresses. It’s been awhile since that post, and you may want to reread it before proceeding. This post continues the topic.

Villains in fiction arise from an author’s personal experiences. Those experiences start in childhood with fictional examples. I discussed mine in Part 1. Inevitably, the real world provides its own examples—not just in childhood, but in adolescence and adulthood. Those experiences, too, are cataloged in the psyche, but with a much more three-dimensional flavor.

So while in adolescence and early adulthood, I became acquainted with classic fictional baddies like Lady MacBeth, Mordred, Sauron, the Cthulhu, Professor Moriarty, and Lestat, at the same time, real-life boogers were making themselves known to me—neighbor, relative, school administrator, nurse, doctor, teacher, clergyman, lawyer, police officer, middle manager. A number of them were sociopaths who didn’t give a damn about me or other people. They just wanted control, and they’d placed themselves in positions where they could get control.

Authors transform life’s black moments, transport them onto the page. Horror in an author’s life is an excellent place to look for the nucleus of sociopathic characters. And life after the shelter of high school had a good bit to teach me about horror and sociopaths.

My brush with Bundy

January 1978, right after I’d transferred to a college campus in north Florida to complete a Bachelors degree, the nation was flooded with news of horrific murders committed at Florida State University, in Tallahassee, not far from me. Ted Bundy had sadistically murdered young women my age. While he remained at large, and for weeks after he’d been caught, the atmosphere at college campuses all over the region was oppressive, near lock-down, especially after Bundy’s multi-decade “career” came to light. At my school, campus security beefed up. Students didn’t walk anywhere alone. Two female acquaintances quit college and moved back home with their parents.

Bundy was one of the twentieth century’s most infamous serial killers, a sociopathic Goliath. The effect he had on the people and institutions around me left an indisputable imprint on my imagination. Even though the word “sociopath” still hadn’t made it to watercooler discussions in January 1978, I learned that not all sociopaths are created equal. Those I’d met paled in comparison to Bundy. He demonstrated that there were monsters who could terrorize entire populations.

A year and a half later, I completed my first novel-length manuscript, book one of a science fiction series. The series villains, called Erovians, are an entire race of sociopaths: a “Goliath” that doesn’t give a damn about other sentient life. “David” in this series is humans and other sentient species who received Erovian genetic tampering. In the mid-1990s, the first book of that series was the book that came within a hair’s breadth of being purchased by Warner. You may see that book for sale soon.

Murder on the first floor
By the mid-1980s, the easygoing tropical paradise of my childhood had vanished. Sure, Jimmy Buffet the balladeer was blending margaritas in Key West, and Don Johnson was making crime in steamy Miami look cool, but they were fiddling while Rome burned. South Florida had mutated into an ugly fusion of traffic, concrete, and volatile ethnic groups. Crime escalated, even in the stable neighborhood where I lived near the Intercoastal Waterway, in a second-floor condo.

In the spring of 1986, a neighbor’s purse was snatched while she was on the condo property. In the summer, another neighbor was nearly beaten to death by her alcoholic husband. (I was one of three neighbors who called 911 that night.) And that fall, the neighbor in the condo below mine was
tortured to death by some of his acquaintances. His murderers were garden-variety thugs who were caught the next day. Nevertheless, another horror imprint was left on my imagination. I’ve never forgotten the sight of yellow crime scene tape strung all over the place I called home. Or the smell of rotting garbage and blood-soaked carpet while crime scene investigators took their time processing the place. Or the quantity and size of cockroaches that invaded my home because they were displaced by the cleanup.

I’d been brought up on the space program and had watched the launch of Apollo missions from the roof of my house. The space program was Florida. Then the shuttle “Challenger” blew up in January 1987. In the aftermath of the horror, we learned that decision-makers at NASA were aware of the potential mechanical failure and approved cheaper parts that might not hold up. Save a few bucks, kill seven astronauts. Were these decision-makers sociopaths? Prioritizing the bottom line above humanity is characteristic of the thinking of many sociopathic managers in Corporate America. You decide. For me, the Challenger disaster spelled closing time. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia later that year to earn a Masters degree.

The cannibal and the watercooler

In 1988, Thomas Harris’s second book about a cannibalistic psychiatrist hit the shelves. Rather sleepily it climbed the charts, but what sent The Silence of the Lambs into orbit and turned Dr. Hannibal Lector into a cultural icon was the movie, released in 1991, and Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal of Hannibal. After that, the word “sociopath” became part of watercooler conversation at the workplace.

The national media glommed onto sociopathic killers with glee. It turned the 1989 execution of Ted Bundy in Florida into a three-ring circus. The number of people who tuned in to watch astounded me. Atlanta itself didn’t lack for sociopathic killers to fill the local news. One was Emmanuel Hammond, who kidnapped, assaulted, and murdered a woman named Julie Love in 1988. Another was lawyer Fred Tokars, who scheduled a hit on his wife Sara in 1992 while his young sons watched, because Sara had found out about his criminal activities.

But even after all that, I wasn’t quite ready to create Fairfax’s character. A few more pieces needed to fall into place first. I cover the final pieces that triggered the spawning of his character in the third and last installment of this essay.

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Winners from the 2012 Week-Long Fourth of July

Posted on July 9, 2012 by AdminMay 17, 2014

Essayist: Peggy Earp
Contribution: two copies of DVD on spinning
Winners: Jill Vassilakos-Long, Sandra

Essayist: Don Hagist
Contribution: copy of A British Soldier’s Story
Winner: Matt Casey

Essayist: John Buchanan
Contribution: copy of The Road to Guilford Courthouse
Winner: Jenny Q

Essayists: Suzanne Adair, Don Troiani
Contribution: two copies of Regulated for Murder>
Winners: Laura Tarbutton, Don Hagist

Congratulations to all the winners!

Thanks to my wonderful essayists who contributed so much to this year’s program. Thanks, also, to everyone who visited and commented on Relevant History last week. Watch for another Relevant History post, coming soon.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne’s free newsletter.

The Counsel of the Founders

Posted on July 5, 2012 by AdminJuly 7, 2014

Welcome to my blog! The week of 29 June – 5 July, I’m participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the “Freedom to Read” giveaway hop, accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs listed in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we’re all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I’m posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one focused on some facet of the American War of Independence. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day’s Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

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Earlier this year, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. Much has been made of a poll finding that, among Americans, the queen had a 61% approval rating while President Obama’s approval rating was a mere 45%. Some Americans declared, “Yes! Let’s return to the fold!” Brits quipped, “We welcome you, as long as you pay that back tax on tea first!”

Those findings don’t mean that most Americans are ready to chuck it all and leap into the lap of monarchy. The poll compares an elected official with a non-elected official. So it’s an “apples and oranges” comparison.

However Americans are undeniably fascinated with Britain. Helped along by Hollywood and American mythology, Britain represents an icon of both urbanity and villainy. Many Americans with ancestors from the British Isles succumb to the genetic pull and vacation in the UK. And let’s face it, the Brits do pageantry 24/7 to the heights that Americans, caught up in Calvinistic roots, cannot begin to approach—although certain annual events such as the Kentucky Derby come close.

The year 2012 is an election year in America. A good many “issues” are on the table. People are disgruntled. Beneath everyone’s vitriolic exchanges over the issues, the suspicion skulks for many Americans that the country is tromping through a tangled, endless forest. That it stepped off a path defined by founders more than two hundred years ago. And that squabbling over issues is not what the founders envisioned for the future of America.

It so happens that the country’s founders addressed a number of these hot issues in their speeches and writings. Read the counsel of America’s founders:

“Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“I have already intimated to you the danger of Parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on Geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally.” (George Washington)

“The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.” (John Adams)

“If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers, we should have learned women.” (Abigail Adams)

“Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.” (John Adams)

“Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.” (James Madison)

“I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.” (James Madison)

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” (Thomas Jefferson)

Did any of that resonate with you? Do American people know that the country’s founders said these things? Do you get the feeling that America would be better off if citizens actually took the counsel of the founders?

This week, my guests have covered territory that was probably omitted from your high school history class. Omitted details often point to lessons we should be learning about human nature, religion, government, and society. In other words, they’re what makes history relevant.

We aren’t learning from history very well. Why does this matter? Because every time we don’t learn a lesson, we risk making a costly mistake. Ask yourself what can be done about it. (And the answer isn’t leaping into the lap of monarchy.)

This second annual week-long Fourth of July wouldn’t have been possible without you or my talented guests: Don Troiani, Peggy Earp, Don Hagist, and John Buchanan. What worlds can they open for you? Browse back through the posts. Look for their works. Then comment here on something you learned this week that made history relevant to you. Thanks for stopping by!

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Contribute a legitimate comment on this post by today at 6 p.m. ET to be entered in a drawing to win one of two autographed copies of Regulated for Murder. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll publish the names of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne’s free newsletter.

A Successful Battle May Give Us America

Posted on July 4, 2012 by AdminJune 24, 2014

Happy Fourth of July! Welcome to my blog! The week of 29 June – 5 July, I’m participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the “Freedom to Read” giveaway hop, accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs listed in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we’re all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I’m posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one focused on some facet of the American War of Independence. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day’s Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

Today for a few hours, my sons and I will be at the Joel Lane Museum House in historical clothing, talking with visitors about patriot Joel Lane and the Revolutionary War in North Carolina. If you’re in the Raleigh area, stop by and say hello. Musket drills and firings, games for the children, tours of the house, and plenty of cool lemonade.

Relevant History welcomes John Buchanan, author of the highly regarded The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas. For over two decades he was Chief Registrar of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in charge of worldwide art movements. His other books are Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters; The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution; and a novel of the Cold War, The Rise of Stefan Gregorovic. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. For more information, check his web site.

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About a year ago, as he was preparing to retire as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates said that in the future, any advisor to a President of the United States who recommended placing a large American land army on the Asian continent “…should have his head examined.” In the context of the American Revolution, the same might be said of British generals, backed by George III’s ministers, who cut themselves off from the lifeline of the British Navy and invaded the dangerous American backcountry. “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne lost his army at Saratoga in the wilds of northern New York State. And three years later our story begins with Lieutenant General Charles, Second Earl Cornwallis, deep in the Carolina backcountry, chasing ghosts.

In October 1780, Cornwallis was poised in Charlotte, North Carolina, to drive northward, reclaim the state for the crown, destroy the remnants of the Continental army he had scattered at the Battle of Camden, and then perhaps push on into Virginia. But on 7 October, 1100 Tory militiamen under the British officer Major Patrick Ferguson, who were protecting Cornwallis’s left wing, were wiped out at King’s Mountain, South Carolina by backcountry militia and Overmountain Men from beyond the Appalachians. His left wing in the air, believing incorrectly that he was in danger from thousands of rebels descending on him from the west, Cornwallis retreated to winter quarters in South Carolina.

Once again the British attempt to re-conquer the Carolinas had run up against a fierce guerrilla campaign that had begun in the backcountry in the summer of 1780. The irony of the Revolution in South Carolina is that it was started by the Low Country Rice Kings and saved by the backcountry militia, whom the Rice Kings scorned as a “pack of beggars.” Yet it was those men, horsemen all, who waged a sweeping war of movement, maintained their allegiance to the Cause despite two disasters to Continental armies, demoralized the Tory militia, and held their own against British and provincial regulars in classic guerrilla style in actions large and small, some lost to memory in the mists of time.

But they could not win the war in the South by themselves. Their great contribution was to the gain the time necessary for there to appear on the scene two Continental generals who had much to teach Lord Cornwallis and his subordinates about the art of war: Major General Nathanael Greene and his deputy, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan.

Fearful that Morgan’s detached force of regular light troops, the cream of Greene’s army, was threatening one of his major backcountry posts, Cornwallis sent his celebrated cavalry commander, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, to deal with the threat. Morgan and Tarleton met in battle on 17 January 1781 on the field of Cowpens, South Carolina. In the tactical masterpiece of the war, Morgan combined regulars and militia and destroyed most of Tarleton’s light troops, the eyes and ears of Cornwallis’s army.

In a rage over his loss, Cornwallis burned his cumbersome baggage train and set off in pursuit of Morgan, and then Greene after the two American forces merged. At Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, Greene and Cornwallis fought a battle described by Greene as “long, obstinate, and bloody.” By eighteenth-century standards, Cornwallis won, for at the end he occupied the field while Greene withdrew. But in winning, His Lordship had ruined his army. His losses heavy, deep in the backcountry swarming with foes, Cornwallis was forced to withdraw to Wilmington, North Carolina, on the coast. There he wrote to a fellow general, “I assure you that I am quite tired of marching about the country in quest of adventures.” His plan now was to “bring our whole force into Virginia” where “a successful battle may give us America.”

While Nathanael Greene artfully combined the respective talents of regulars and militia and proceeded to liberate South Carolina and Georgia, Lord Cornwallis pursued his delusion of a “successful battle” to win America. He turned his worn and decimated army northward, where he found more adventures and fulfilled his American destiny: in a village in Virginia called Yorktown.

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A big thanks to John Buchanan. He’ll give away an autographed copy of The Road to Guilford Courthouse in trade paperback format to someone who contributes a legitimate comment on my blog today or tomorrow. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll choose one winner from among those who comment on this post by Thursday 5 July at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July. And remember that anyone who comments on this post by the 5 July deadline will also be entered in the drawing to win one of two autographed copies of my book, Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne’s free newsletter.

The Courtship of Lt. Row and Jenny Innes

Posted on July 2, 2012 by AdminMay 17, 2014

Relevant History welcomes Don Hagist, an independent researcher specializing in the demographics and material culture of the British Army in the American Revolution. He has written numerous articles and three books on the subject, using primary sources to reveal personal information about British soldiers and their wives in America. His fourth book, British Soldiers, American War will be released from Westholme Publishing in November 2012. He maintains a blog about British common soldiers, and his books are available from Revolutionary Imprints, also a source for first-hand accounts of the American Revolution.

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John Row was a British officer in the 9th Regiment of Foot, and he was in love with Jenny Innes. For six years their courtship was maintained largely by correspondence due to separations during his military career. I recently perused dozens of their letters that survive in the National Archives of Scotland, revealing a touching love story and a surprising visual treasure.

Row began writing to Jenny from Dublin in 1775, soon after they had met. They hadn’t made their mutual interest known to her family and agreed to limit their correspondence so as not to arouse suspicions. The next year, however, saw the 32-year-old officer embarking to join the war in America, bound for “Quebec which is not the worst Country in the World.”

Row’s letters from America are not particularly informative. (A soldier in his regiment, Roger Lamb, left a detailed chronicle of the 9th Regiment’s service. Lamb later transferred to the 23rd Regiment and Cornwallis’s army, and his chronicle includes details of his military action in the Southern theater.) From Quebec, Row apologized in letter after letter for writing so frequently, since he did not know when the next opportunity would arise. A long winter in lonely isolated quarters curtained their correspondence, which resumed only briefly in the spring of 1777 before a new campaign began. In the mean time Row had received only one letter from Jenny since departing Ireland, and he feared for her health as she battled respiratory complaints.

It was Lt. Row’s own health, however, that caused the next hiatus. In November 1777 he wrote from London, informing Jenny that he had been wounded in the right knee at the Battle of Hubbardton on 7 July 1777. In Great Britain to recover, he hoped to return to his regiment in the spring. The campaign he’d left had gone badly, though, and the 9th Regiment was in captivity after the British capitulation at Saratoga. Row returned to Scotland, spent time with Jenny and negotiated with her family. This sojourn was a short one, however, as Row had his career to attend to.

There was nothing in Britain for a zealous officer determined to distinguish himself. In 1779 Row was able to obtain a captain’s commission in a new regiment, the 85th Regiment of Foot, being raised for service in the rapidly-expanding war. Jenny objected to his choice, for not only would it keep them apart but it also stood to put him at risk if the regiment was sent abroad. He nonetheless related details of his recruiting and training activities.

Within a few months the 85th Regiment was fit for service and received orders for the West Indies. Jenny was mortified and wrote a long letter expressing her dire concerns for her beloved’s fate. Hadn’t he already risked enough and suffered enough? Not only would the climate be his enemy, but he would be exposed to greater danger because the effects of his wound made him less adroit than younger officers. Having stated her misgivings, she agreed to say no more on the subject.

As the 85th was preparing to embark, a painter arrived at the port offering his services to officers who knew they might be leaving their homeland for the last time. Row commissioned a portrait for Jenny, which the artist prepared for by using a projection machine to create a silhouette. Row mailed the silhouette to Jenny on 30 March 1780, and this rare image remains enclosed in the letter to this day. Seen here, it is a fascinating look at this man who zealously sought to balance love for a lady and a career.

Or, at least, it might be John Row. Row’s own comments about the silhouette cast interesting doubts on the likeness:

My Dear Jenny,

Inclosed I send you my shade in profile but which from my opinion of it is either badly taken, or else I make a very bad one which the person who took it tells me is the case of every one who has not high features…I appear the most stupid insipid looking fellow imaginable, and to compleat my mortification every one tells me that it is a most striking likeness.

In a subsequent letter Row went so far as to suppose that the artist had accidentally given him the silhouette of another officer. Jenny made no comment on the silhouette, but when she received the portrait she was as unimpressed with it as she was with his decision to go overseas. She wrote:

I was somewhat disappointed with the Crayon as I do not think it a favourable likeness especially in the under part of the face, in the upper it resembles you more & place it at a considerable distance & it is certainly upon the whole like, but it is a bad resemblance coarsely done & with materials which discolour & fade very soon. I however return you my thanks for it such as it is…

It is unfortunate that Jenny was so indifferent to the portrait, for it was the last image of her suitor that would ever greet her eyes. Her fears about John Row’s safety were realized. He died in September 1780, just ten weeks after arriving in the West Indies, victim not to battle but to contagious diseases that carried off nearly half of his regiment.

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A big thanks to Don Hagist. He’ll give away an autographed copy of A British Soldier’s Story: Roger Lamb’s Narrative of the American Revolution in trade paperback format to someone who contributes a legitimate comment on my blog today or tomorrow. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll choose one winner from among those who comment on this post by Tuesday 3 July at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July. And anyone who comments on this post by the 3 July deadline will also be entered in the drawing to win one of two autographed copies of my book Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne’s free newsletter.

The Trials of Clothing the 18th-Century Family

Posted on July 1, 2012 by AdminMay 17, 2014

Relevant History welcomes Peggy Earp, currently a resident of Lexington, Tennessee and the former co-owner of 96 District Fabrics, a provider of period-correct fabrics. Originally from Oklahoma, Peggy lived in South Carolina for twenty years along with her husband and two children before moving to Tennessee last September. After selling their business this year, she and her husband are enjoying a life of semi-retirement, and looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild. For more information, contact her through email at peggyearp (at) gmail (dot) com.

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The year is 1775, and I live in the backcountry of western South Carolina with my husband and five children. We have forty acres, two mules, and a two room cabin with a loft. When I came here from northern Virginia as a newlywed, I had never considered the daily realities of feeding, clothing, and keeping healthy seven people.

In 1995 my husband, Dennis, and I, along with our children, began volunteering at Ninety Six National Historic Site, in Ninety Six, South Carolina. Through volunteering, we began our quest for knowledge of the Revolutionary War and the domestic activities of daily life during that period. The life of the soldier is well documented, but what about the family left at home: whether in town or the sparsely-settled countryside?

Many times over the last fifteen years, I have considered the beginning scenario above. If I were this wife and mother, what would I have done? How would we have lived? How would I have provided for my children?

As we began researching the Revolutionary War, I developed a deep interest in the textiles of the era. Could our family, by our own hands, have provided all our own fabric for bedding, linens, and clothing? Could we have furnished ourselves with warm woolen cloth for winter clothes? What would producing our own wool entail? We would have to raise the sheep, shear them in the spring, wash the wool, card and spin the wool into yarn, and then weave the wool into woolen fabric.

If we were to have nice linen fabrics, could we have possibly be able to produce that fabric from start to finish? Could we have planted, grown, and harvested the flax? Could we have retted, scutched, hackled, spun the flax into linen thread, and then woven the thread into fabric?

Could my family have produced all our cloth? It is my personal opinion, that no, we could not. Not even close.

Up until January of this year, Dennis and I owned a fabric supply business. We specialized in period-correct fabrics for reenactors, museums, historic sites, and movie productions. We traveled up and down the east coast, attending living history events. Early on, while speaking with the general public, I discovered that most people assume that in the “olden days,” everyone provided all needed items for themselves. That there were no places to buy ready-made clothes, or yard goods for making your own clothes.

What did the average family do about fabric and clothing? Did they provide for themselves, or did they barter or buy clothes and cloth? In my search for answers, I have concluded that what families could provide for themselves in 1775 is as varied as what families can provide for themselves today.

Most did not have enough land for growing sheep for wool, or for planting flax or cotton. Nor did they have enough hands for tilling, planting, tending, and harvesting. Children were taught at an early age to help with whatever chores were necessary for survival. Boys were taught farming, hunting, chopping wood, and other activities. Girls were taught cooking, sewing, spinning, and weaving.

But not all families were equal. Some families had all boys, or all girls, or had no children. Some families were plagued with illness, or with the death of one spouse. What did they do to meet these challenges?

Most families did make their own clothes, especially their underclothes. They were well-made, handed down, patched as needed, altered, until they were generally used up. The rags were then used for many purposes or sold to the rag picker. Some families did grow sheep and sell the wool, or maybe spun the wool into yarn, and used the yarn to barter for cloth goods. Or they grew linen or cotton and sold or traded it either as raw goods or as spun thread or woven cloth.

The possibilities are countless as to how they obtained their fabric. In western South Carolina there were several trading posts in the late 18th century. Their inventory lists show an extensive variety of cloth.

There were also many itinerant spinners and weavers. You could grow your own wool or flax, and then wait until the spinner came by on their circuit. You provided housing for them for several weeks while they spun all the season’s wool into yarn or flax into thread. Or maybe you had the means to spin your own yarn, and the weaver came and wove all the yarn into cloth.

Many of the large landholders did provide a good portion of their own fabric. They had slaves or indentured servants to perform all the labor. They could then produce enough cloth for the household linens and clothes for the servants. They may have custom-ordered clothing for the immediate family from the local seamstress, from Charles Town, or from England, depending on their weath.

In January of this year, Dennis and I sold our textile business. But this has not diminished my desire to learn more about fabrics and their manufacture in the 18th-century American South. My research goes on!

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A big thanks to Peggy Earp. She’ll give away instructional DVDs from Renee Gillespie on spinning with a drop spindle or spinning wheel to two people who contribute legitimate comments on my blog today or tomorrow. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll choose the winners from among those who comment on this post by Monday 2 July at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July. And anyone who comments on this post by the 2 July deadline will also be entered in the drawing to win one of two autographed copies of my book Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller.

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An Interview with Don Troiani, Historical Military Artist

Posted on June 30, 2012 by AdminOctober 18, 2015

Relevant History welcomes historical military artist Don Troiani, a soul lost in time, a 21st-century artist to whom the life of the common soldier of the American Revolution through the Civil War is as familiar and vivid as the surroundings of his Connecticut studio. No other painters have turned their attention to historical art with Don’s enthusiasm, insight, and historical accuracy. He sets standards of excellence and authenticity in his field that few can equal: in his choice of models as well as his research of garb, gear, and period settings. For more information, check his web site, online gallery, and Facebook page.

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SA: For a long time, the Northern theater of the American War of Independence received the greatest share of attention from artists as well as scholars. You’ve painted exciting scenes from four critical battles in the Southern theater: Kings Mountain, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, and Eutaw Springs. What inspired you to explore these Southern battles as subjects for your paintings?

DT: My plan is to paint all of the major battles of the Revolution, and of course the fighting in the South is an important part of that , as the war was eventually decided there. Most previous (and some more current) renderings of these battles are inaccurate, and I hope to remedy that situation.

SA: To that end, you should benefit from the outcome of archeological projects ongoing at sites of battlegrounds in the Southern theater. In your painting of the Battle of Cowpens, you capture the ambiance of a backcountry South Carolina dawn in January. What research do you perform to depict the atmosphere of Southern battles so well?

DT: I used photos taken by a friend on the Cowpens battlefield close to the date and time of the actual battle so the lighting would be correct. I always try to visit the actual location and, failing that, have someone else do it for me.

SA: How long did it take you to finish this painting of the Battle of Cowpens?

DT: Not counting research, a painting like Cowpens might take two months easel time, more or less.

SA: How many in-progress paintings do you have in your studio right now?

DT: Usually I work on one at a time, straight though. Because of the detailed historical nature of the work, it’s the only way to keep the facts fresh in my mind. If I were to stop for a month and go back to an unfinished painting, I’d have to reread all the research materials again. Occasionally, I will stop to do one of the single figure studies. There is one in-progress painting in the studio now. The next one is being posed, and the next three in are in various stages of research. There is another that’s completely researched and partly posed, but it is on a back burner, as time sensitive, commissioned work must come first.

SA: Many book authors work in a similar manner.

SA: The 33rd Regiment of Foot enjoyed a long and distinguished history that dated from about 1702. In the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War, this infantryman you’ve painted from the 33rd may have fought at the sieges of Charleston and Yorktown as well as the battles at Camden and Guilford Courthouse. How did you develop the deep level of detail for his uniform and equipment?

DT: I have been studying British uniforms for decades and collecting original items to incorporate into my painting. I consult with other experts and read original documents, returns, and inspection reports to complete an accurate picture of how these soldiers looked.

SA: Why do you occasionally use historical reenactors as models for your paintings?

DT: I rarely use reenactors dressed in their own uniforms, as most uniforms are not accurate enough for what I need to achieve, although a few are. I prefer models dressed in my uniforms and equipment here at the studio because it is easier to manage the authenticity. Reenactors do pose very well, however, as they understand the drill and firearms. I also do not take pictures of reenactors at events. Although some artists create paintings from pictures taken at reenactments, that’s exactly what you get: a painting of a reenactment. Living history is important and a lot of fun but has limited value to serious historical artwork.

SA: In my experience, the greatest contribution of living history is its hands-on element—and thus its capacity to inspire participants and spectators into learning more about history on their own after most have endured a bone-dry history class in high school.

SA: You have an extensive private collection of artifacts, such as this regimental coat worn by Lt. Colonel Benjamin Holden of Doolittle’s Minute Regiment 1774–1776. (Holden led his regiment at Bunker Hill and undoubtedly was wearing his coat during the fighting.) You use these pieces to help you develop depth in your paintings. On your web site, you state, “You can look at a picture of an artifact for days and still not know it. But examining it in your own hands reveals its texture, its substance and how it works.” What’s the most memorable insight you’ve derived from examining an artifact in your own hands?

DT: If you know something inside and out, it’s a huge advantage. There is no substitute for an intimate knowledge of the weaponry and uniforms of the era. It’s important, say, to know that a sleeve reaches to the wrist and how tight it would be to get a true period look.

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A big thanks to Don Troiani!

Contribute a legitimate comment on this post by Sunday 1 July at 6 p.m. ET to be entered in the drawing to win one of two autographed copies of my book, Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Mystery. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll publish the names of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July.

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A Red-Coated World?

Posted on June 29, 2012 by AdminFebruary 21, 2018

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Some history teachers in high school impart upon their students the impression that the American War of Independence focused almost exclusively in the northernmost of King George the Third’s colonies in America. What perspective might those students have instead, if they saw this map, where each yellow square marks the location of a known altercation during the war? (Click on the image to enlarge it. The map was created by historian and cartographer John Robertson, whom I interviewed a few years ago. Indulge your inner history geek on John’s web site to learn details about each of those altercations.)

At first glance, it looks as though those teachers are justified to skew the history lessons. But exclude the area encompassed by the Northern theater—roughly New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine. Then consider how many yellow squares are left on the world map.

Subtracting the Northern theater puts but a small a dent in the quantity of yellow. From the spread and volume of the squares, it becomes clear that the lives of people living in the South, Midwest, Gulf Coast, Caribbean, and in Western Europe were also imperiled in this war.

What began as posturing and scuffling between Britain and her American colonies exploded into a war of international and naval significance: multiple powerful countries, multiple continents, multiple theaters. As with any far-reaching war, the economic shock waves rippled outward long after hostilities officially ceased.

Multiple powerful countries, multiple continents, multiple theaters. Do you think that qualifies the American War of Independence as a world war?

As I wrote last year, this is not your father’s Revolutionary War. We aren’t walking on the same turf that those history classes claim. In forthcoming essays from a diverse and stimulating group of historians, scholars, and artists, you’ll read about multiple theaters, viewpoints other than those of ardent patriots, and life lived despite war.

Welcome to the Second Annual Week-Long Fourth of July.

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“Best of 2011!” says Suspense Magazine about my book Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller. Contribute a legitimate comment on this post by Saturday 30 June at 6 p.m. ET to be entered in a drawing to win one of two autographed copies of Regulated for Murder. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll publish the names of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne’s free newsletter.

Suzanne Adair and Ann Parker Chat It Up!

Posted on June 20, 2012 by AdminJune 20, 2012

Today on Kaye Barley’s blog “Meanderings and Muses,” I chat with Ann Parker, author of the Silver Rush mystery series and a Relevant History guest. Stop by and find out what makes our female characters stand out and the influences … Continue reading →