One of the wonderful things about hosting a radio show is
that you never stop learning from the shows. Today’s show with Missy Wolfe is
one that I learned many new things about America and its history.
Missy’s book “Insubordinate Spirit: A True Story of
Life and Loss In Earliest America, 1610-1665" , not only educates one into subjects that many in America will never
even have heard of but tells a true story that would put many a soap opera to
shame.
The book took seven years of
research during which time Missy turned up much unknown or forgotten pieces of
American history, from the fact that Greenwich was the border between New
England and New Holland to a forgotten Indian tribe whose name seems to have
skipped the history books.
The book is a true story of Elizabeth
Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett, one of the first settlers in 17th Century
America, and niece, then daughter-in-law, of Puritan leader John Winthrop,
whose band of English immigrants started the Massachusetts Bay Colony in
1630.
About Insubordinate Spirit: (taken from Missy web
site)
Elizabeth’s first husband died his first
day in America and her second went insane. Denied permission to marry her third,
she lived with him regardless and faced a death sentence for it. Leaving the
safety of Boston’s Bay Colony, she settled on the untamed border between New
England and New Netherland that is now Connecticut near Manhattan. She faced
threats here as well from soldiers defending Dutch jurisdiction and angry
Munsees who detested her European presence.
An imperfect new American, she watched as the Dutch launched what may have been the largest massacre of the Indians in the northeast from her West India Company property in Old Greenwich. Moving more deeply into New Netherland to save herself from Indian retaliation and her own still-threatening English, she became part of New Netherland’s Dutch society and did pay the price of continued Indian anger. Surviving the turmoil of three colliding cultures, she sought a better engagement with God, if not man, and successfully championed a transformative new religion. Punished for this too, she embodied an emerging new American persona, one that rejected an unworkable past and embraced a future that nurtured the spirit of her intrepid life.
An imperfect new American, she watched as the Dutch launched what may have been the largest massacre of the Indians in the northeast from her West India Company property in Old Greenwich. Moving more deeply into New Netherland to save herself from Indian retaliation and her own still-threatening English, she became part of New Netherland’s Dutch society and did pay the price of continued Indian anger. Surviving the turmoil of three colliding cultures, she sought a better engagement with God, if not man, and successfully championed a transformative new religion. Punished for this too, she embodied an emerging new American persona, one that rejected an unworkable past and embraced a future that nurtured the spirit of her intrepid life.
There is way to much to explain about in
this blog, it is one of the most fascinating true stories I have had on my 500
plus radio shows and one I highly recommend. Listen to the show and see what
you think.
Barry
Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Missy Wolfe
or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Missy Wolfe"
You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Missy Wolfe - Insubordinate Spirit"
Barry Eva (Storyheart)
My Blogs:
Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond
Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat
Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry
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