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Freedom Dues or, A Gentleman's Progress In The New World
Freedom Dues or A Gentleman's Progress In The New World Author:Robert H Abel Here is a Novel of America's Revolutionary War era that is like no other. Written in the form of memoirs of a charming, roguish, irascible Boston Publisher, Freedom Dues begins in the year 1751 and chronicles two tumultuous decades of Colonial life, ending in 1773 with the British occupation of Boston, the battle of Breeds Hill or Bunker Hill, a... more »nd the very reluctant capitulation to the cause of independence by our narrator, Johnathan Dunhill.
As a young man Dunhill attacks the new world with all the rakish naivete of an American Tom Jones and cannot help falling into a series of picaresque adventures that carry him throughout the Colonies. Eventually he marries Lydia, the fiery and independent daughter of a Quaker gentlemen, and settles into the running of his newspaper, the Boston Oracle and Dockside Advertiser, with the help of his ingenious, smart-aleck slave, Gwanga[whose own attempt to earn his freedom dues furnishes the title of the novel].There Dunhill is in prime position to monitor the political intrigues of men such as John Hancock, Samuel and John Adams- men who through the sharp eyes of our narrator appear distinctly unlegendary and all too human.
In Freedom Dues we experience all the comedy and tragedy of life in the eighteen century America and, with the Dunhill family and friends are swept into the stream of events that lead to the painful separation from England. Freedom Dues is remarkable not only for its compelling recreation of that turbulent era, but also for the direct and poignant way it speaks to the human heart and spirit.« less