Kathleen Yanity

Introduces antagonistic force, setting, tone & foreshadows a key conflict. Chapter 1 Philadelphia, October 4, 1779, Revolution Gone Awry: 

     William Penn founded his colony in 1682, and named its capital using the Greek words, “philos,” friendly love, and “adelphos,” brother. It was the “City of Brotherly Love,” and, as Quakers friends were quick to add, “Sisterly Affection.” But Philadelphia had been anything but benevolent since Hannah Arnold had arrived last year. And, once again, it had turned deadly. She’d just witnessed an attempted assault on the Society Hill home of a Declaration of Independence signer. She peered down from City Tavern’s rooftop through lingering gun smoke. Several bloodied Germantown militiamen laid on the cobblestones, muskets strewn about, some writhing in pain, a few clearly dead. How had the American Revolution come to this? There was a call for a cannon. With the Armory only a few blocks away, soon there’d be an even more powerful attack on James Wilson’s mansion. Several prominent Patriots were barricaded inside. Some, like Wilson, had added their names to the rebellion announcement, pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to their cause. Most now had royal bounties on their heads. Others were veterans including America’s great war hero, her brother Benedict.

     When battling broke out in April 1775, Hannah and Benedict had expected a quick, brokered peace, even after Benedict and that rogue Ethan Allen took Fort Ticonderoga a month later. But after the bloody conflict at Boston’s Bunker Hill in June, both sides resolved to fight. That autumn, Benedict led an arduous wilderness trek into Canada, part of an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to take the region. In 1776, he orchestrated a gutsy Lake Champlain naval battle and narrowly escaped. The following April in Connecticut, again avoiding capture, he nearly defeated several regiments of elite British Rangers. His prowess that October stopped a third British advance in northern New York, though it nearly killed him. Despite his grave injury, his fighting spirit remained intact. He became Military Governor of Philadelphia but after calling out state-sanctioned abuses, including murder, he faced relentless public attacks from politicians. He wasn’t the only defiant Arnold. Hannah and a few allies discreetly aided Tory women remaining after the British Occupation. They’d stayed to protect their property rights but were greatly oppressed by a radical, cruel government. Stirring up civil discontent against opponents was another of its tactics, but this time, the mob was out of control.

     She should be furious if she wasn’t so frightened. Hannah and her brother had sacrificed mightily and endured much heartache. As he went off to war, Benedict’s wife died. Hannah alone ran their mercantile business, tended to their home, and raised his three small sons and their teenage ward. His long, perilous absences kept him from his children and caused her endless worry. They’d lost several trading seasons. Three years ago, they had lent much of their savings to the war effort and had yet to be reimbursed. So often Benedict’s efforts had been undermined by false accusations from jealous officers or ingratitude from ill-informed or scheming politicians. She’d wanted him to resign from the Continental Army, but he never did. For months, Benedict had been trapped in Philadelphia by bureaucrats seeking to punish him further, delaying his return to combat, or perhaps, as she hoped, his retirement. How ironic if he died in Wilson’s house, not by British hands, but American ones. What then? Would the crowd turn on her, his children, or his new, now-pregnant young wife?   A small field piece was pulled forward. Her stomach dropped as it was pointed at the house.

Story Statement :  Support your brother fighting a rebellion, then survive his unfathomable betrayal.

Antagonist or Antagonistic Forces:  Hannah Arnold and her brother Benedict, the only remaining siblings from a once-wealthy family build a successful business, but the threat of war worries Hannah.

     King George III sends his powerful Army led by Sirs Robert Howe, Jonathan Burgoyne and Guy Carleton to quell the American Revolution. Their troops engage in brutal battles, menace civilians, and create refugees. Imprisonment, even death for rebel leaders looms large.

     Petty, jealous, American officers harass Benedict, causing Hannah much consternation: Cols. Ethan Allen, John Brown, James Easton, Moses Hazen, General Horatio Gates. Congressmen try to blunt Hannah’s brother success at every turn; John Adams among them, further distressing Hannah.

     Conniving Pennsylvania politicians persecute Tories, Quakers and Patriots men and women who won’t bend to their will. They also stir up mobs to intimate their rivals and seek revenge via Hannah after Benedict turns traitor; Council President Joseph Reed, his wife Esther, Secretary Thomas Matlack and Chief Justice Thomas McKean. Throw in Thomas Paine, pamphleteer, too. Militia minions Capt. Charles Willson Peale and Sgt. Will Matlack, Matlack’s son. Peale tries to ferret out who is aiding oppressed women (Hannah & unlikely alliance.)

    Benedict and his wife Peggy Shippen Arnold, who have deceived Hannah mightily.

    New Brunswick’s embittered, exiled Loyalists who resent Benedict’s early Revolutionary role. Their hostility contributes to the failure of the Arnolds’ new business and additional heartbreak for Hannah

Breakout Title:  Hannah’s Rebellion (Hannah’s Revolution, Hannah’s War)

Genre and 2 Comparable:  Historical Fiction, My Dear Hamilton meets The Other Boleyn Girl.

Hook Line with Conflict and Core Wound:  Hannah Arnold supports her brother Benedict unconditionally as he becomes America’s first war hero but must overcome her devastation at his treason to save herself and his young family from perilous retribution in mob-ruled Philadelphia.

Core Conflict: What love & loyalty is owed to one’s family, state, or country?

      Secondary: Keeping your wits about as you care for home and family while your warrior brother is under frequent military and personal attacks.

    Navigating Philadelphia Society with grace amid wealth, pretention, and ostentatiousness.

    Standing up to injustice and tyranny discreetly and effectively.

    Integrating your brother’s wife into your tight knit family & maintaining cordial relations with hers.

    Carrying on as your life implodes amid horrifying actions.

    How to rebuild family connections after devastating betrayal.

     Inner: Measuring up to your beloved brother’s expectations, yielding to him  often because you trust him implicitly to guide your lives and want only the best for him;  thriving when thrust into unfamiliar roles and new surroundings;  staying in the background so your brother can establish a strong relationship with his new wife, only to have her influence him to go over to the British; finding a way to forgive them.

Settings: Hannah’s Rebellion begins in colonial Connecticut before the outbreak of the American Revolution. In rural Norwich, the sole-surviving siblings come of age as impoverished orphans. They migrate to New Haven, a bustling waterfront college town and build a successful trading business. As Benedict becomes an acclaimed war hero, Hannah keeps home and hearth intact, helps refugees and supports Benedict from afar.

     The novel moves to revolutionary Philadelphia, a cauldron of political intrigue, persecution of civilians by radical officials and social climbing. What war? There’s a party every night. But under the festive veneer, sinister forces undermine national efforts for regional gains, conduct espionage and wipe out dissent by destroying lives. Violence against those who defy authorities grows until it becomes convoluted and lethal. Though cooled by the time of Benedict’s treason, Hannah must withstand the wrath of locals seeking vengeance.

     Hannah raises teenage nephews in New Haven after their father’s treason. She later journeys with them to Saint John, New Brunswick to reunite with Benedict. The frontier town smells of newly sawn boards, uncured jute ropewalks and open sewage pits. Much of the year it’s dark, dank and dreary.

    After 10 years in the struggling colony, Hannah returns to New York, both NYC and Upstate with her nephews and later spends eight months of the year in Upper Canada (Ontario) to help Benedict claim lands awarded to him by the British government for heroism in the Caribbean. It’s also to give him hope that they will be together again. She dies there two years after Benedict’s death in London.