Overview

Quaker Charity Wright Cook, daughter of feminist Rachel Wells Wright, emerges from rape, disownment, and misogyny to become one of the most prominent itinerant Quaker ministers during a time of racism and war in the colonial eighteenth century. In 1749 as part of the eighteenth-century Great Quaker Migration, young Rachel Wells Wright (1720-1771) and her husband, John, traveled some four hundred miles from Maryland to the back country of North Carolina. Along with other colonial Friends, they began a new Quaker settlement, Cane Creek, determined to live their faith in the rolling hills of the frontier. They raised fourteen children, one of whom is Charity Wright Cook (1742-1822). Raped by a Quaker youth when she was not quite fifteen years old and disowned a few months later for not doing enough to prevent the assault, Charity dealt with the aftermath while traveling extensively in ministry throughout the South, then North, and finally Europe. She lived at a time when Friends struggled to follow their faith and were being attacked from all sides and then with derision and division among themselves. Notables such as John Woolman, Betsy Ross, Anthony Benezet, Elias Hicks, and the Coffin family are woven into her story, as are the accounts of enslaved and freed people who lived within Friends' communities and attended Quaker meetings (despite being relegated to the benches at the back of the room). Themes embedded in this historical novel are relevant today: Charity's being blamed for her sexual assault, which results in lack of self-esteem and incessant travel. Other themes are pacifism of Friends during the raging Revolutionary War and the belief in racial equality when the institution of slavery was commonplace. Written to impart Quaker history, the novel can also serve as a resource for those whose relatives were Friends, as well as those who are interested in the lives of eighteenth-century women.

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9781594981760

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Reviews

Barbara Luetke brings to life the experience of eighteenth-century Quakers in the U.S., and this is a history you won't be able to put down. Iris Graville, author of Hiking Naked: A Quaker Woman's Search for Balance Charity Wright Cook's Quaker ministry took her up and down the Atlantic Coast, over the Appalachians, and to the British Isles and Europe. My wife, through the Cooks, and I, through the Wrights, are proud to claim her as a relative. Barbara Luetke gives us an engaging portrayal of the life of this remarkable eighteenth-century woman. Thomas Hamm, professor of history at Earlham College Charity and her mother, Rachel Wells Wright, were fascinating, strong Quaker women who left an impressive historical footprint. Proudly counting Charity Cook and her kin among my extensive Quaker ancestry, I heartily recommend The Frontier Chrysalis. Jean Schubert, author of Of Hearth and Highways In The Frontier Chrysalis, Barbara Luetke has shined a great light on the most outstanding religious figure in our family's long history. Rev. Dr. Steven Shepard Barbara Luetke's historical novel makes her characters' faithfulness to making a better world come alive. Dwight L. Wilson, author of Modern Psalms in Search of Peace and Justice

Author Information

Barbara Schell Luetke is a member of Washington Chapel C. M. E. Church (Kansas City area) and a convinced Friend. Her first historical novel, The Kendal Sparrow, was written under the care of Salmon Bay Meeting (Seattle); available at Quaker Books of FGC and Amazon. Luetke can be reached at bluetke@ymail.com for speaking engagements.

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