Monday, January 4, 2016

REVIEWS OF TUCKS AND ME




Dear Kathy,
I have now read your book -- it was great fun! The "diary connection" from Crispus Attucks to Sam Adams is a brilliant idea!
I also found it impressive how you introduced each topic -- whether the "looks" of a ship or the job of a Jack Tar. Your approach takes the individuals and their jobs very serious -- in
an easily understandable way.
Thanks for sharing your book with me,
best Dirk
Dirk Hoerder, Prof. emeritus, Arizona State Univ., History.   Author of Crowd Action in Revolutionary  Massachusetts: 1765- 1780, Academic Press, Harcourt Brace Javanovich, New York, 1977

 Kathy, It seems to me that you treat slavery (especially the Middle Passage), Quakers, Woolman and Benezet accurately.  You do that sensitively, especially Woolman's desire to address the slave problem, whilestill honoring those who hold slaves. You also address with sensitivity the matter of violence, in how you have Gabe sort it out in his own mind: care and respect not only for the slave but for those who enslave. 
I like how accurate you are in this Woolman treatment..  It is certainly true that he and Benezet clearly maintained that the golden rule was all that was needed (from scripture) to prohibit slavery.   You deal with that well, directly and simply.  
I like your good Q.(QUAKER) theology in "I am not his judge, but I can be his guidance as Woolman was."  
Irv Brendlinger professor at George Fox University.  Author of Anthony Benezet-True Champion of the Slave, and To Be Silent Would be Criminal.