To Isabel’s great joy, find her they do but, inexplicably, Ruth refuses to return Isabel’s affection, remaining cold and distant even when the three, along with farm boy Eben, set off to walk to Rhode Island and freedom. The year is now 1781 and two teenage fugitives are 12 miles from Charleston, South Carolina, in search of Isabel’s younger sister Ruth, stolen away from her many years before. I’m even prouder to be an American who is trying to help my countrymen understand our history so that we might truly fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence that this will one day (soon!) become a land where everyone is treated equally.Co-protagonists Isabel and Curzon ( Chains, 2008, and Forge, 2010) return in this long-awaited third and final volume in Anderson’s award-winning Seeds of America trilogy. I started reading books and studying the work of historians who wrote about the development of the United States as seen from the perspective of people of color.Īll of this helped lead me to write my trilogy about the American Revolution: CHAINS, FORGE and ASHES (this last installment is almost done.) That helped me reexamine everything I thought I knew about American history.

Re-reading it as an adult, I saw the ugly, casual racism for what it was. Back then, it was just a fascinating book that sparked my interest in American history. I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t notice these things when I was nine years old. There are a number of flaws in it, notably Wilder’s profound racism towards Native Americans and African Americans. Wow – what an amazing question! I think Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Which is the one book that has influenced you more than any other, in terms of who you are, how you live and what you think?

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Chains forge ashes