FernFolio

Escalating hostilities between Tories, loyal to the British Crown, and Whigs, who demand independence for Britain’s Thirteen American Colonies, have exacted a heavy price on fifteen-year old Charlotte Hooper.  Her three older brothers have all ‘accepted the King’s shilling,’ and two have been killed in fighting.  The third is missing and feared dead.  She has had to shoulder a large part of the chores on her family’s farm in New York’s Mohawk Valley, helping her father in the fields and with their livestock.  She has not seen her sweetheart, Nick Schyler, for five months, ever since they quarrelled about politics.  Though Nick has sworn that he will always love her, their prolonged separation sets Charlotte to wondering if he has forgotten her.
When stories reach the Hooper family that Tory friends and neighbours are being attacked, robbed of their possessions, and turned out of their homes or, worse, burned to death in them, Charlotte’s father announces that it is time for them to leave.  After burying the family papers and their silver tea service, Charlotte and her parents set out on the long walk to Lake Oneida where Charlotte’s father has arranged an old Mohawk friend to meet them and take them by canoe Fort Haldimand, the British encampment at Carleton Island, in the St. Lawrence river near the mouth of Lake Ontario.  The journey is long and dangerous.  Forced to travel by night, since roving gangs of thugs who call themselves the Sons of Liberty regularly assault and kill fleeing Loyalists, the Hooper family struggle through bad weather, accidents, and a casual attack to reach the shores of Lake Oneida by the agreed-upon date.  Along the way, they are joined by other refugees, often travelling with babes in arms and nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
Charlotte’s experiences, both on the journey to Carleton Island with her fellow refugees and the Mohawk warriors, and then living in a cold and crowded tent encampment at Fort Haldimand, confirm her strength of character, but she watches with growing concern as her mother’s health weakens and her father grows old.  And she thinks about and longs for news of her sweetheart, Nick.
The Way Lies North is an historical adventure set against the backdrop of the American Revolutionary War.  The main character, Charlotte, is a young woman tested by war and adversity, but whose indominable spirit is never broken.
Fern Folio Editor