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Title details for The Times That Try Men's Souls by Joyce Lee Malcolm - Available

The Times That Try Men's Souls

The Adams, the Quincys, and the Families Divided by the American Revolution—and How They Shaped a New Nation

by Joyce Lee Malcolm
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A compelling, intimate history of the Revolutionary period through a series of charismatic and ambitious families, revealing how the American Revolution was, in many ways, a civil war.
"Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! —John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 April 1777

All wars are tragic, but the "revolutionary generation" paid an exceptionally personal price. Foreign wars pull men from home to fight and die abroad leaving empty seats at the family table. But the ideological war that forms the foundation of a civil war also severs intimate family relationships and bonds of friendship in addition to the loss of life on the battle fields.

In The Times That Try Men's Soul, Joyce Lee Malcolm masterfully traces the origins and experience of that division during the American Revolution—the growing political disagreements, the intransigence of colonial and government officials swelling into a flood of intolerance, intimidation and mob violence. In that tidal wave opportunities for reconciliation were lost. Those loyal to the royal government fled into exile and banishment, or stayed home to support British troops. Patriots risked everything in a fight they seemed destined to lose. Many people simply hoped against hope to get on with ordinary life in extraordinary times.

The hidden cost of this war was families and dear friends split along party lines. Samuel Quincy, Josiah Quincy's only surviving son, sailed to England, abandoning his father, wife, and three children. John Adam's dearest friend, Jonathan Sewell, fled with his family to England after his home was stormed by a mob. Sewell's sister-in-law was married to none other than John Hancock. James Otis's beloved wife Ruth was a wealthy Tory. One daughter would marry a British Army captain and spend the rest of her life abroad while the other wed the son of a major general in the Continental Army.

The pain of husbands divided from wives, fathers from children, sisters and brothers from each other and close friends caught on opposite sides in the throes of war has been explored in histories of other American wars, yet Malcolm reveals how this conflict reaches into the heart of our country's foundation. Loyalists who fled to England became strangers in a strange land who did not fit into British society. They were Americans longing for home, wondering whether there would—or could—be reconciliation.

The grief of separated loyalties is an important and often ignored part of the revolutionary war story. Those who risked their lives battling the great British empire, and those who left home loyal to the government were all caught in a war without an enemy. In his rough draft of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson reflected sadly that "we might have been a free and a great people together." The Times That Try Men's Souls is a poignant and vivid narrative that provides a fresh and timely perspective on a foundational part of our nation's history.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 5, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781639364763

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781639364763
      • File size: 34602 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 30, 2023
      Historian Malcolm (The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold) explores how the American Revolution was experienced as a civil war by those who lived through it in this intimate account of the “painful divisions” that pitted Patriot against Loyalist within American families. Outlining divisions among several prominent New England families, including the Adamses, Malcolm focuses on the Quincys as archetypical of the definitive break brought about by the Revolution. While Samuel Quincy’s three siblings identified openly as Patriots, he kept his Loyalist sympathies closely guarded. As Crown solicitor-general for Massachusetts, Samuel ironically became a hero to many of his fellow Americans when he oversaw the prosecution of British soldiers during the infamous Boston Massacre Trial. Shortly after hostilities commenced in 1775, however, Samuel left his Patriot wife, children, and family behind to sail to England, believing Britain would win and he would return. “Specifically singled out” by the Massachusetts banishment act of 1778, Samuel would never see America again. Writing in lean and graceful prose, Malcolm comes across as more sympathetic to the Loyalist absentees than the Patriots who banished them. It’s an eye-opening investigation into a lesser-known aspect of America’s founding.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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