Portsmouth

James Polus

Description

Historical fiction comes to New England with the epic novel, "Portsmouth,” a classical saga reliving the story of a 1623 fictitious family and twelve successive generations that bring New England seacoast history to life. The opening scene begins with the Abenaki, the Native Indians, who inhabited the land for thousands of years until the English settlers arrived in 1623 when everything changed! "Portsmouth," the novel, marches through the city's history. Memorable characters interact with real-life personalities and historical events that shaped America. Relive our country's past and the colorful history of the New Hampshire seacoast through "Portsmouth.'' From the early Puritans to the Sons of Liberty and the Revolutionary War, up through the Great Depression and World War II, the novel brings American notables such as George Washington, Ona Judge Staines, Major General Fitz-John Porter, Frank Jones, and Celia Thaxter into the reader's imagination.
The novel "Portsmouth" celebrates the 400th anniversary of the founding of this historic seaport, so reminiscent of colonial times.

Sujets

• Historical
• Portsmouth
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press
• Date de parution: 11 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798765236987
• Langue: English

Extrait

PORTSMOUTH
 
 
 
 
JAMES POLUS
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 James Polus.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
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844-682-1282
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3697-0 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3698-7 (e)
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 12/09/2022
CONTENTS
Author’s Introduction
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1:Beginnings at Pannaway (1613-1630)
Chapter 2:Purifying Portsmouth (1650-1681)
Chapter 3:Deceptions and Cruelties (1660-1699)
Chapter 4:Transitions (1705)
Chapter 5:Portsmouth (1705-1713)
Chapter 6:Voracious Greed and Entitlement (1745-1760)
Chapter 7:A Matter of Liberty (1765)
Chapter 8:Passions of Liberty (1774)
Chapter 9:Rebellion Breaks out (1775)
Chapter 10:Independence Delirium (1776)
Chapter 11:Reasons to Celebrate (1777)
Chapter 12:Illusions of Freedom (1779-1781)
Chapter 13:Patriotic Perils and Profit of Privateering (1781)
Chapter 14:Let the People Decide (1786-1799)
Chapter 15:War, Christmas Fires, and Tales of Witches (1813-1814)
Chapter 16:Optimism and Panics (1823-1837)
Chapter 17:Portsmouth Clippers (1848-1860)
Chapter 18:The Agony of War (1861-1865)
Chapter 19:The Powerful and the Gifted (1870 – 1890)
Chapter 20:Money, Art, and Politics (1890 -1905)
Chapter 21:Crimes and Eventual Punishment (1911-1913)
Chapter 22:Battles (1917-1920)
Chapter 23:Exuberance of Good Times and Prejudice (1922-1929)
Chapter 24:Depressing Times (1929-1939)
Chapter 25:A Changed City (1940-1945)
Author’s Comment: The Jewels of Portsmouth (2022)
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
“Portsmouth” is a work of historical fiction. The Turner, Porter, Mullins, and Freeman families are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to historical figures is coincidental.
Every effort has been taken to ensure historical accuracy, but in some cases, I have taken some liberties for the sake of simplicity and reader understanding. For example, I am referring to the Native Indians occupying the surrounding area of Portsmouth, indeed, the larger New Hampshire and Maine coastal area as Abenaki, although they may have thought of themselves in more local terms bearing names such as Piscataqua or Winnecowett.
Historians also refer to the tribal nations of Northern New England as Wabanaki, meaning “People of the Dawnland”, instrumental in treaty negotiations with the English colonists in 1713.
The Library of Congress refers to the Native Indian representatives to the Portsmouth 1713 negotiations as the “Eastern Tribes”, saying:
 “At the end of the war (Queen Anne’s War), the “Eastern Tribes” of North American Indians, which had been allied with the French, surrendered to the British. On 13 July 1713, delegates and sachems of the tribes met at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with representatives of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire to sign this treaty, which brought temporary peace to the northern frontier following years of violent warfare.”
In fact, the actual treaty document uses the expression “Eastern Indians” although many historians refer to the Native Indians invited to the treaty negotiations as part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. In this work of historical fiction, I defer to the Library of Congress reference of “Eastern Tribes” in lieu of Wabanaki.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing Portsmouth consumed a prodigious amount of time but would not have been possible without the loving help, endless patience, and selfless assistance of my wife, Noreen.
I also wish to acknowledge my closest friend, Larry Kenna, who served as my editor and advisor. Larry gave endless hours of his time. There can not be any greater friend in life! Larry kept me focused and on task, testing me and driving me to completion.
I am deeply appreciative of both.
CHAPTER 1 BEGINNINGS AT PANNAWAY (1613-1630)

S UNCOOK STARED AT THE DARTING flames of the campfire, slowly twisting the spit lodged within a small rabbit. His fellow young warriors, proud initiates of the Abenaki warrior society, skillfully maneuvered their small game on similarly long sharp sticks. Words were sparse among them; they had little to say. It would be a long while before they desired true camaraderie. The fiercely independent and tough-minded Abenaki needed young men hardened by warrior rituals. One notable custom concerned the rites of passage into adulthood for boys seeking to gain warrior status. The five-week ordeal may have transformed these promising young men into true warriors, but it crushed any desire for small talk or banter and often left emotional scars for life.
Truthfully, they were not fully recovered from the horrific ordeal. Yes, they were now men, ready for leadership among the chosen warriors, but they had paid a terrible price. Their minds were now cleansed of youth, family ties, and boyhood fantasies. Childish thoughts, fears, and emotional attachments to family slowly evaporated in endless days of starved isolation and drug-induced hallucinations.
The most vaunted, battle-hardened warriors of the tribe led the ordeal. These men had seen the faces of their fierce Mohawk enemies. They understood toughness; they understood the leadership requirements of the Abenaki.
The most experienced battle-hardened warriors of the tribe administered wysoccan, extracted from jimson weed, to the young men over an agonizing twenty-day period. They oversaw the ordeal - days of enforced starvation, days locked in a small hut, days that tested the strength of mind and body. Boys passed into adulthood when they completed the ordeal demonstrating the mental and physical toughness required of warriors. Most importantly, the ordeal purified their minds of family ties. The tribal leaders forced boys who failed the cleansing into a second ordeal - most did not emerge alive from the second set of rites. Those who did survive suffered severe mental and language disabilities.
Suncook did not permit his soul to forget his family. He still remembered his mother wailing and clutching at him as the veteran warriors marched him and his fellow anointed boys into the tribal rites of dance and beatings, which preceded the period of hallucination and deprivation. The fathers stood by dispassionate, prideful that the senior warriors had selected their sons among many to undergo the extreme rituals. Their sons, between the ages of fifteen to seventeen, were the honored ones chosen by the elite senior warriors as worthy of future leadership.
Emotionally distraught mothers mourned for the boys, while the fathers urged the boys to find courage and honor. Everyone understood the need for future leaders to be strong men who cared for the entire tribe, not just a closely-knit clan. Combating formidable, fierce enemies such as the Mohawk required tough leaders, men capable of ferocity, courage, and the ruthlessness needed to defend the entire tribe. Suncook was shrewd enough to hide his family bonds. During the long days and nights, he battled the hypnotic drugs clinging to faint memories of his mother and younger siblings. The image of his father Mannitt, sagamore of the Abenaki, never left his conscious mind.
Following the ordeal, the tribal leaders directed the new warriors to live in the forests together in small groups to reflect on their duty and to refine their hunting and tracking skills. Suncook and his three warrior brothers were deep in the woods. Days passed mainly in silence, but occasionally, discussions of the new challenges of white men allied with the Mohawk marked their conversations. Suncook was the youngest of the group at age fifteen and smallest in build but the quickest and most fleet-footed of his entire tribe. At a young age, Suncook not only excelled in hunting and tracking activities, but he showed a mystical, spiritual personality.
Suncook could fall into trances and recite stories of Gluskab, the creator of all living creatures. Whether the gods had gifted Suncook with a phenomenal memory, or some other earthly explanation did not matter to the tribe. They attributed his extraordinary powers to a divine connection to Gluskab. Mannitt himself did not deny that Gluskab had infused his son with magical powers while still in his mother’s womb. Sons of mighty sagamores touched in the mother’s womb by Gluska