Read More:
Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past.
So why do we talk about Valley Forge so much?
Valley Forge was a turning point for the Continental army and for the United States. The boys and men who gutted out the months of cold and hunger turned into a professional fighting force there. The officers and politicians had their commitment to the cause of freedom tested. Those who weren’t up to the challenge stepped aside—or were pushed aside—so that stronger and more dedicated men could take their place.
Anyone can talk about freedom. The soldiers at Valley Forge and their families acted upon it. Their example has inspired generations of Americans ever since.
How did you learn all this stuff?
I read a lot. You can find a list of sources I used on my website, www.writerlady.com, as well as the sources of all the primary source quotes that open each chapter.
VOCABULARY WORDS
addlepated: foolish or silly
bamboozled: tricked
banditti: robbers bayonet: a blade that attaches to the end of a musket barrel so the gun can be used as a spear or sword
befuddlement: confusion
bonebox: mouth
breeches: Colonial-era pants that ended just below the knee, where they were fastened with a string, buttons, or buckles
cartridge box: a leather box that contains paper gunpowder cartridges, usually worn on the belt or slung over the shoulder
caterwauling: complaining
chemise: shirt
churlish: mean and nasty
clodpate: dummy
confuddled: confused
dandy: a wealthy guy who doesn’t need to work
firing pan: part of a musket that holds gunpowder
foppish: in the style of a spoiled, rich person
grapeshot: small pellets of iron shot instead of one large musketball
hullabaloo: a loud commotion
idler: a lazy person
lackbrain: a fool
Madeira: a kind of wine popular during the Revolution
melancholy: sadness
miasma: an unhealthy vapor, often smelly
militiamen: soldiers who fought for their state’s militia instead of the Continental army; they usually fought only for a few months or less
molatto: a person whose parents come from different ethnic groups, spelled “mulatto” sometimes
musket: a long-barreled gun, similar to a rifle
nob: a wealthy person
noggin: head
noxious: obnoxious
palaver: chat
pate: skull, head
peevish: cranky
picaroons: scoundrels
plaguey: a mild curse, like “darn”
portent: an omen or sign powder
horn: a carved-out cow horn used to store gunpowder
poxy: a mild curse, like “darn”
queue: a short ponytail worn by many boys and men during the Revolution
reveille: the sounding of military drums in the morning to wake up the troops
ruffian: a crook
ruse: a trick
score: unit of measurement that means twenty
sluggard: a lazy person swoon, fell into
a: passed out
tatterdemalion: a person dressed in ragged clothes
toothstick: a primitive toothbrush
trencher: a plate
variolation: a method of smallpox inoculation
vexing, vexatious: irritating
victuals: food
whelp: an insulting term for a boy
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
While an author writes a story in solitude, it is not transformed into a book without the help of a veritable army of support. I shall try my best to salute all of those whom helped make Forge into the novel you are holding in your hands.
Four history professionals combed the manuscript in search of errors and I am grateful for their time and expertise. Thanks go to Dr. Holly Mayer, Chair of the History Department of Duquesne University and author of Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community during the American Revolution (University of South Carolina Press, 1999); Dr. Douglas Egerton, an expert on slavery and race in Early America, history professor at Le Moyne College, and the author of Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America (Oxford University Press, 2009); and Dr. Wayne Bodle, who teaches at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, is a specialist on early America, particularly colonial Pennsylvania and the middle colonies, and is author of The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers in War (Penn State University Press, 2002). Special thanks go to historian, author, and educator Christopher Paul Moore, the curator and research historian for the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, who reviewed both Forge and Chains for me.
My splendiferous editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, offered cheery “Huzzahs!” and soothing murmurs of support as I struggled against the cold winds of the writing process. I am most grateful for her keen eye and attention to both detail and nuance. Further, I am blessed to call her my friend. Gratitude also goes to Caitlyn’s assistant and able sergeant, Kylie Frank, and to Christopher Silas Neal, for another great cover. Book designer Lizzy Bromley deserves her own feu de joie for creating a book with both Colonial texture and Patriotic verve. Her artistic vision enhances my words and for that I am in her debt. Cartographic gratitude to Drew Willis for the excellent map. Thanks to the rest of the Simon & Schuster family, particularly Jon Anderson, Justin Chanda, Anne Zafian, Michelle Fadlalla, Catharine Sotzing, Laura Antonacci, Alison Velea, and, last but not least, Paul Crichton, for rounding up the troops and leading the charge. And to Deborah Sloan of Deborah Sloan and Company for arranging such fabulous book tours!
Thanks to the librarians at the Mexico Public Library, the Oswego Public Library, the North Country Library System of New York State, Penfield Library at SUNY Oswego, and Bird Library at Syracuse University. Thanks also to the rangers at the Saratoga National Historic Park and Valley Forge National Park; Dona McDermott, archivist at Valley Forge; and Norm Bollen of the Ft. Plain Museum. Thanks to all of the reenactors of the American Revolution who shared their expertise and experience with me, particularly the units and camp followers who attend the annual Redcoats & Rebels reenactment at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and the members of the Revlist community on yahoo.com who cheerfully dug through their own collection of primary sources to help me in my search for the history of this story.
Deep appreciation goes to Tobias Huisman, for again helping with Dutch translations, and Maria Bomfim for her gracious help in sorting out the proper eighteenth-century Brazilian Portuguese.
Several key chapters in this book were written in a creative fervor sparked by the Kindling Words writing retreat in Vermont, and the first pages were written in the special writing chair at the River’s End Bookstore in Oswego, New York. Big hugs and thanks to the owners, Mindy Ostrow and Bill Reilly. My friends Deborah Heiligman and Tanya Lee Stone both offered much-appreciated feedback, as did Maria Nikki Grammer, Steven Cheryba, and my daughters Stephanie and Meredith. Our other kids, Jessica and Christian, supplied much-needed encouragement and shooed me back to my writing cottage whenever I lingered by the coffeepot. Will Hoiseth, citizen of the world, offered valuable comments on an early draft of this book. My parents, Frank and Joyce Halse, remained ever ready to remind me to get more sleep and not fuss so much about the primary sources–advice that I respectfully ignored. Profound and humble gratitude goes to my assistant, Queen Louise (known in the real world as Lori Stolp Costo), for taking care of so much of the business side of being an author, I actually have time to write. All hail Queen Louise!
The most important acknowledgment–again and always– goes to my husband, Scot Larrabee. He walked the battlefields of Saratoga and hills of Valley Forge with me, helped me find gold in the archives, and listened to a chapter each night by the fire. He also built me the
writing cottage in which I wrote this book, complete with a magic window and a woodstove. Yes, I am the luckiest author in the world.
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by Laurie Halse Anderson
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Book design by Lizzy Bromley
Map copyright © 2010 by Drew Willis
0910 FFG
First Edition
eISBN: 978-1-4424-4308-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, Laurie Halse.
Forge / Laurie Halse Anderson.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(Seeds of America)
Sequel to: Chains.
Summary: Separated from his friend Isabel after their daring escape from slavery, fifteen-year-old Curzon serves as a free man in the Continental Army at Valley Forge until he and Isabel are thrown together again, as slaves once more.
ISBN 978-1-4169-6144-4
1. Pennsylvania—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Juvenile fiction.
[1. Pennsylvania—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Fiction. 2. Valley Forge (Pa.)—
History—18th century—Fiction. 3. Soldiers—Fiction. 4. African Americans—Fiction.
5. Freedmen—Fiction. 6. Slavery—Fiction. 7. United States—History—Revolution,
1775–1783—Fiction. 8. New York—History—Revolution, 1775-1783—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.A54385For 2010
[Fic]—dc22
2010015971
Contents
Part I
Prelude
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Part II
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter XXVII
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXX
Chapter XXXI
Chapter XXXII
Chapter XXXIII
Chapter XXXIV
Chapter XXXV
Chapter XXXVI
Part III
Chapter XXXVII
Chapter XXXVIII
Chapter XXXIX
Chapter XL
Chapter XLI
Chapter XLII
Chapter XLIII
Chapter XLIV
Chapter XLV
Chapter XLVI
Chapter XLVII
Chapter XLVIII
Chapter XLIX
Chapter L
Chapter LI
Chapter LII
Chapter LIII
Chapter LIV
Chapter LV
Chapter LVI
Chapter LVII
Chapter LVIII
Chapter LIX
Chapter LX
Chapter LXI
Chapter LXII
Appendix
Vocabulary Words
Acknowledgments