True. In a Historic Nantucket article (vol. 44, no. 2, Summer 1994, pp. 6–7), Helen A. Gardner described the Nantucket Cent Schools as a carryover from England. “In Old England dame [or Cent] schools were often kept by old women who depended upon the meagre pay to keep them out of the poor house. In New England they were kept by refined, thrifty women who often taught their own or their neighbors’ children until they were old enough to enter schools of a higher grade.” Similar, in scope, to modern-day preschool or pre-kindergarten.
And the cost was exactly what the name implied. “In the dinner pail or sewing bag or tied up in a corner of the handkerchief, the cent was carried to the teacher at each session of the school.” While in the Nantucket Historical Society, I came across an anecdote of a boy whose mother stuck a penny in his mouth each day so that he would remember to pay the teacher. So little Johnny Swain, he’s true to life too.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to . . .
. . . Dr. Stephen Hufman, an author himself, for his medical suggestions and information about the effects of the tainted tincture given to Jane. We chatted over breakfast at the Mount Hermon Writers’ Conference, and he helped me think through a difficult scene. One of the best reasons to go to a writers’ conference!
. . . Karen MacNab, a docent at the Peter Foulger Whaling Museum, who met with me through a request by Matt Parker, the owner of the Seven Sea Street Inn in Nantucket, and answered countless questions about early Nantucket, Quakerism, and whaling. She also provided me with resources, including a printout of her thoughtful “Quaker Lecture.”
. . . Kendall Lamb, whale connoisseur, who shared a slice of her vast knowledge with me at a most unlikely place: Camp Denali in the heart of Denali National Park in Alaska. Thank you for the image of minke whales shooting out of the water like torpedoes before a storm!
. . . Andrea Doering, Michele Misiak, Barb Barnes, Hannah Brinks, Karen Steele, Cheryl Van Andel, and the entire staff of Revell Books, for their dedication to make each author’s book the best one possible. It is a privilege to work with all of you. That list includes my agent, Joyce Hart, who supports her clients in multiple ways.
. . . Lindsey Ciraulo, Meredith Muñoz, Gary Fisher, Wendrea How, Tad Fisher, for your brutally honest critiques. Your feedback is invaluable, always listened to, and hugely influential!
. . . And you, my readers. Thank you for your enthusiasm about my books and for sharing them with your friends and book clubs. I’m thankful for each and every one of you!
. . . Above all, thanks and praise to the Almighty God for this wonderful opportunity to share the wonder of story. Great is thy faithfulness!
Resources
These books provided invaluable background information that was helpful to try to imagine and re-create what life was like for Mary Coffin Starbuck in the seventeenth century as well as Daphne Coffin in the nineteenth century. Any blunders belong to me.
Barbour, Hugh, and J. William Frost. The Quakers. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Cook, Peter. You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on a 19th Century Whaling Ship! Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts, a Division of Scholastic, Inc., 2004.
Brady, Marilyn Dell. “Early Quaker Families, 1650–1800.” Friends Journal, June 1, 2009. https://www.friendsjournal.org/search/early+quaker+families+%2B+1650-1800.
Drake, Thomas E. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.
Forman, Henry Chandlee. Early Nantucket and its Whale Houses. Nantucket, MA: Mill Hill Press, 1966.
Johnson, Robert. “Black-White Relations on Nantucket.” Historic Nantucket, Spring 2002.
Karttunen, Frances Ruley. Law and Disorder in Old Nantucket. North Charleston, SC: BookSurge Press, 2000.
———. Nantucket Places & People 1: Main Street to the North Shore. North Charleston, SC: BookSurge Press, 2009.
———. Nantucket Places & People 2: South of Main Street. North Charleston, SC: BookSurge Press, 2009.
———. Nantucket Places & People 4: Underground. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Publishing, 2010.
Marietta, Jack D. The Reformation of American Quakerism, 1748–1783. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.
Moulton, Phillips P., ed. Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and its People, 1602–1890. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
———. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
Philbrick, Thomas, ed. Remarkable Observations: The Whaling Journal of Peleg Folger, 1751–54. Nantucket, MA: Mill Hill Press, 2006.
Whipple, A. B. C. Vintage Nantucket. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978.
Suzanne Woods Fisher is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than two dozen novels, including Anna’s Crossing, The Newcomer, and The Return in the Amish Beginnings series, The Bishop’s Family series, and The Inn at Eagle Hill series, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace and The Heart of the Amish. She lives in California. Learn more at www.suzannewoodsfisher.com and follow Suzanne on Twitter @suzannewfisher.
Books by Suzanne Woods Fisher
Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World
Amish Proverbs: Words of Wisdom from the Simple Life
Amish Values for Your Family: What We Can Learn from the Simple Life
A Lancaster County Christmas
Christmas at Rose Hill Farm
The Heart of the Amish
LANCASTER COUNTY SECRETS
The Choice
The Waiting
The Search
STONEY RIDGE SEASONS
The Keeper
The Haven
The Lesson
THE INN AT EAGLE HILL
The Letters
The Calling
The Revealing
THE BISHOP’S FAMILY
The Imposter
The Quieting
AMISH BEGINNINGS
Anna’s Crossing
The Newcomer
The Return
NANTUCKET LEGACY
Phoebe’s Light
Minding the Light
SuzanneWoodsFisher.com
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