Toliver's Secret

The American Revolutionary War took place between 1775 and 1783, though discontent and minor skirmishes with England started before 1775, and instability, unrest, and disagreement plagued the new nation after 1783. Paul Revere’s ride to Concord, Massachusetts, to warn colonists about British movements, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and the Battle of Bunker Hill occurred in the first half of 1775. In July 1775, George Washington took control of American forces. In Toliver’s Secret, he never appears on the page but is consistently referred to as either “General Washington” or “the general.”

Though Washington’s Army found success in the early war with the help of trained soldiers and citizen-organized militias, British general Sir William Howe won major victories in the Battle for New York in the late summer of 1776. The combined British Army and Navy drove Washington out of Brooklyn in August, Manhattan in September and October, and beyond the Delaware River on the west side of New Jersey in November. Ellen’s father fought for the militia and was killed in the Battle of Brooklyn Heights on August 27, 1776. Her brother, Ezra, successfully withdrew to Pennsylvania with Washington.

Unable to survive on their own, Ellen and