A Thousand Stars

In 1665, in Rhode Island, Ann Tallman, wife of Peter, is sentenced to fifteen lashings in Newport's town square. Her story begins, in 1647, in Barbados where Ann Hill, the daughter of English settlers, meets the dashing German merchant Captain Peter Tallman. After they wed and settle in colonial Rhode Island, after six children, after years of Peter's absences at sea, abuse, and jealousies, it was Thomas, the English indentured servant, who won Ann's heart. Refusing to leave behind her children, her choice was abruptly taken from her hands with Peter's request for divorce and the court's sentence of lashings in Portsmouth and Newport. After an escape to Jamestown in the Virginia colony where Ann and her youngest son stay with family, she is eventually drawn back to Rhode Island, to her beloved, to her children, and to her sentenced punishment. Will she be welcome among her peers, or will she be but an outcast? Will her children forgive her? Readers will love this story for its historical color and reflection of the sacrifices of New England's early settlers. This is a story of atonement, of courage, forgiveness and grace in deeply judgmental colonial America.