The Redemptioner

Book excerpt: The sea chest with four hundred pounds sterling cleverly hidden in a secret compartment rested abandoned on the quay as the square-rigger put out from England in a freshening breeze. Young Richard Holt, the now penniless owner of the chest, was headed for Philadelphia in the tumultuous year of 1774, and this is the story of how he “redeemed” himself. A lively tale of what life was like in the years just before and during the Revolution, the metamorphosis of a young English lab into a loyal American, wild and dangerous adventures with thieves and foot-pads, a warming love story, all this and much more you will find in The Redemptioner. Life was rugged, full of danger, and uncertain at best in these years in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. The author, the late Isaac Rusling Pennypacker, was a diligent researcher in addition to being a most creative writer. In The Redemptioner he has combined these talents to tell an absorbing story and to give the reader an effective feeling of life at the birth of these United States.