The author admits there is scant evidence, other than oral stories from Mary’s children and grandchildren, who have the Burr name. But this book is about Theodosia’s slave, Mary Emmons, and how she met and eventually wound up the concubine of Aaron Burr. When I picked up The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr, I thought it was going to be about Theodosia Prevost Burr, the married woman who carried on with Aaron Burr during the Revolution and, after the death of her British officer husband, marries him. As Theodosia sickens with the fatal disease that will finally kill her, Mary and Burr are drawn together into a private world of power and passion, and a secret, tangled union that would have shocked the nation.
She quickly gains the trust of her new mistress, Theodosia Prevost, and becomes indispensable in a complicated household filled with intrigue–especially when the now-widowed Theodosia marries Colonel Aaron Burr. Toughened by the experiences of her young life, Mary is intelligent, resourceful, and strong. Sold into slavery as a child in India, Mary Emmons was brought to an America torn by war. But long before that single shot destroyed Burr’s political career, there were other dark whispers about him: that he was untrustworthy, a libertine, a man unafraid of claiming whatever he believed should be his. Today Aaron Burr is remembered more for the fatal duel that killed rival Alexander Hamilton. So when I saw this fictional account of Aaron’s Burr’s wife, I was intrigued, but it was not at all what I expected.įrom the publisher: “He was a hero of the Revolution, a brilliant politician, lawyer, and very nearly president a skillful survivor in a raw new country filled with constantly shifting loyalties. Reading about the Founding Fathers and their ilk is comforting to me. Fiction or non-fiction, it doesn’t matter. I’ll read just about anything relating to the Revolutionary War and the time surrounding the founding of our country.
0 kommentar(er)
