For readers and fellow historical fiction writers interested in the research behind the Kindred series (Mountain Laurel, Shiloh, and The Journey of Runs-Far, a Kindred novella), what follows is the combined bibliography for all three books.
This list isn’t complete. It couldn’t possibly be considering the writing of this series spanned nearly twenty years and (human fallibility being what it is) I neglected to log some books read and referenced along the way.
I also haven’t included the research on New York and the Mohawk Nation that went into writing Burning Sky, which influenced the writing of Shiloh, nor all the research on western North Carolina (present day Tennessee) and the Cherokee Nation done while writing The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn and The King’s Mercy, two books that informed Mountain Laurel and The Journey of Runs-Far. I’ve listed only those titles I revisited in writing the Kindred books. I thought the list was long enough already!
I hope you find it of interest and benefit to your own studies on the following subjects:
A KINDRED BIBLIOGRAPHY
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AGRICULTURE
SHAW’S FORTUNE, The Picture Story of a Colonial Plantation. Edwin Tunis. Cleveland/New York; The World Publishing Company, 1966.
AGRICULTURE IN NORTH CAROLINA BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. Cornelius O. Cathey. Raleigh, NC; State Department of Archives and History, 1966.
GREEN LEAF AND GOLD, Tobacco in North Carolina. Jerome E. Brooks. Raleigh, NC; Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. 1997.
BIG COTTON, How a Humble Fiber Created Fortunes, Wrecked Civilizations, and Put America on the Map. Stephen Yafa. New York, NY; Penguin Group, Inc. 2005.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LIFE (GENERAL)
THE CULTURAL LIFE OF THE NEW NATION, 1776 – 1830. Russel Blaine Nye. New York, NY; Harper & Row, 1960.
WORK AND LABOR IN EARLY AMERICA. Stephen Innes, ed. Chapel Hill, NC; University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
INHERITING THE REVOLUTION, The First Generation of Americans. Joyce Appleby. Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2000.
HUSKINGS, QUILTINGS, AND BARN RAISINGS, Work-Play Parties in Early America. Victoria Sherrow. New York, NY; Walker and Company. 1992.
GROWING UP IN REVOLUTION AND THE NEW NATION, 1775-1800. Brandon Marie Miller. Minneapolis, MN; Lerner Publications Co., 2003.
AMERICAN HYMNS, Old and New. Albert Christ-Janer, Charles W. Hughes, Carleton Sprague Smith. New York, NY; Columbia University Press, 1980.
ONE HUNDRED & ONE FAMOUS HYMNS. Charles Johnson. Delavan, WI; Hallberg Publishing Corporation, 1983.
THE REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER, 1775-1783, An Illustrated Sourcebook of authentic details about everyday life for Revolutionary War Soldiers. C. Keith Wilbur. Old Saybrook, CT; The Globe Pequot Press, 1969, 1993.
GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE NEW NATION (1783-1793). James Thomas Flexner. Boston, MS; Little, Brown & Co. 1970.
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER, And Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecour. New York, NY; The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1963.
EARLY LOGGERS AND THE SAWMILL. Peter Adams. New York, NY; Crabtree Publishing Co., 1981.
AFTER THE REVOLUTION, The Smithsonian History of Everyday Life in the Eighteenth Century. Barbara Clark Smith. New York, NY; Random House, Inc., 1985.
EVERYDAY LIFE IN COLONIAL AMERICA. Louis B. Write. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965.
THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO EVERYDAY LIFE IN COLONIAL AMERICA, From 1607-1783. Dale Taylor. Cincinatti, OH: Writer’s Digest Books, 1997.
ALBION’S SEED: Four British Folkways in America. David Hackett Fischer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES AND OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC. Fiske Kimball. Mineol, NY; Dover Publications, Inc., 1950.
UNITED STATES FIREARMS, THE FIRST CENTURY 1776-1875. David F. Butler. New York, NY; Winchester Press, 1971.
A GUIDE TO THE HISTORIC ARCHITECTURE OF PIEDMONT NORTH CAROLINA. Catherine W. Bishir & Michael T. Southern. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TAVERNS and INNS
STAGE-COACH & TAVERN DAYS. Alice Morse Earle. New York, NY; Dover Publications, Inc., 1969.
TAVERNS AND DRINKING IN EARLY AMERICA. Sharon V. Salinger. Baltimore, MD; The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
EARLY AMERICAN INNS AND TAVERNS. Elise Lathrop. New York, NY; Arno Press, 1977.
THE TAVERN AT THE FERRY. Edwin Tunis. New York, NY; Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1973.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY POETRY
THE NOBLE SAVAGE IN THE NEW WORLD GARDEN: Notes Toward a Syntactics of Place. Gaile McGregor. Bowling Green, OH; Bowling Green State University Popular Press. 1988.
POEMS WRITTEN BETWEEN THE YEARS 1768 & 1794. Philip Morin Freneau. Printed at the press of the author at Mount Pleasant, NJ. 1795.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN’S LIFE
A MIDWIFE’S TALE, The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. New York, NY; Alfred A. Knopf, 1990
SUSPECT RELATIONS, Sex, Race and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina. Kirsten Fischer. Ithaca, NY; Cornell University Press, 2002.
THE FIRST AMERICAN COOKBOOK, A Facsimile of “American Cookery,” 1796. Amelia Simmons. New York, NY; Dover Publications, Inc. 1958 (Dover edition, 1984).
FANNY KEMBLE’S JOURNAL. Fanny Kemble, edited by Catherine Clinton. Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press, 2000.
THE PLANTATION MISTRESS. Catherine Clinton. New York, NY; Pantheon Books, 1982.
WOMEN’S LIFE & WORK IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES. Julia Cherry Spruill. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1972.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY HERBS/GARDENING/FOLK MEDICINE/COOKERY
LYING-IN, A HISTORY OF CHILDBIRTH IN AMERICA. Richard W. Wertz & Dorothy C. Wertz. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1997.
BIRTH CHAIRS, MIDWIVES, AND MEDICINE. Amanda Carson Banks. Jackson, MS; University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD, The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793. J. H. Powell. New York, NY; Time Life Books, 1949, 1965.
AN AMERICAN PLAGUE, The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. Jim Murphy. New York, NY; Clarion Books, 2003.
REVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE, 1700-1800. C. Keith Wilbur, M.D. Old Saybrook, CT. The Globe Pequot Press, 1980.
THE SCOTS HERBAL, The Plant Lore of Scotland. Tess Darwin. Edinburgh, Scotland. Mercat Press, 1996.
PRIMITIVE REMEDIES. John Wesley. Beverly Hills, CA; Woodbridge Press Publishing Company. 1973.
AMERICAN GARDENS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, “For Use or for Delight.” Ann Leighton. Amherst, MA; University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
SOUTHERN FOLK MEDICINE, 1750-1820. Kay K. Moss. Columbia, SC; University of South Carolina Press, 1999.
THE AGE OF AGONY. Guy Williams. Chicago, IL; Academy Chicago Publishers, 1975.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CLOTHING
EVERYDAY DRESS OF RURAL AMERICA, 1783-1800, With Instructions and Patterns. Merideth Write. New York, NY; Dover Publications, 1990.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CLOTHING. Bobbie Kalman. New York, NY; Crabtree Publishing Company, 1993.
DRESSED FOR THE OCCASION, What Americans Wore, 1620-1970. Brandon Marie Miller. Minneapolis, MN; Lerner Publications Company, 1999.
WHAT CLOTHES REVEAL, The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America. Linda Baumgarten. Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2002.
TIDINGS FROM THE 18TH CENTURY. Beth Gilgun. Texarkana, TX; Rebel Publishing Co., Inc., 1993.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TRADES/CABINETMAKING
COLONIAL CRAFTSMEN, And the Beginnings of American Industry. Edwin Tunis. New York, NY; Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1965.
THE ART AND MYSTERY OF THE CABINETMAKER, Crafting a Card Table. Mack Headley, Jr. Master Cabinetmaker. Video; Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1999.
THE PENCIL, A HISTORY OF DESIGN AND CIRCUMSTANCE. Henry Petroski. New York, NY; Alfred A Knopf, 2002.
MAKING FURNITURE IN PREINDUSTRIAL AMERICA. Edward S. Cooke Jr. Baltimore, MD., London, England; The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
AMERICAN FURNITURE OF THE 18TH CENTURY. Jeffrey P. Green. Newtown, CT; The Taunton Press, Inc., 1996.
EARLY AMERICAN TRADES Coloring Book. Peter F. Copeland. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1980.
EARLY ARTISANS. Bobbie Kalman. New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing Company, 1983.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FRONTIER LIFE
INTO THE WILDERNESS. National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C., 1978.
WILDERNESS CALLING, The Hardeman Family in the American Westward Movement, 1750-1900. Nicholas Perkins Hardeman. Knoxville, TN; The University of Tennessee Press, 1977.
SLAVERY / RACE
THE HEMINGSES OF MONTICELLO, An American Family. Annette Gordon-Reed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2008.
MANY THOUSANDS GONE, The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Ira Berlin. Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Belknap Press of Harvard University. 1998.
SUSPECT RELATIONS, Sex, Race and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina. Kirsten Fischer. Ithaca, NY; Cornell University Press, 2002.
REMEMBERING SLAVERY, African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation. Ira Berlin, Marc Favreau, Steven F. Miller, eds. The New Press; New York, NY. 1998. “Sooty Brow”
SEX, LOVE, RACE, Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Martha Hodes, ed. New York University Press; New York, NY. 1999.
TELL THE COURT I LOVE MY WIFE, Race, Marriage, and Law—an American History. Peter Wallenstein. Palgrave Macmillan; New York, NY. 2004.
WHITE OVER BLACK, American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812. Winthrop D. Jordan. Chapel Hill, NC; University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
FORBIDDEN LOVE, The Secret History of Mixed-Race America. Gary B. Nash. New York, NY; Henry Hold and Co., 1999.
AGAINST THE PEACE AND DIGNITY OF THE STATE, North Carolina Laws Regarding Slaves, Free Persons of Color, and Indians. William L. Byrd, III. Westminster, MD; Heritage Books, 2003.
THE APPROACHING FURY, Voices of the Storm, 1820-1861. Stephen B. Oates. New York, NY; HarperPerennial, 1997.
INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL. Harriet Jacobs. Mineola, NY; Dover Publications, Inc., 2001.
AR’N’T I A WOMAN? Female Slaves in the Plantation South. Deborah Gray White. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1985.
LIFE ON A PLANTATION. Bobbie Kalman. New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing Company, 1997.
SLAVES IN THE FAMILY. Edward Ball. New York, NY; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998.
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES TO FREEDOM, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. William Craft, R. J. M. Blackett. Baton Rouge, LA; Louisiana State University Press, 1986, 1999.
NO MAN CAN HINDER ME, The Journey from Slavery to Emancipation through Song. Velma Maia Thomas. New York, NY; Crown Publishers, 2001.
GROWING UP IN SLAVERY. Sylviane A. Diouf. Brookfield, CT; The Millbrook Press, 2001.
BACK OF THE BIG HOUSE, The Architecture of Plantation Slavery. John Michael Vlach. Chapel Hill, NC; The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
SOUL BY SOUL: LIFE INSIDE THE ANTEBELLUM SLAVE MARKET. Walter Johnson. Cambridge, Mass.; Harvard University Press, 1999.
THE TROUBLE I’VE SEEN, the big book of NEGRO SPIRITUALS. Bruno Chenu. Valley Forge, PA; Judson Press, 2003.
THE BLACK FAMILY IN SLAVERY & FREEDOM, 1750-1925. Herbert G. Gutman. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1976.
THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN REVOLUTIONARY NORTH CAROLINA. Jeffrey J. Crow. Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, 1977.
MY FOLKS DON’T WANT ME TO TALK ABOUT SLAVERY. Belinda Hurmence, ed. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, Publisher, 1984.
THE FREE NEGRO IN NORTH CAROLINA 1790-1860. John Hope Franklin. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1971.
IN FULL FORCE AND VIRTUE, North Carolina Emancipation Records 1730-1860. William L. Byrd III. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 1999.
THE FIRST EMANCIPATOR: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves. Andrew Levy. New York, NY; Random House, 2005
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
BOUND FOR CANAAN, The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America. Fergus M. Bordewich. New York, NY; Harper Collins, 2005.
PASSAGES TO FREEDOM, The Underground Railroad in History and Memory. David W. Blight, ed. Washington, DC; Smithsonian Books, 2004.
QUAKERS/SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
THE QUIET REBELS, The Story of Quakers in America. Margaret Hope Bacon. Philadelphia, PA; New Society Publishers, 1985.
NATIVE AMERICAN NATIONS
ATLAS OF GREAT LAKES INDIAN HISTORY
THE WOODLAND INDIANS Of The Western Great Lakes. Robert E. Ritzenthaler, Pat Ritzenthaler. Prospect Heights, IL; Waveland Pres, Inc., 1983.
OJIBWAY CEREMONIES. Basil Johnston. Lincoln, NE; University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
THE OJIBWA, Indians of North America. Helen Hornbeck Tanner. New York, NY; Chelsea House Publishers, 1992.
ATLAS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN. Carl Waldman. New York, NY; Facts on File Publications, 1985.
AFTER COLUMBUS, The Smithsonian Chronicle of the North American Indians. Herman J. Viola. Washington, DC; Smithsonian Books; New York, NY; Orion Books (distributor), 1990.
WHITE INTO RED, A Study of the Assimilation of White Persons Captured by Indians. J. Norman Heard. Metuchen, NJ; The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 1973.
ININATIG’S GIFT OF SUGAR, Traditional Native Sugarmaking. Laura Waterman Wittstock. Minneapolis, MN; Lerner Publications Company, 1993.
INDIAN NATIONS OF WISCONSIN, Histories of Endurance and Renewal. Patty Loew. Madison, WI; Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2001.
500 NATIONS, An Illustrated History of North American Indians. Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. New York, NY; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1994.
AMERICAN INDIANS IN U.S. HISTORY. Roger L. Nichols. Norman, OK; University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
FORGOTTEN ALLIES, The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution. Joseph T. Glatthaar and James Kirby Martin. New York, NY; Hill and Wang, 2006.
JOSEPH BRANT, 1743-1807, Man of Two Worlds. Isabel Thompson Kelsay. Syracuse, NY; Syracuse University Press, 1984.
THE IROQUOIS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. Barbara Graymont. Syracuse, NY; Syracuse University Press, 1972.
CHEROKEE WOMEN, Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835. Theda Perdue. Lincoln, NE; University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
NATIVE AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
ONE CHURCH MANY TRIBES, Following Jesus the Way God Made You. Richard Twiss. Ventura, CA; Regal Books, 2000.
RESCUING THE GOSPEL FROM THE COWBOYS, A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way. Richard Twiss. Downers Grove, Illinois; InterVarsity Press, 2015.
LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES/THESAURES
THE AULD SCOTS DICTIONARY, A Concise History of Scottish Words, Their Meaning and Origins. Charles MacKay. Glasgow, Scotland; Lang Syne Publishers, Ltd., 1992.
THE CONCISE SCOTS DICTIONARY. Alexander Warrack (compiler). New York, NY; Crescent Books, 1988.
THE SCOTS THESAURUS. Iseabail MacLeod (editor). Aberdeen, Scotland; Aberdeen University Press, 1990.
ENGLISH THROUGH THE AGES, From Old English to modern-day slang, a word-by-word birth record of thousands of interesting words. William Brohaugh. Cincinatti, OH. Writer’s Digest Books, 1998.
A CONCISE DICTIONARY OF MINNESOTA OJIBWE. John D. Nichols and Earl Nyholm. Minneapolis, MN; University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
KANYEN’KEHA TEWATATI (Let’s Speak Mohawk). David Kanatawakhon Maracle. London, Ontario; University of Western Ontario, 1990.
ONE THOUSAND USEFUL MOHAWK WORDS. David Kanatawakhon Maracle. London, Ontario; University of Western Ontario, 1992.
BEGINNING CHEROKEE. Ruth Bradley Holmes and Betty Sharp Smith. Norman, Oklahoma; University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.
EVERYDAY GAELIC. Morag MacNeill. Glasgow, Scotland; Gairm Publications, 1988.
SCOTS GAELIC, a Brief Introduction. George McLennan. Glendaruel, Argyll, Scotland; Argyll Publishing, 1998.
THE SCOTTISH GAELIC TATTOO HANDBOOK, Authentic words & phrases in the Celtic language of Scotland. Emily McEwan. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Bradan Press, 2016.
NORTH CAROLINA
THE GREAT DISMAL, A Swamp Memoire. Bland Simpson. Chapel Hill, NC; The University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
TOURING THE WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA BACKROADS. Carolyn Sakowski. Winston-Salem, NC; John F. Blair, Publisher, 1990.
THE GERMAN INVASION OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA, A Pictorial History. Jacqueline Burgin Painter. The Overmountain Press; Johnson City, TN, 1992.
SOCIETY IN COLONIAL NORTH CAROLINA. Alan D. Watson. Raleigh, NC; Office of Archives and History, NC Dept. of Cultural Resources, 1996.
AN AFTERNOON HIKE INTO THE PAST: Roving in the Uwharrie Mountains, Maps – Trail Lore, The Way Settlers Lived, Old Herb Remedies, Ghost Stories and Much More. Joseph T. Moffitt. Self Published? 1975.
AN INDEPENDENT PEOPLE, The Way We Lived In North Carolina, 1170-1820. Harry L. Watson. Chapel Hill, NC; University of North Carolina Press, 1983.
REMINISCENCES OF RANDOLPH COUNTY. J. A. Blair. Greensboro, NC; Reece & Elam, Book and Job Printers, 1890.
JOURNEY TO THE PIEDMONT PAST, Source Book. Kay Moss. Gastonia, North Carolina; 18th Century Backcountry Lifeways Series, Schiele Museum of Natural History, 1997, 2001.
PIEDMONT PLANTATION, The Benneham-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina. Jean Bradley Anderson. Durham, NC; The Historic Preservation Society of Durham, 1985.
NORTH CAROLINA, A History. William S. Powell. Chapel Hill, NC; University of North Carolina Press, 1977.
THE HIGHLAND SCOTS OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1732-1776. Duane Meyer. Chapel Hill, NC; University of North Carolina Press, 1961.
MASSACHUSETTS/BOSTON
BOSTON, 1689-1776. G. B. Warden. Boston, MA; Little, Brown and Company. 1970.
BOSTON WAYS, High, By, and Folk. George F. Weston, Jr. Boston, MA; Beacon Press, 1957.
AFTER THE SIEGE, A Social History of Boston, 1775-1800. Jacqueline Barbara Carr. Boston, MA; Northeastern University Press, 2005.
THE NORTH END, A Brief History of Boston’s Oldest Neighborhood. Alex R. Goldfield. Charleston, SC; The History Press, 2009.
BOSTON AND THE DAWN OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. Brian Deming. Yardley, PA; Westholme Publishing, L.L.C., 2013.
NEW YORK
WILLIAM COOPER’S TOWN: POWER AND PERSUASION ON THE FRONTIER OF THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC. Alan Taylor. Knopf, 1995.
GREAT LAKES FUR TRADE
WHERE TWO WORLDS MEET, the Great Lakes Fur Trade. Carolyn Gilman. St. Paul, MN; Minnesota Historical Society, 1982.
EMPIRE OF THE BAY, An illustrated history of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Peter C. Newman. Toronto, Ontario; The Madison Press Limited, 1989.
HORSES
THE COMPLETE BOOK OF FOALING, An Illustrated Guide for the Foaling Attendant. Karen E. N. Hayes, D.V.M., M.S. New York, NY; Macmillan Publishing Co., 1993.
COMPLETE FOALING MANUAL. Theresa Jones. Tyler, TX; Equine Research, Inc., 1999.
THE COLOR OF HORSES, The Scientific and Authoritative Identification of the Color of the Horse. Dr. Ben K. Green. Flagstaff, AZ; Northland Press, 1974.
THE MAN WHO LISTENS TO HORSES, The Story of a Real-Life Horse Whisperer. Monty Roberts. Ballentine Books, 2008.
MISCELLANEOUS
MOUNTAIN SPIRITS, A Chronicle of Corn Whiskey from King James’ Ulster Plantation to America’s Appalachians and the Moonshine Life. Joseph Earl Dabney. New York, NY; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.
MIND OF THE RAVEN. Bernd Heinrich. New York, NY: Cliff Street Books, 1999.
