
Gallows Road
Lisa Hall Brownell
(Author)Description
A beautiful young servant is condemned to death for a crime that she swears she did not commit. Inspired by true events in 1750s Connecticut, Gallows Road takes readers on a harrowing journey of love, betrayal, and injustice.
Chafing against the strict confines of her life as an indentured servant, Mercy Bramble finds herself in a destructive relationship with her master, leading to her pregnancy. The mysterious death of her newborn puts Mercy's life in the hands of a jury, while three clergymen fight to save her soul. Raising issues of patriarchy, literacy, religious dogmatism, and capital punishment, Gallows Road builds to a climax that Kirkus Reviews calls "a nail-biter all the way."
Indentured servants - white or Native American men and women who often worked alongside black slaves - were forbidden to marry during the seven years they were bonded to service. Illegitimate births were common, and unwed mothers faced heavy fines and extended servitude. Set in a multiracial household in colonial New England, Gallows Roadsheds light on an often-forgotten chapter in America's past.
Product Details
Publisher | ELM Grove Press |
Publish Date | April 02, 2022 |
Pages | 280 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781940863160 |
Dimensions | 8.5 X 5.5 X 0.6 inches | 0.8 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
Traversing the same rocky footpaths as Nathaniel Hawthorne's quintessential New England novel, The Scarlet Letter, Lisa Hall Brownell's Gallows Road tells an early 18th-century story of love, sex, heartache, and hypocrisy. Yet Brownell's Mercy Bramble is no opaque and respectful Hester Prynne. Mercy is a feisty, unschooled, and outspoken heroine who challenges the morals and mores of the staid, self-satisfied community that seeks to victimize her. I felt a near-magnetic pull into the pages of this humane, character-driven novel. I suspect you will, too."
- Wally Lamb, author of six N.Y. Times bestselling novels including I Know This Much Is True and She's Come Undone
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