Tales From a Revolution: Connecticut
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Connecticut, 1781: Fighting the Revolution put him underground!
Tossed into an abandoned copper mine like a common criminal, Alec is soon drawn into escape schemes and resistance to the American rebellion against his King. When the chance comes to win his freedom, he is aided by the unlikeliest of allies – a girl he’s known since childhood.
Historical Context
Set in Connecticut during the American Revolution, The Mine draws upon the history of New-Gate Prison, an abandoned copper mine converted into a place of confinement for prisoners considered dangerous to the Patriot cause. Beginning in 1773, Connecticut used the underground workings at Simsbury to hold prisoners, and during the Revolution the facility became notorious for its harsh conditions, escapes, and unrest. Loyalists imprisoned there experienced the Revolution not as liberation from tyranny but as the loss of their own rights and freedoms. The prison's history illustrates the coercion and bitter internal divisions that accompanied the struggle for American independence.
Alec Tinsworth looked up, bidding the sun farewell. He didn't know how long it would be before he saw its light again, how long he would instead live by the flickering light of torches and candles -- or less.
READ MOREThe man at the top of the mine shaft looked down at him without pity, and Alec returned his baleful glare, his feet questing one after the other for the next step on the unsteady ladder. At last, he came to a point where there was no next step, and the guard shouted down at him, "Just drop on down. It's not so far as you will fall into the hereafter."
A coarse bark of laughter echoed down the shaft to Alec's ears, and he lowered himself by his arms alone, the chain between his manacles limiting his ability to ease down. He grimly felt for the floor that he expected to find, his foot describing wider and wider arcs through open air, until he lost his grip on the ladder and fell with a grunt in a jumbled pile of limbs. He rolled along the floor, which he was relieved to discover was strewn with straw. Without that, his fall might have done more than merely knocked his breath out for a moment.
As he lay catching his breath, he heard another guffaw from overhead, followed by the echoing boom of the door closing. The dim light that reached the bottom of the pit winked out, and Alec stayed very still, his eyes adjusting to the incredible darkness in which he now found himself.
Tales From a Revolution:
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