Angelica – For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution

The captivating story of Angelica Schuyler Church, driven by Molly Beer's eloquent, vivid narrative and rooted in her extensive research, illuminates the often-unforgiving exposé of Angelica's extended family and friends, politicians, and nations amid the ever-shifting hopes and fortunes of the time. Changes not only in the colonies of the New World and the War of Independence, but also across the Atlantic, where England, France, and Spain were constantly subject to fluctuating allegiances, alliances, and interests. As the War of Independence dragged on, we hear how the 'factionalism, regionalism, individual ambitions, and contrasting objectives splintered the delicate unity of shared purpose'.

Following the treaty with the English that ended the war, Angelica spent most of the following fourteen years both travelling between and living in England and France. She witnessed the beginnings of the French Revolution and the subsequent demise of the American-French alliance, ultimately resulting in closer and what would become long-lasting ties between England and its former American colonies. Support for freedom, justice, and liberty, not only for men, but for women and the enslaved, as espoused by Angelica and made so lucid in Ms. Beer's writing, continues to this day.