The Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history
Previously issued in print: 2016.
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund and the Mary Cady Tew Memorial Fund.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
An eye-opening biography of a woman at the intersection of three distinct cultures in colonial America. Born and raised in a New England garrison town, Esther Wheelwright (1696-1780) was captured by Wabanaki Indians at age seven. Among them, she became a Catholic and lived like any other young girl in the tribe. At age twelve, she was enrolled at a French-Canadian Ursuline convent, where she would spend the rest of her life, eventually becoming the order's only foreign-born mother superior. Among these three major cultures of colonial North America, Wheelwright's life was exceptional: border-crossing, multilingual, and multicultural.