Carrying Independence - (A Founding-Documents Novel) by Karen A Chase (Paperback)

About the Book

With cries of war spreading across the colonies and pressure mounting to join the Revolution, an intrepid young Post Rider, Nathaniel Marten, is reluctant to raise a rifle for the cause until in a chance encounter with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel is asked to secure the remaining signatures by carrying the sole copy of the Declaration to the congressmen unable to attend the formal signing.

Book Synopsis

In 1776, one man's journey will determine the fate of a nation.

During the American Revolutionary War, Nathaniel Marten-a skilled frontier Post rider-accepts a dangerous mission: carrying the sole copy of the Declaration of Independence across the colonies to collect seven founding fathers' missing signatures.

As British forces and spies close in, Nathaniel navigates treacherous terrain and shifting loyalties, encountering Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington along the way. This epic quest thrusts him into the heart of a nation dividing, while he pursues an impossible love for Susannah Bowman, whose hand in marriage lies beyond his humble status.

Meanwhile, his Shawnee friend Kalawi struggles between tribal loyalty and an uncertain future, while Arthur Bowman faces the brutal reality of Washington's Continental Army.

From Philadelphia's elegant ballrooms to blood-soaked battlefields, from Virginia plantations to the Ohio frontier, "Carrying Independence" vividly examines the cost of freedom during America's founding.

As the fight for independence rages, Nathaniel discovers that uniting a document might cost him everything-unless he can first unite his own divided heart.

Review Quotes

"Karen A. Chase's fast-paced narrative captures the drama of declaring and fighting for independence. Her sharply-observed scenes bring abstract principles to vivid life, reminding readers of the human dimensions of making a nation at a time of radical change." -Peter Onuf, University of Virginia (Emeritus)

"It is seldom we see women approaching fiction during a time period like the American Revolution, a time rife with bloody battles and political intrigue. Karen A. Chase has taken on the task with this first novel and handled it with the grace of an experienced storyteller and historian." - Beth Macy, New York Times Best selling author of Factory Man and Dopesick

"Believable characters, an engaging narrative, and a sense of historical reality... The best aspect for me, of course, is the presence of Shawnee people who are reasonable, thinking human beings." - Colin Calloway, National Book Award Finalist for The Indian World of George Washington, and Professor Native American Studies Dartmouth College

"Karen A. Chase's new novel tells the gripping story, based on historical fact, of the heroic efforts to keep the signed copy of the Declaration of Independence out of the hands of invading British forces. For anyone interested in the American Revolution and birth of our nation this is a compelling read." - James Horn, President & CO Jamestown Rediscovery Historic Jamestown and author of 1619

"Sometimes you can learn more about a war from a good novel than you can from a history book. That's what Karen A. Chase does in Carrying Independence. She vividly evokes what it was like to be in the trenches of the Revolutionary War in a way that few-if any-historians have done." - Marc Leepson, author of What So Proudly We Hailed, and Lafayette: The Idealist General