In 1699, a fourteen year-old girl, Honor O’Flynn, is kidnapped in Ireland and brought to Maryland to be sold as a contract bride. She is devoutly Catholic and promises her father that she will remain chaste, return home, and become a nun. Throughout her odyssey, she is frustrated in her schemes to accomplish those goals and fights with God and the Man who buys her contract.
The Story Behind This Book
Honor O'Flynn, A Search for the True Will of God is James Bailey's answer to a burning question that would not lie quiet in his heart. Why was his seventh-great grandmother kidnapped in 1700 Ireland and brought to Maryland to be sold as a bride? The British crown has banned Catholicism in all of Britain leaving many of its people eager for revolution, rival nations are colonizing the New World, threatening England’s standing as a world power, and the population in Britain is putting stress on the food supply. To remain unified and strong, the crown needed a way to neutralize dissident Catholics and move a great many of its people to North America. Marylam]nds economy was based on Cotton, a valuable but labor intensive crop. In Maryland, the male to female ratio was ten to one and the men there wanted wives and families. That made it lucrative for merchant captains to kidnap young men and women and bring them to the Colonies... hence, the kidnapping of Honor O'Flynn and the historical fiction the author wrote to share her story with the world.
