We Were There, Part 3

 

We Were There at the Boston Tea Party (1959), by Robert N. Webb, was the third in the overall We Were There series but the first to deal with the American Revolution. We've looked at the later volumes dealing with Ethan Allen and Yorktown respectively. Now we jump back to time just before the real fighting began.

As per the series' usual format, the main characters are a 15-year-old boy and his younger sister. In this case, it's Jeremy and Deliverance ("Del") Winthrop, children of a collage professor. The two young ones have gotten involved with Sam Adams, Paul Revere and other Sons of Liberty, delivering messages and doing other tasks.

But they want to do more. And here, I must pause in my plot summary to insert a bit of historical trivia. In 1865, a decendant of Sam Adams wrote that Adams' had a dog named Queue--a huge Newfoundland who was friendly with most people, but absolutely hated the Redcoats. It was said the he was covered with scars from his violent encounters with the British soldiers who were occupying Boston. 

There are no contemporaneous accounts of Queue, so there's a good chance he didn't exist. Or if he did, his private war against the Redcoats is merely a legend. But the We Were There novel treats Queue as real and, by golly, he's awesome. He easily rates a spot alongside other great dogs of fiction such as Buck, White Fang, Slasher and Nobs.

He also gives Jeremy and Del a motivation for doing something more for liberty. Or at least do something nice for Sam Adams. The dog is currently held by the British, who have tired of his canine shananigans. 

With a sympathetic British sergeant looking the other way, Jeremy and Del manages to sneak up to Queue and cut him loose. But the dog won't leave without taking vengence, charging through the mess tent and scattering food over the dining soldiers.

It's a great scene, interjecting some humor into the story and using the incident to show that the problem wasn't with the individual British soldiers, who were often decent enough fellows, but with the stripping of the colonists' liberty.

The story progresses, with Jeremy and Del spying out the waterfront and discovering when ships carrying tea will be coming into port. Later, Jeremy actually sneaks aboard one of this ships to find out when the captains plan to offload their cargo. This involves the Winthrop siblings in the planning and eventual carrying out of the Boston Tea Party.

It's another strong entry in the series. Unlike the other two books we've reviewed, the author is dealing with a situation in which the siblings aren't necessarily in physical danger. But Jeremy and Del still find useful and legitimately exciting tasks to perform. And additional tension is added via their father, who they see visiting the Tory Governor Hutchinson. Is their dad pro-British? Will their work in the cause of liberty eventually put them at odds with their own parents?

I also like the historical accuracy. Heck, Queue MIGHT have existed. And the book is full of little touches showing the author knew his stuff. For instance, when the kids take a message to John Hancock, the wealthy merchant is having dinner with Paul Revere. Jeremy notices that Hancock is dressed in the richest finery (which he did in real life) while Revere is dressed very plainly (also, a real-life touch). Small touches like these add to the strength of the book.

We have one more We Were There book to cover. As a reminder, I'm doing blog entries on these books because I might eventually be doing a talk about them at a DAR meeting and so needed a handy place to preserve my notes. So we'll eventually cover the classic novels Johnny Tremaine and April Morning as well.