Sybil Smith

Hannah Duston's Sister Sybil Smith

A story of infidelity, kidnapping, lust, infanticide, murder; the synopsis reads like the cover of a true crime novel. The difference is, it happened four hundred years ago. Americans like to view their history through rose-tinted glasses. They imagine the Puritans dressed in their drab homespun, sweeping hearths and singing hymns. But a close examination of these "good old days" reveals our ancestors suffered more than their share of horror, abuse and pain. The true story of Hannah Dustan and her sister, Elizabeth, researched and written by an author descended from these very women, stunningly uncovers that hidden history. Once you begin to read this novel it grips you every bit as much as the tragic tales that fascinate us today. When you finish it you will see that humans, wherever and whenever they live, are prisoners of the same passions. It begins with two women riding in a wagon in June, 1693. One is Elizabeth Emerson, and the other is a black woman whose name is not recorded. Both have been convicted of murdering their newborn babes, and are going to their hanging on Boston Common. Read on to find out how it ends.