Vagabond Quakers: Southern Colonies

In the spring of 1663 after being flogged at Hampton in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mary Tomkins, Alice Ambrose, and Anne Coleman escape to the refuge of Rhode Island Colony where freedom of religion is observed. From Newport their adventures in the southern colonies continue. As representatives (known as Public Friends) for the fledgling religion of the Society of Friends, they travel from community to community, encouraging and affirming their faith. However, Mary and Alice are also charged with a mission to find renegade Quaker John Perrot who is leading new converts astray with his own version of the truth, deviating from the Founder, George Fox's, tenets and creating dissension among Friends. The search for Perrot leads them south from the Rhode Island Colony to Lower Norfolk County in Virginia. Unmarried and outspoken, Mary and Allie are repeatedly challenged by the repressive theocracies prevalent in the American Colonies at the time - the Puritans in the north and the Calvinists in the south. As independent women, their eloquence is suspect, and they suffer for it. However they also find love and fellowship with others of their faith during their travels. The early missionaries for the Society of Friends were the first to plant the seeds of religious freedom and equality under God in the New World - even for women. Their unwavering commitment despite arrest and brutal punishment allowed these core principles to take root in opposition to the ruling theocracies of mid-17th Century America - principles that are honored to this day. "Vagabond Quakers: Southern Colonies" is the conclusion of the story begun in "Vagabond Quakers: Northern Colonies." Book 2 follows these brave women and chronicles their suffering and their triumph. Although it is a work of historical fiction, the novels are based on actual events involving real people who lived in the American Colonies during the mid-17th Century.