JENNIE LEE, PATRIOT

This is antebellum Charleston, ante-Revolutionary bellum that is, and it is surprising how closely the situation and the scaffold of the story parallel those of the Civil War. Jennie Lee Lawrence is a plantation owner's daughter when the war reaches Charleston in 1780. The war destroys families and friendships and when the city is occupied, Jennie makes a daring midnight ride to warn her sweetheart who is a Patriot spy. He is also the son of her overseer, an alliance which would not have been possible before the war. On the other hand Jennie's sister marries a Loyalist boy who would previously have been acceptable to the family but now is not. With minor exceptions, the historical progress of the war is rather nebulous; Jennie Lee endures very little; but her story does present a conception of the strain on human relations which such a war brings. Painless historical romance for girls who find history painful.