OGUE'S HARBOR

Another version of the early American colonial days that this author knows so well--this time based on the first settlement of twenty-five ""free-thinking, free-speaking Englishmen"" in Albemarle, North Carolina. First, the plot of rebellion in 1677 takes uninspired shape against the injustice of the British Lord Proprietors, to right the oldest grievances about the tobacco tax and Navigation Act and a more special one-- ""Rogue's Harbor"" as the projected name for their righteous community. The Englishwomen weave the second plot of civilized domesticity. Dame Dorcas Willoby of Devon sees to it that both crewelwork and children are properly matched, although ""young love"" manages to override her British sense of status, tritely emphasizing America as the land of freedom. Appealing enough for simple colonial -philes, this is harmless historical piffle.