A guest post by Samantha Wilcoxson
I was blessed to meet Sharon Kay Penman at a bookstore event for the launch of King’s Ransom. My nerves sizzled as I waited for my turn with the new brick of a novel and my UK version of The Sunne in Splendor, which I brought to have signed. Did I dare share with such a talented and successful writer that I also hoped to bring historical figures to life in my own books? That my Elizabeth of York was partially based upon the woman as Sharon had portrayed her?
Thankfully, I made a couple of friends as we stood in line. One of them I am still friends with to this day! We even took a group photo with Sharon once our turn came. My nerves were soothed enough that I dared to mention my book as Sharon kindly signed the two I placed before her. I couldn’t wait to see what she had written. ‘Facebook friend and fellow writer,’ she addressed me in one. ‘To Samantha, who shares my passion for the past,’ she wrote in the other. Her words encouraged me more than I can say.
Fast forward to today, and I have written several books about historical figures to whom I feel close connections, most recently Nathan Hale. Imagine my excitement when I heard that Sharon had also been interested in American Revolution history! She had even thought about writing a novel set during the era. That insight along with an invitation to share my latest book with Sharon’s fans gave me the same sort of warm feeling that I had meeting her that day.
I wonder what Sharon thought about Nathan Hale. Surely, his tragic story was too short for one of her novels! Uttering the words, ‘I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country’ when he was only twenty-one years old, Nathan left behind a poignant, but brief, tale.
Nathan was fourteen in 1769 when he enrolled at Yale College with his brother, Enoch, who was nineteen months older. The brothers were so close that classmates called them Primus and Secundus. They were also befriended by Benjamin Tallmadge, who went on to fame of his own during the American Revolution. Throughout their four years at Yale, they studied history, philosophy, and religion, in addition to discussing current events as the colonies moved toward rebellion.
I recently learned that Benjamin Franklin was Sharon’s favorite founding father. His words make up one of the chapter header quotes in But One Life. ‘The madness of mobs or the insolence of soldiers, or both, when too near to each other, occasion some mischief.’ It is a chapter in which Nathan, Enoch, and Ben discuss news of what later became known as the Boston Massacre. I put myself in their shoes, reading contradictory reports and wondering which was true. These boys were in their mid-teens, discussing issues that would determine their future and the future of a country not yet conceived in that year of 1770.
After commencement in 1773, Nathan took a teaching position while Enoch continued private study to earn his minister’s license. During this brief time before the outbreak of war, Nathan established his progressive thinking by offering classes to females from 5 to 7am before the boys arrived for their lessons each day. Too soon, however, he left his schoolhouse for the New London Artillery.
The remainder of Nathan Hale’s story is the portion with which most Americans are familiar. Shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed, he volunteered for an espionage mission against the advice of those who knew him best. Nathan wanted to be useful to his country and General Washington, but that did not relieve him of his trusting nature and lack of cunning. Within days, he was captured by the loyalist Major Robert Rogers.
The next morning, 22 September 1776, without a trial or hearing of any kind, Nathan Hale was executed by the British, and his corpse was left to hang in the sun as a warning to anyone else who might be tempted to serve as a rebel spy. Although Enoch tried, he was never able to recover his brother’s body.
Nathan Hale is attributed with a few last words. The ‘but one life’ regret is the best known one today and is a paraphrase of Joseph Addison’s Cato, a work that Nathan almost certainly read while at Yale. The Essex Gazette reported that Nathan had said another paraphrase of Cato, ‘If I had ten thousand lives, I would lay them all down.’ The diary of a British soldier testified that he ‘behaved with great composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer to obey any orders given him by his Commander-in-Chief; and desired the Spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear.’ Nathan could have said any or none of these things, but the fact that those who knew him best believed that they rang true as things Nathan might have said is testimony to his character.
I wanted to capture it all in my novel, But One Life – the friendship, the brotherhood, the striving for liberty, and the willingness to sacrifice. I grew attached to Nathan as I was writing. He was so close to my own sons’ ages that it made me consider what they – or I – might do if duty and sacrifice were required. Though I have not been put in a position to make those difficult choices, I do feel compelled to do my little part to keep alive the memory of those, like Nathan Hale, who have.
You can learn more about Samantha and her writing on her blog, or visit her on social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest, Amazon Author Page. You can purchase But One Life on Amazon.
