Commonplace History 

It's November 1st, 1765. All up and down the North American coastline, ships arrive to bustling ports bearing a seemingly innocuous cargo, yet they might as well have been carrying a virulent plague deep within their sleepy hulls. The arrival of these ships signals the beginning of what we now know as the American Revolution, for within these ships sat pounds upon pounds of tax stamps hailing from the treasury of England. What was the purpose of these stamps? To generate revenue in the British colonies for the English exchequer, yet instead of revenue, the stamp tax incensed the colonial population, stirring riots, frenzies, and violence all along the coast. It is during this frightful moment that the eclectic and eccentric historical fiction novel "the Yellow Cardinal" begins, beginning with the POV of an unassuming scholar at King's College on Manhattan Island. As the story progresses, the early years of tension between the British Colonies and the "Mother Country" unfolds through three unique perspectives, that of our New York scholar, a woman from Boston with a tortured past, and a slave living in Williamsburg, Virginia. Eventually, these three yarns will weave into one elaborate tapestry culminating in their shared experiences at the Battle of Brooklyn ending with New York City in flames. By the end of the novel, in August of 1776, the success of the nascent revolutionary movement stands less than certain of success, and indeed, seems to be all too sure of failure. "The Yellow Cardinal" will focus more on the peripheries of the American Revolution than on well known events or people. In doing so, the novel will explore themes of struggling to find one's identity as we age, struggles against addiction, the plights of the enslaved, struggles of womanhood, and the intersection of faith and civic duty. On the whole, the author hopes to portray to the reader an impression of the 18th century as it stands in his mind, and as such the work will feature digressive elements, inspired by Lawrence Sterne and Herman Melville, and will likewise feature metatextual narration and interposition from a fictional narrator, who will be prefaced with a short framing narrative. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. It is a direct result of my passionate readings across the years of the 18th century, English literature, and the intersection of those passions with my daily life. I offer it, free of charge, to you, my most dutiful and loyal reader

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N.B. All sections of the work are to be understood in a draft phase, and stand open to revision by the author. Likewise, the entire novel and all posts remain the intellectual property of the author.

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