Anne Bailey: Frontier Scout (Women of the Frontier)

Furbee, Mary R.

ISBN 10: 1883846706 ISBN 13: 9781883846701

Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Pub, 2001

Profiles the woman who came to the American colonies as an indentured servant and became a trusted scout of the Colonial, and later American, armies.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From School Library Journal:

Grades 4-7--Bailey rode her horse from Virginia to the western frontier and became a scout during the Revolution. (On one page, she did this in 1772; on another, it was in 1775.) Born in England, she headed to the American Colonies as an indentured servant at age 19. She became a legendary heroine of the Colonial frontier but few hard facts about her life are available. Despite a lengthy bibliography, this biography is also short on facts. There are accurate, though general, descriptions of Colonial and frontier life. Bailey's feelings are sometimes fictionalized. Details of particular settings and events often include details lost long ago. "As Anne climbed the ramp to her ship, her strong shoulders pitched forward-. Strands of long auburn hair blew about her lightly freckled cheeks." The author addresses fictionalized and legendary accounts of Anne Bailey's life in the appendix. Black-and-white period prints contribute to the ambience with illustrations of historic figures, places, and events. Two of the prints are of Bailey. However, these are generic depictions of a small, 18th-century woman and are not individually identifiable (which is not atypical of the time period). This lightweight title could help fill the need for biographies on heroic women of early America but it is not a first purchase.-Carolyn Janssen, Children's Learning Center of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 6-12. Brought up in impoverished Liverpool, Bailey came to America in 1761 as an indentured servant. She eventually married a soldier whose death left her to fend for herself and her young son in a region of Virginia where conflicts between Native Americans and settlers often meant death. Undaunted by the skirmishes and the ever-increasing threat of a revolution against Britain, Bailey selflessly lent her hand as a revolutionary scout. Furbee's straightforward retelling of Bailey's life makes for brisk, engaging reading. Equally successful is her even-handed approach. She makes it clear that Bailey was often revered as the most courageous woman of her era but also occasionally scorned as a "mad" whiskey-swigging roustabout. Through it all, Bailey emerges a colorful personality that young people who relish history will enjoy meeting. An appendix of legends and poems further elucidates this complex, headstrong historical figure. Randy Meyer
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved

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