Acquired Book By:
I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Redfield Farm” virtual book tour through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of “Redfield Farm” direct from the author Judith Redline Coopey, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I had disclosed my connection to the Underground Railroad through my ancestral line whilst I interviewed the author, however, more to the point, I believe there will be a need to keep mindful of stories involving the Underground Railroad until such a time in our current timeline of history where racial intolerance and injustice is no longer a headline in the news media. Even as I penned my thoughts on behalf of this fictional story set within the time frame of the author’s historical past, I learnt of a new story emerging (courtesy of Twitter’s Trending Stories) which shows how far we still have to travel for the civil rights and liberties for all persons living in our country to be acknowledged and defended.
Fiction proves to seek a way forward in our national conscience and our conversation about where we need to strive to put a positive step forward towards change. Historical fiction gives us a way forward through acknowledging the past, seeing how history wronged individuals and how the courage of those who fought to free slaves caught in states who were not free to live on their own terms, truly helped make progress happen. It saddens me there are new issues facing us where we still do not live in a society where acceptance of our differences is not yet commonplace.
Writers such as Judith Redline Coopey are boldly taking a stand by providing readers with a compelling drama set during a tumultuous time in history which echoes forward a chilling reality readers today can sympathise with recognition.
Redfield Farm: A Novel of the Underground Railroad
by Judith Redline Coopey
Source: Author via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
Book Synopsis of Redfield Farm:
Ann Redfield is destined to follow her brother Jesse through life – two years behind him – all the way. Jesse is a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and Ann follows him there as well.
Quakers filled with a conviction as hard as Pennsylvania limestone that slavery is an abomination to be resisted with any means available, the Redfield brother and sister lie, sneak, masquerade and defy their way past would-be enforcers of the hated Fugitive Slave Law.
Their activities inevitably lead to complicated relationships when Jesse returns from a run with a deadly fever, accompanied by a fugitive, Josiah, who is also sick and close to death. Ann nurses both back to health. But precious time is lost, and Josiah, too weak for winter travel, stays on at Redfield Farm. Ann becomes his teacher, friend and confidant. When grave disappointment disrupts her life, Ann turns to Josiah for comfort, and comfort leads to intimacy. The result, both poignant and inspiring, leads to a life long devotion to one another and their cause.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780978924744
Published by Indi Publishing Group
on 3rd August, 2010
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 280
Published By: Indi Publishing Group
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Converse on Twitter via: #JudithRedlineCoopey, #JudithRedlineCoopeyBlogTour
About Judith Redline Coopey
Judith Redline Coopey, born in Altoona, PA holds degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and Arizona State University. A passion for history inherited from her father drives her writing and a love for Pennsylvania sustains it.
Her first book, Redfield Farm was the story of the Underground Railroad in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The second, Waterproof, tells how the 1889 Johnstown Flood nearly destroyed a whole city and one young woman’s life. Looking For Jane is a quest for love and family in the 1890s brought to life through the eyes of Nell, a young girl convinced that Calamity Jane is her mother.
Her most recent work, The Furnace: Volume One of the Juniata Iron Trilogy, is set on an iron plantation near where she grew up and tells the story of an ill conceived marriage of convenience as it plays out over a lifetime. As a teacher, writer and student of history,
Ms Coopey finds her inspiration in the rich history of her native state and in stories of the lives of those who have gone before.
How Judith Redline Coopey gives you stirring family drama:
This is my first Coopey novel, but it’s not going to be the last I will read because I’m seriously finding myself properly engaged with the words inked onto the page! Coopey has taken conviction and placed a hearty story inside Redfield Farm which is convincingly brilliant because it’s about ordinary life being lived during the 19th Century where everything was difficult but the hardest part of living was the endless unknowns which propped themselves up like unwanted snow against the boards of a barn. You had to sort a way through life’s adversaries and life’s disappointments, sometimes to the brink of not owning up to your own feelings. It’s how she leveraged such an honest portrayal of dignity in the light of grace on behalf of Ann Redfield that truly stirred my soul’s attention to the novel.
My review of Redfield Farm:
Ann Redfield is the central lead character inside Redfield Farm, a story in of itself is a family drama set against the anguish of years the Underground Railroad was in full force. We enter into Ann’s life as a retrospective accountment of her tender years growing up on an active farm whilst being one of seven children whose Mum tragically passes on attempting to carry her eighth into the world. Rising up to the challenge of filling in the void of a mother’s role, Ann puts her own concerns on hold for the better good of her family; except to say, not entirely of her own choosing.
Ann is a member of the Quaker faith, and Coopey does a good job of allowing the religious differences between the characters and the reader feel as if there isn’t a barrier between them. In so doing, she gives you a walking awareness of Quaker traditions and a respect for how their faith is stitched into how their lives proceed forward through the difference stages of their maturity. I have appreciated reading stories of the Amish and Mennonite previously, but it isn’t oft I get to read a Quaker story; now that I have become more familiar with them through reading Redfield Farm I will be seeking out more titles, because I appreciate their traditions as much as how connected their communities strive to seek a positive path towards a future within their folds.
The main thread of the novel is anchoured between Ann’s close friendship with her brother Jesse and the operations of her family’s role in the Underground Railroad itself. Jesse was ahead of his years by half to Ann’s in how he understood where faith can lead a man forward where progress by man’s law has not yet caught on to the grace he knew within his heart. Ann followed her brother’s instincts and developed her own along the way – as how she was raised, certain things did not come easy to her as far as close quarters with men but as her friendship with Josiah starts to develop out of necessity to keep him safe from travelling whilst he recovers from illness; Ann’s faith and heart run straight to center to her actions.
There is a thread of the story-line about a family who is a bit of an outcast in the community, as they fell from grace with their Quaker neighbours, yet they tend to knit outside the background of the central story; a bit indifferent to the needs of others, and focused more on their own kind. A few good apples in the bunch, but it is how Ann observes their behaviour from the outside peering into their world, we start to see how her own spirit is leading her heart in other areas. She is a natural caretaker, as her spirit is attached to compassion and sympathy even at times when her own sensibility is put to the test. I enjoyed seeing her balance her innermost thoughts against where her faith gave her guidance to bite her tongue. It’s a true instance of where our humanness and our faith sometimes get caught up in a toe dance. This was especially true when the love of her life shatters her heart by choosing a path she was blindsided from seeing coming. I felt Coopey gave Ann leeway to purge her emotional heart in a way that both felt true to Ann’s nature and an awakening of sorts to allow Ann to be more true to her own truth.
Your heart aches for Ann and Josiah, as much as for Lettie; the circumstances which united the three of them are guttingly difficult to read because love is the connective thread uniting them. Ann even makes a daring choice to give Josiah and Lettie a piece of her own soul in order to keep someone quite dear to her free from bigotry and intolerance. This is a story which grieves the reader in different places due to the realistic way in which Coopey presents the events therein. Your fully tied to the novel, feeling everything Ann feels and worried as much as she is about what may or may not happen. Fear plays a strong role but faith is underlit to guide not just the characters but the reader as well. Faith to believe in an outcome that will not wench out a part of your heart but restore a bit of hope.
Life ebbs and flows throughout Ann’s life, tethering her to her family and to where God placed her on a path to aide those who needed her most. Even her adversary Pru had a way of teaching her something she never expected to find; sometimes it’s the people who buck us the most in life are the ones who need our friendship more than we need theirs. Her relations married and continued the family line, some well and some met with tragedy. The war which felt at the time would be the last war fought raged onwards and despite it’s deepening effect on Redfield Farm a whole, Ann found even more courage in it’s wake. Ann lived her entire life on prayer and a hope which burnt a candle towards peace. Her story gives you a quaking of pause and a formidable look back on where history has brought us forward to here.
This blog tour is courtesy of: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
The Virtual Road Map for “Redfield Farm” can be found here:
{ concurrent to reviews of Redfield Farm are The Furnace,
Looking for Jane, & Waterproof; you will also find more author guest features }
Earlier on the 6th of April, I shared my conversation with Ms Coopey on behalf of the inspiring back-story of how Redfield Farm was conceived and written. Readers who love watching “Who Do You Think You Are?” will enjoy the ancestral background knitted into the writing. I had intended to post my review lateron that evening, however, I took ill and was unable to compose my thoughts until late in the evening hours on the 7th of April; after a wicked lightning storm had kicked me offline. I found my mind a bit out of focus to be honest the afternoon of the 7th as overnight I was fighting off a stomach virus. Settling into Redfield Farm was a pure delight, Coopey compells you forward as you read her text, and properly alights you in the 19th Century during one family’s courageous fight against ending slavery. Her patience in me to deliver my thoughts on this blog tour are surely appreciated and noted.
Curiously, before the clock struck midnight (shy of a half hour) I heard the familiar hootings of an owl — yet, it’s been half an age since I’ve seen an owl last, as it was during a bad thunderstorm I caught sight of one in a tree. We had a horrid lightning storm earlier, and I wonder if it drew the owl out? His hootings make me think there is a message to be delivered with an urgent hastiness to be heard!
Find all the wicked happy stories coming soon to Jorie Loves A Story:
Reader Interactive Question:
What do you find to be the best part of discovering a historical novel based on real-life settings, circumstances, and people who lived whilst their stories are set within a fictional world? Have you read other stories of the Underground Railroad you would recommend to me? I loved reading The House Girl by Tara Conklin (review) and I am looking forward to reading Glow by Jessica Maria Tuccelli in May as a readalong with Cassie @casseroleblog! (we met-up at #HistoricalFix | @HistoricalFix Inaugural Chat hosted by Erin Lindsay McCabe (@ErinLindsMcCabe) of I Shall Be Near to You (review). Although I do believe we were both in attendance of the #IShall chat too!
For those who love chattering about #histfic on Twitter, stay tuned! The next #HistoricalFix chat is upcoming this Summer : July 2015! Be sure to follow the chat’s feeds for more info!
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Redfield Farm”, “The Furnace”, “Looking for Jane”, and “Waterproof”, author photograph for Judith Redline Coopey, author biography, book synopsis, and blog tour banner were all provided by HFVBT (Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours) and used with permission. Ruminations & Impressions Book Review Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Photo Credit: Unsplash Public Domain Photographer Sergey Zolkin. Rainbow Digital Clip Art Washi Tape made by The Paper Pegasus. Purchased on Etsy by Jorie and used with permission. Comment Box Banner made by Jorie in Canva. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Fiction Writers Blog Hop badge created by Jorie in Canva. Jorie Loves A Story Cuppa Book Love Awards Badge created by Jorie in Canva. Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2015.
Tweets shared as I read the novel:
{ share if inspired }
#currentlyreading Redfield Farm by @JudithCoopey wicked lightning storm kicked me offline, settled into my #bookblog & blessed to read this
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) April 8, 2015
{ shared review April 2015 }
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
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