A blow to the head had split the man's skull. His skeleton lay crumpled in the packed earth, the mouth gaped wide in a scream that had echoed soundlessly through the years since his death in 1622. The time was now the 1970s and the lost Virginia settlement of Martin's Hundred had been discovered.
Between 1619 and 1621, 3,560 people traveled to Virginia. Planters went hoping to find rich land. Women went hoping to find husbands. Servants went hoping to find freedom. All found hunger and disease. Of the 3,560 immigrants, 3,000 found death.
In 1979, I saw a photo of the skull that had been unearthed in Martin's Hundred. I immediately wanted to learn as much as I could about the man and how he died, and I knew I wanted to write a story for young adults with him as a character. After fifteen years of research and writing, Sarah, On Her Own was published.
