SARAH




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, 3560 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 3560 immigrants, 3000 found death. In 1979, I saw a photo of the skull that had been uncovered 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. I began to do research for the book that would become Sarah On Her Own. Fifteen years later, the book was published. I had revised and polished so extensively, the editor never asked me to do a final revision. Sarah On Her Own tells the story of fourteen-year-old Sarah Douglas, who is orphaned on the voyage to Virginia in 1620. Settling in Martin's Hundred, she finds despair, tragedy, and, eventually, contentment and hope. The high point of the story occurs during and after the Indian uprising of March 22, 1622, in which 347 Virginia settlers died. Based on extensive research, the book includes historical figures of the time and presents an accurate picture of life in early Virginia.


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