Women of Harvard Square

It's July 1775, the start of American independence from the British Crown, and George Washington's Continental Army has set up headquarters in Cambridge Massachusetts, the home of Harvard University. When eighteen-year-old Hannah Bradford, daughter of a prominent Harvard professor, takes her little brother for a walk, little does she know that a fortuitous encounter with Caleb Smith, a handsome young soldier in Washington's army, will change her life.

In The Women of Harvard Square, author M. Lynn Greene gives us a fictional, but historically based, account of the lives of seven very different women-young and old, white and Black, rich and poor, free and enslaved. In this compelling and richly detailed story we learn about the mores and customs of the day, the changing role of women, and the inherent dangers these women face due to the influx of soldiers between 1775 and 1780. Couples meet and fall in love, children are born, the Revolution continues, and tragedy strikes several of the families. In the end, the women find the challenges presented to them improve their lives in ways they could not have imagined.