AHOY, PEGGY STEWART!

by Maud Esther Dilliard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 1956

Through this seems deceptively juvenile in manner this is a story that digs up a bone of contention through a true incident that caused the people of Annapolis heartbreak and consternation just before the Revolutionary War. After the signing of the Non-importation Act, the Peggy Stewart, a ship owned by Mr. Stewart, an Annapolis merchant, returned with a cargo of tea which had been smuggled aboard her in England. To be able to discharge his passengers, the ship's captain had to pay the tea tax. With Stewart rumored to hold Tory sympathies, angry Whigs took action, but when the evidence was examined they concluded that Stewart and his captain could have done nothing else under the circumstances. Nevertheless, a bunch of hot heads, led by a Dr. Warfield, took the law into their own hands and burned the Peggy Stewart anyway. Though it was definitely proved the tea was smuggled aboard, Stewart's later removal to the Tony side gives the incident an air of unfinished business. Who was right, Warfield or the more temperate Whigs? Told through the eyes of eight year old Toby Beymour, whose Uncle Jack had sailed aboard the Peggy Stewart, this should help give youngsters some idea that all is not straight and true even in a cause so white as freedom. Good.

Pub Date: Aug. 27, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION