The Red Heart: A Novel

The Red Heart brings to vivid life the true story of a woman and her captivity with the Lenape Indians. The Slocum family, living in the Susquehanna Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania, are the best of the white settlers, peace-loving Quakers who are unique for their time in believing that the Indians hold the Light of God inside. It is from this good-hearted family that Frances is abducted during the Revolutionary War. As the child's terror subsides, she is slowly drawn into the sacred work and beliefs of her adoptive mother and of all the women of these Eastern tribes. Frances becomes Maconakwa, the Little Bear Woman of the Miami Indians, and a woman who keeps the good of her people at the center of her heart. Long after the Indians are beaten, and their last hope, Tecumseh, is killed, the Slocums hear word of their long-lost daughter. Now prosperous community leaders, the family heads out to Indiana to meet their beloved Frances. But for Maconakwa, it is a moment of truth, the test of whether her heart is truly a red one.