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In 1818, Cherokee John Ridge seeks a young man’s education at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. While there, he is overcome with sickness yet finds solace and love with Sarah, the steward’s quiet daughter. Despite a two-year separation, family disapproval, defamatory editorials, and angry mobs, the couple marries in 1824.
Sarah reconciles her new family’s spirituality
and her foundational Christianity. Although, Sarah’s nature defies her new
family’s indifference to slavery. She befriends Honey, half-Cherokee and
half-African, who becomes Sarah’s voice during John’s extended absences.
Once arriving on Cherokee land, John argues to
hold the land of the Cherokees and that of his Creek neighbors from encroaching
Georgian settlers. His success hinges upon his ability to temper his Cherokee
pride with his knowledge of American law. Justice is not guaranteed.
Rich with allusions to Cherokee legends, ‘Tho I
Be Mute speaks aloud; some voices are heard, some are ignored, some do not
speak at all, compelling readers to listen to the story of a couple who heard
the pleas of the Cherokee.
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teacher and author
‘Tho I Be Mute: Based on the lives of John and Sarah Ridge
A Fireman’s Family I married my firefighter in 1995 with a Victorian ceremony at a turn of the century bed and breakfast in Marietta, Georgia. We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary last year. We have three children: Jacob, 23, Emma, 21, and Wyatt, 17, none of which inherited my love of history and literature. All three are science-minded young people. I’m so proud of them.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”-William Shakespeare. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Theatre. Directing is one of my passions. I’m most proud of my teen production of Of Mice and Men, Godspell and Blood Brothers, and adult cast productions of Annie Get Your Gun, Big River, and Spamalot. Directing is a lot like writing, except the story comes from the play/musical’s scriptwriter. Directing is in the light, the focus, the subtleties of set and costumes, of an actor’s gesture and inflection. If theatre and English were to have a love child, it would be the novel.
Just like the “Griswolds” When
I was young, no matter the expense, my parents believed in teaching my younger
brother and me a “living history” by visiting National Parks and historical
landmarks. My family would load the back of our green and wood-paneled station
wagon and hit the interstates. My favorite trip was to Mammoth Cave, Monticello
(Thomas Jefferson’s home), Mount Vernon (George Washington’s home), Jamestown
and Williamsburg, Virginia, and Washington D.C. My mother would say, “Life’s a
school.”
Can you recite them from memory? I
also have a master’s degree in English Education. Each year of a twenty-four
year teaching career, mostly spent in American Literature, I’ve read aloud the Gettysburg
Address and the Declaration of Independence to my students. With
five classes each school year, that makes 120 recitations of each American
foundational piece. How many people can say that? And yes, I can quote a great
deal by heart.
Generation X My
husband and I love a good road trip, listening to the 80’s rock of our youth:
Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and Def Leppard. My husband speeds when we listen to
Metallica. When we were dating, if a cassette tape quit working, he would open the
sliding window on his beat-up Ford Ranger and toss the thing in the bed of his
truck, perhaps never to be seen again.
We are road-tripping from Georgia to Oklahoma in June,
which we postponed last year due to Covid.
As an English educator, Heather Miller has spent twenty-three years teaching her students the author’s craft. Now, she is writing it herself, hearing voices from the past.
Miller’s foundation began in the theatre, through performance storytelling. She can tap dance, stage-slap someone, and sing every note from Les Misérables. Her favorite role is that of a fireman’s wife and mom to three: a trumpet player, a future civil engineer, and a future RN. There is only one English major in her house.
While researching, writing, and teaching, she is also working towards her M FA in Creative Writing. Heather’s corndog-shaped dachshund, Sadie, deserves an honorary degree.
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