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Philadelphia in 1781 is bustling and thick with wartime intrigue, but thirteen-year-old Betsy Zane is bored: tired of her great-aunt's stories about the old days, and tired of living in a hot, dirty city. She'd rather be riding her horse, the Merry May, along the Ohio River she remembers from childhood, galloping faster that the wind. When great-aunt Elizabeth dies, Betsy makes her way to her brother's homestead In the western wilderness. But the freedom she expected to find on the frontier is not as easily come by as she had hoped. Just Like her great-aunt before them, Betsy's brothers, the military authorities, and even the charming young lieutenant who comes courting--all have strong opinions about how a young lady should behave. Based on the life of the real Betsy Zane, including her historic run for gunpowder, which turned the tide in the final battle of the Revolutionary War, this novel offers a compelling portrait of a young woman and of a new nation, both on the very brink of independence.
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