The Other Dixwells

<p>Who could have imagined that the Chinese opium trade American feminism and the abolitionist crusade could be connected or that an entire branch of a prominent Boston commercial family could have been erased from the historic record for a century-and-a-half or that a multi-decade saga to restore them to history would begin when archaeology students excavated Chinese potsherds from a Native American archaeological site atop a remote ridge on the north coast of California?</p><p></p><p>Archaeologist Tom Layton follows those potsherds to their origin on the 1850 shipwreck of the Frolic a clipper brig owned by American merchants who hauled opium from India to China. Those potsherds lead to George Dixwell-opium expert inventor and part owner of the Frolic-and to clues about his marriage in China to Hu Ts'ai-shun a Manchu woman. Further research leads to the women of Dixwell's family tree who turned out to be writers and activists-aunt Judith Sargent Murray the grandmother of American Feminism and her niece Henrietta Sargent a fierce abolitionist who reported the first public speech of an escaped slave-Frederick Douglass. </p><p></p><p>Finally the sherds lead Layton to Ts'ai-shun's four American great-granddaughters who had preserved a trove of letters photos and diaries that enabled this story to be told.Layton reveals his scientifically documented archaeological record then dons the hat of a novelist filling in the spaces among the facts bringing these characters to life and producing an unforgettable read-a true adventure revealing the successes failures passions and secrets of a 19th-century American family.</p>