Our Own Country (2016)
Our Own Country, the second volume of the Midwife trilogy, is about Eliza Miller, Lizzie’s sister-in-law, whom we meet (and don’t much like) in the first novel. In Cambridge, this prosperous merchant’s daughter lives a charmed life—until war breaches the walls of the family estate and forces her to live in a world in which wealth can no longer protect her.
As the chaos of the Revolutionary War tears her family apart, Eliza finds herself drawn to her uncle’s slave, John Watkins. Their love leads to her exile in Braintree, Massachusetts, home to radicals John and Abigail Adams and Eliza’s midwife sister-in-law, Lizzie Boylston. But even as the uprising takes hold, Eliza can’t help but wonder whether a rebel victory will grant her and John the most basic of American rights.