The way of Duty A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionay America by Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel, Jr - Essay Example

. Besides being the co- author of the famous book “The Way of Duty” along with Joy D. Buel, he is also the author of Dear Liberty (1980), Securing the Revolution (1972) and many others. His education took place at Amherst College and Harvard Universities and was the honored recipient of several fellowships. Currently he is a member of the Connecticut Council for Humanities and the Connecticut State Historical Commission The story revolves around a woman, Mary Fish Silliman (1736 – 1818) and her family who lived during the American Revolution.

Mary Fish was born on 30th May 1736 in a place called Stonington in Connecticut. Her father was Reverend Joseph Fish who came from Massachusetts while her mother was Rebecca. Theirs was a close knit family whose lives revolved around religion. Though there were three different religious communities in order to make it easier for people to go to church, yet on all essential religious, church or political matters, the ministry and the people of Stonington were united. The family lived about one and a half mile away from the church in a huge two storied parsonage.

Some distance away from the Parish were the houses and farms of the parishners. The family led a comfortable and peaceful life having purchased a small farm with a few servants and slaves. All through her girlhood Mary maintained a private journal which she filled with her exciting experiences and reminiscences which she jotted down when she was sixty four years old. In Mary’s own words, “that they would prove instructive and entertaining to my dear children when the hand that writes could move no more” ( ) One of the greatest religious influences during this period was ‘Deism’ especially for the Americans of the upper classes.

The Enlightenment rationalism highly influenced the Congregational, Presbyterian and Anglican clergy. However, in