Mercy Goodhue

MERCY GOODHUE A PURITAN WOMAN'S STORY OF BETRAYAL, WITCHCRAFT AND MADNESS Imagine a time when nights were darker than dark, when God was a harsh judge, when witches were believed to be real, when medicine was mixed with superstition and magic, when women were expected to “be fruitful and multiply” from marriage until menopause. Imagine a time when a large picture of an eye was tacked to the front of the pulpit in the Puritan meetinghouse, reminding men, women, and children that God was always watching. Welcome to Massachusetts in the 17th Century. MERCY GOODHUE is the story of a Puritan woman who is driven to the brink of madness by the harsh religious beliefs of her time. It is also the story of a tenacious midwife and herbalist, Goody Hammer, who never gives up on Mercy, and saves her from committing an unthinkable crime. MERCY GOODHUE brings together a colorful array of historical characters (the pioneer, John Winthrop, the “heretic” Anne Hutchinson, the zealot, John Cotton) and fictional ones like the mysterious Goody Hammer who “meddles in phisicks and oyles.” The story is loosely based upon an excerpt taken from the diary of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who in 1637 wrote about such a woman, Anne Needham Hett.

MERCY GOODHUE A PURITAN WOMAN'S STORY OF BETRAYAL, WITCHCRAFT AND MADNESS Imagine a time when nights were darker than dark, when God was a harsh judge, when witches were believed to be real, when medicine was mixed with superstition and magic, when women were expected to “be fruitful and multiply” from marriage until menopause. Imagine a time when a large picture of an eye was tacked to the front of the pulpit in the Puritan meetinghouse, reminding men, women, and children that God was always watching. Welcome to Massachusetts in the 17th Century. MERCY GOODHUE is the story of a Puritan woman who is driven to the brink of madness by the harsh religious beliefs of her time. It is also the story of a tenacious midwife and herbalist, Goody Hammer, who never gives up on Mercy, and saves her from committing an unthinkable crime. The story begins in 1630 when Mercy, a joyous young girl entering womanhood, sails with her family upon the Winthrop Fleet to Massachusetts. Mercy finds love with the handsome Joshua, but then a painful betrayal forces her to keep a secret that threatens to destroy her earthly life and her hope for salvation. MERCY GOODHUE brings together a colorful array of historical characters (the pioneer, John Winthrop, the “heretic” Anne Hutchinson, the zealot, John Cotton) and fictional ones like the mysterious Goody Hammer who “meddles in phisicks and oyles.” The story is loosely based upon an excerpt taken from the diary of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who in 1637 wrote about such a woman, Anne Needham Hett.

A native of Chicago, Elizabeth Kern received a BS degree in Communications from the University of Illinois. After a thirty-year corporate career where she managed employee communications most recently at Apple in Cupertino, California, she received an MLA (Masters of Liberal Arts) degree at Stanford University. It was at Stanford that Kern developed her love of Colonial American history and her interest in the endlessly fascinating Puritans. MERCY GOODHUE, A PURITAN WOMAN'S STORY OF BETRAYAL, WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC, is her second novel. She is also author of a very different story, WANTING TO BE JACKIE KENNEDY, based upon her experiences growing up in Chicago in the 1960s. Kern’s passion for Chicago’s history and people has led her to begin her third novel, FIRE ANGELS, also set in the Windy City. Kern is the mother of two grown children. She and her husband, Lee, live in the gentle hills of Sonoma County, California.