The Peculiar People is the third of a four-volume epic of Quaker life in America, which began with his best-selling The Peaceable Kingdom. The Civil War is still twenty-five years away, but the Abolitionist movement is gaining in strength and popularity. The Society of Friends (or "Peculiar People," as they wryly refer to themselves) struggles to maintain its nonviolent way of life as the bitter debates over slavery and the abuse of American Indians that are beginning to tear the nation apart rage within this closed community as well. Determined to heal the Quakers' rift are Mordecai Monk, a charismatic preacher battling his own personal demons, and Lydia Best, a single-minded idealist who listens to no one but her conscience and her God. Upholding a centuries-old treaty of friendship, Mordecai and Lydia join a convoy of Mahanoy Indians who are being evicted by the United States Cavalry from their ancient hunting grounds. As they share the Mahanoys' suffering, Mordecai and Lydia achieve a personal triumph of faith and deed, and the Society of Friends renews its own compassion and nobility of spirit. De Hartog weaves this dramatic tale into the very fabric of the American experience: the aspiration to settle a great continent, the desire to do God's will, and the need to be human. Tbe Peculiar People stands fully on its own as a novel. It is also part of a true epic, the dramatic adventures and spiritual strivings of those known as Quakers.
The Peculiar People
