Acts of Courage: Laura Secord and the War of 1812

Historian Connie Brummel Crook dramatizes the life of Laura Secord, one of Canada's most enduring heroines. From her early days in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, amid the turmoil that followed the American Revolutionary War, the story outlines Laura's father's difficult decision to move his family to Upper Canada. James Secord's courtship of Laura is described against the backdrop of homesteading on the Niagara Peninsula and the imminent threat of invasion. These first sections of the book provide the background for Laura's courageous rescue of her husband from the battlefield, her discovery of the American's plan to invade the British outpost at Beaver Dams, and her twenty-mile trek through swamps and thick bush to warn Colonel FitzGibbon of the impending attack. Laura's extraordinary life is given even more poignancy and interest by Crook's acute eye for historical detail and her insight into the character of a young woman whose heroic journey has captured the imagination of generations of readers.