The World of Hannah Heaton

C~ OME and hear all ye that fear god and will declare what he hath done for my soul. With this call for an audience Hannah Heaton (I 7 2 I I 7 94), a farm wife of North Haven, Connecticut, began her autobiography, recording events and reflections from the of the Great Awakening to the early years of the republic, in a work that has remained unpublished for two centuries.' This unusual manuscript, enclosed in a heavy brown leather cover, has been carefully handed down in the family to the present owners, who are the last direct descendants of its author. The pages, somewhat stained, measure 6'/2 x 8'/2 and are securely sewn with flax thread into two sections, the first containing pages one to 2I9, the second pages 220 to 435 followed by an additional fifty pages of copied family letters. The handwriting varies in size but is plain and clear, without ornamental flourishes. Intelligibility is only partially impaired by a complete lack of punctuation, capitalization, or paragraphing. Composing in moments snatched from work or before retiring at the end of a busy day, Heaton observed, i writ things as short as can for want of time (p. I 9).2

Art · Art history · Biography · Australian History and Society · Canadian Identity and History · History · Literature: history, themes, analysis

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