Introduction

PASSAIC FALCON

PASSAIC FALCON: A Tale of the American RevolutionIntroduction

PUBLISHED BY PUBLISHAMERICA,LLLP

ISBN: 978-1-4489-8437-4

Author: Daniel J. Cashman

     In the Royal Colony of East Jersey, the plantation owned by Edmund Kingsland and the mines owned by Arent Schuyler, sit atop a ridge on the peninsula formed by the Hackensack and Acquackanonck rivers. It is known as “Copper Ridge,” not only because of the high grade of copper ore Arent Schuyler is mining but because of the color of the rock making up the cliffs overlooking the Hackensack Meadowlands. Arriving on Barbadoes Neck as indentured servants, Edward and Elizabeth Fields worked tirelessly till they day of their emancipation. Their oldest son, Michael, at eleven years old, was the leader of a band of friends who called themselves, “Americans.” All had been born within the first year of their parents arriving with the great pump manufactured Josiah Hornblower and brought to East Jersey to pump the water out of Arent Schuyler’s mines. Frederick with his perennially dirty hands and face, Wilhelm, with a stock of brilliant red hair, just like his father, the Coopersmith and James and Eric, brothers separated by a full year yet looking like twins.

     The band had witnessed the return of the veterans of The French and Indian War, members of the Jersey Regiment who had been captured by the Iroquois and held for nearly two years. These men had displayed the highest degree of solidarity in the face of privation, torture and death. To their King, they were heroes. To their neighbors, they were heroes to be respected and emulated.

    Life in East Jersey was good. Thanks to a mild climate and fertile soil, food was always plentiful and nourishing. Every family had a plot on which they grew more than they needed, allowing them to barter for goods and services. Their proximity to New York Harbor brought manufactured goods from Europe in exchange for preserved meats, fish and fruits.

    The social centers of Copper Ridge are the manor houses of Kingsland and Schuyler. Guests were known to foray into the near by forests for hunting trips and return in the evening for banquet meals and dancing till late into the night. The manor houses are also known as centers for free thought. Benjamin Franklin visited the Kingsland manor and is reported to have said, “The only thing more daring than the ladies, are the ideas discussed there.”

56 pages