Hello! I’m a new blogger to Historical Hussies, and I’m excited to be here and share my research with you. During my writing career, I’ve published 34 historical romances from as early as England 1192, and as late as Chicago 1920’s. Needless to say, I’ve done a lot of research for every book I've written. Today I’m going to be talking about what I researched while writing my latest release, a historical western romance, 1885.
Several years ago, I had an idea for a story after watching the sequel to Gone with the Wind – Scarlett. If you’ve not seen the TV miniseries, she travels to Ireland to meet her relatives on her father’s side. While there, she sees the struggles between the English landlords and the way they treat the Irish rebels. This struggle was real and started back in 1760. Wealthy English men purchased land in Ireland and rented it out to the Irish tenant farmers. From the articles I’d read, the English treated their tenant farmers as poorly as the southern US states treated slaves during this era. For years, the Irish struggled to keep their lands, but the English landlords kept raising the rent, and eventually, the tenant farmers were thrown from their homes. Another movie that portrays this issue in Ireland is “Far and Away”.
In 1880, a general election was held and a law was passed, but it seemed that this law brought more fighting between the Irish rebels and the English landlords. It still took a few more years, and more battles to bring this issue to a close. Finally, by 1885, The Ashborne Act started a limited process that allowed tenant farmers to buy portions of the land using government loans.
My story, “Surrender Your Heart”, takes place in Savannah, Georgia. A portion of the plot focuses on the Irish rebels who were trying to punish the Englishmen for the battles that were happening across the sea in Ireland.
AUTHOR BIO:
Marie Higgins is a best-selling author of 50 sweet romance novels that have you on the edge of your seat. Her readers have dubbed her "Queen of Tease", because of all her twists and unexpected endings. Visit her website to discover more about her – https://authormariehiggins.wixsite.com/romance
Find her on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/marie.higgins.7543
And Twitter – https://twitter.com/mariehigginsXOX
Land War articles:
Posts
