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Richard Kennedy, a former hospital administrator in Rhode Island and California, is a retired Army Reserve colonel who commanded five hospital in Desert Storm. A Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, he now teaches at Quinnipiac University. He has lectured worldwide on 18th century medicine and has conducted living history presentations at universities, elementary and high schools, and at community events. He serves as "surgeon" to the Pawtuxet Rangers and the 6th Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line.
Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
"Leeches and Liberty" is a well-written novel in diary format of a physician's recollection of village life in our Revolutionary War years. Young Luke Carr cannot settle upon a career that his family approves of and so he runs away from his home in England to the colonies where he settles down in Pawtuxet, Rhode Island.
Luke's day to day memories involve his learning of medicine and how to use the healing herbs of that day. Luke recounts his friendship with the Pawtuxet villagers and how they come to him for help with their ills, real or imaginary. He tells of his marriage to Hope Tucker and their family life together, happy times and tragic as well. Luke also tells of how he comes to hate British control over the New World Colonies and how the Revolutionary War begins and spreads. He tells of serving as a doctor in the Continental Army and having to treat the soldiers and having to perform amputations which he hated doing. Want to know about purges and elixirs? It is all here in this delightful piece of historical fiction.
"Leeches and Liberty" is readable and highly enjoyable. Author Kennedy has made Luke Carr's diary a believable glimpse into troubling times in our history when slavery was accepted and blacks were sold to fill out army regiments. Through Luke Carr's eyes, the reader will understand how difficult it was for people to accept inoculations against small pox and medical advice in general."Leeches and Liberty" is a living, breathing look at village life with both friendships and personal confrontations back in Revolutionary War times. Readers should line up to read this gem of a book.
