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The
gas powered lights are dim in the Amish store and the aisles are
cramped with goods that cater to both Englisch and
Amish alike. The book section is especially crowded as mothers from
both worlds scan the shelves for things suitable for their families to
read. I see the traditional Little House titles,
books by Amish authors, and some classics like Treasure Island.
On one shelf of older reading materials I find a prize—The
Drummer’s Wife and Other Stories from the Martyrs’ Mirror.
Sounds dry, right? But actually it’s a translated collection from the
book the Amish value second only to their Bibles.
On a recent buggy ride with Tim
King, an Amish man in his mid-forties, patient, weathered, and
charmingly talkative, I ask if his family has a copy of the Martyrs’
Mirror. He replies with faint alarm. “Ach,
yep, surely.” He goes on to tell me that the value of the book lies in
its accounts of the horrific and tremendous persecution suffered by the
Amish before they immigrated to America. He says, “We must remember so
that we do not ever do the same.” And then I understand the amazing
response by the Amish to the Nickel Mine shootings . . . how they
embraced the child and wife of the killer. They will not hate; they
understand the power of hatred firsthand.
In a literary world inundated
with the idealized Amish life, it is important to remember the history
of these people, a history characterized by persecution, loss, and
difficulty. The blanketed fields that we associate with Amish
communities began with a very small kernel of Amish population that has
grown to survive and thrive beneath the hand of God. Without a doubt,
their strength today lies in the power and responsiveness of community.
But it was not always so, and I wanted to understand the beginnings of
the Amish faith in Penn’s Woods (Pennsylvania) so that I could portray
my characters with the depth and wealth of historical accuracy behind
them. So in the subgenre of Amish, the beginnings of a new look at the
way of life of this people is found in Arms of Love.
I
soon discovered, though, that Amish history is largely oral in
tradition in the America of 1777. I searched old books on Lancaster and
dissidents—the Amish, in general, did not participate in the bearing of
arms during the War for Independence, unless a man would leave his
faith behind. I read agrarian reports on the cultivation and clearing
of William Penn’s land. And then I discovered the genius resource of
Dr. Steven Nolt, who is the author of ten books, mainly dealing
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with
Amish and Mennonite life, and was unfailingly kind to me in answering
my many questions. His counsel on the time period led me to books like Rural
Pennsylvania Clothing and Sunbonnets and Shoofly
Pies—which were meticulously researched in details of early
American Amish life. Even the emergence of what we call Penn Dutch
today has its dialectical roots in words used by the Amish of this
time.
In all of this research, I was
most surprised by the sheer lack of numbers of Amish who lived at the
turn of the eighteenth century―approximately only 1200 lived here until
another migration in the early 1800s. Choosing to follow evangelical
Christians, intermarrying into other peace-keeping sects, or leaving
the faith for personal reasons took a heavy toll on the burgeoning
communities. More than that, these desertions attacked the very sense
of community that so characterizes the Amish of today. Yet, God had a
plan for this people as thousands now thrive and work in many different
states.
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