Angelica : for love and country in a time of revolution / Molly Beer.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Few women of the American Revolution have come through 250 years of US history with such clarity and color as Angelica Schuyler Church. She was Alexander Hamilton's "saucy" sister-in-law, and the heart of Thomas Jefferson's "charming coterie" of artists and salonnières in Paris. Her transatlantic network of important friends spanned the political spectrum of her time and place, and her astute eye and brilliant letters kept them well informed.

A woman of great influence in a time of influential women (Catherine the Great and Marie-Antoinette were contemporaries), Angelica was at the red-hot center of American history at its birth: in Boston, when General Burgoyne surrendered to the revolutionaries; in Newport, receiving French troops under the command of her soon-to-be dear friend Marquis de Lafayette; in Yorktown, just after the decisive battle; in Paris and London, helping to determine the standing of the new nation on the world stage.

She was born as Engeltje, a Dutch-speaking, slave-owning colonial girl who witnessed the Stamp Act riots in the Royal British Province of New York. She came of age under English rule as Angelica, the eldest daughter of the most important family on the northern part of Hudson's River, raised to be a domestic diplomat responsible for hosting indigenous chiefs and enemy British generals at dinner. She was Madame Church, wife of a privateer turned merchant banker, whose London house was a refuge for veterans of the American war fleeing the guillotine in France. Across nationalities, languages, and cultures, across the divides of war, grievance, and geography, Angelica wove a web of soft-power connections that spanned the War for Independence, the post-war years of tenuous peace, and the turbulent politics and rival ideologies that threatened to tear apart the nascent United States

In this enthralling and revealing woman's-eye view of a revolutionary era, Molly Beer breathes vibrant new life into a period usually dominated by masculine themes and often dulled by familiarity. In telling Angelica's story, she illuminates how American women have always plied influence and networks for political ends, including the making of a new nation.

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Kirkus Book Review

A woman navigates revolution. Making an engaging book debut, Beer recounts the eventful life of Angelica Schuyler Church (1756-1814), the eldest of eight children born into a wealthy and influential Dutch family. Her mother was a van Rensselaer; her family tree included Livingstons and van Cortlandts. Like other aristocratic colonial families, hers owned slaves, an unquestioned economic necessity even for those who cried out for liberty. Contradictions and roiling politics defined her life: She was 19 when the colonies petitioned for independence, and her father, Philip Schuyler, soon became a commander of the Continental Army. Their Albany home became a meeting place for leaders of the revolution. As Angelica witnessed upheaval around her, she boldly upended her life. Although her family hoped she would marry a man of her class and means, she became attracted to John Carter, an English émigré, a man with "languid blue eyes and passionate political opinions." He had no family connections, no estate or hope of one, and no fortune, to all of which her parents objected. Faced with the choice of submitting to parental authority or rebelling, she made a fateful decision. She and Carter eloped. She learned that Carter had changed his name from Church to avoid paying creditors after he went bankrupt in England; his later financial success supplying American and French troops made it possible for him to repay his debts and reclaim his name. Angelica Carter became Mrs. Church. In Boston, Newport, Paris, and London, she moved in the same aristocratic circles into which she was born. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were close friends in Paris; her brother-in-law was Alexander Hamilton. She was godmother to his daughter. Beer draws on abundant archival sources to portray a shrewd, observant woman whose perspective affords a fresh look at her times. A brisk and vivid history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.