Though it has been suggested that 355 played a role in uncovering Benedict Arnold’s treachery, her involvement is not provable in the historical record. History does tell us, however, that Benedict Arnold scoured New York City for rebel spies after he turned coat and became a British general. A spy from Culper Ring, within which 355 operated, was among those who were captured and imprisoned. This upset Robert Townsend so deeply that he left New York for a time.

I like to think 355 did contribute to foiling Arnold’s plan to turn over West Point. Had he pulled it off, the war might have had a very different outcome. Whatever impact 355 made, big or small, in my eyes she was a trailblazer and a heroine.

Frannie represents the imaginative leap I took from the facts available on 355, but many figures in Rebel Spy were real. George Washington, of course. Benedict Arnold, whose very name connotes treachery. For the English side, General Henry Clinton and Major John André, who conspired with Benedict Arnold and paid the ultimate price for it.

The Culper spy network had a handful of central figures, and Robert Townsend was one of them. A storeowner in British-occupied New York, Townsend was in a key position to obtain intelligence—and then funnel it through dead drops and furtive exchanges to the other Culper spies so that it ultimately ended up in General George Washington’s hands. (Washington was quite a spymaster. Recognizing his steep disadvantage against the mightier British military, he sent out scouts and spy networks, using their information to help bridge the gap.) Anna Strong was also deeply involved with the Culper spies. Some even believe she was 355. Though not a Culper spy, Elizabeth Burgin was also real and received a pension from Washington himself for her efforts in freeing some two hundred men from the prison hulks in Wallabout Bay. (To date, no one has uncovered how she accomplished this.)

There were vast social disparities in America in 1776. The slave trade forced unimaginable horrors on hundreds of thousands for whom liberty was utterly out of reach. Native Americans were stripped of sacred lands and wrenched into a war that was not of their making. Experiences varied widely, depending on one’s race, class, sex, location, and political paradigm. This book focuses on the highly privileged, wealthy white class. I chose to make Frannie an immigrant because the experience is close to me.

The histories of the American Revolution lean on the contributions of men: The Founding Fathers. The Sons of Liberty. Paul Revere’s brave ride and Nathan Hale’s brave words. But women also played important roles in the war. They held farmsteads and families together. They served as nurses, fund-raisers, political writers, spies, and much more. They filled the spaces that were allowed them—and a few found ways to go beyond. For more than any other reason, I wrote this story to help shed a little light on a great woman of the past in hopes that doing so will illuminate the path forward for many others.