American Priestess by Jane Fletcher Geniesse

Well the pile of books by my bed is just growing and growing and yet I rarely sit down to log them into this little blog. And even worse if they are library books they get returned far too often with out getting reviewed at all.

American Priestess; The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem. This was a fascinating- and disturbing book. A Swedish immigrant who marries a wealthy and very religious man. She is in a ship wreck coming back from Europe in which all her children are killed. She returns to a religious husband (until now a quality she seemed merely to tolerate) who has lost their fortune and many others in risky investments. She finds God- in the guidance of her husband who has visions. They then lead a group of faithful to Jerusalem to await the return of Christ as for told by her husband. While in Jerusalem her husband becomes more and more distant from the group and this world. It is up to Anna to find a way to survive. She does by turning their followers, converts, and their children into slaves to run her many business enterprises in Jerusalem. Many of these converts are immigrants from Sweden who have no way to return. The first generation stayed faithful most of their lives, but the second generation denied education while her daughters received the best, made to sleep on the floor in the halls when they could rent out rooms of the mansion, forbidden to marry and have children until her daughters desire to do so as well- are much more bitter. This is a very interesting look at the workings of what I would call a cult. It definitely started out as a religious order, but as her husband lost control of the group and Anna took over there was a noticeable shift in the work and intent of the group. The author was able to interview some of the surviving records and the journals a letters of Anna and the members. It was a very interesting read.