The Hidden Children — Robert W. Chambers / Robert William Chambers

Gender roles in the American Revolutionary War period were not exactly a bastion of progressiveness. However, even during a time when most women were encouraged to shrink from conflict and follow the lead of any man in the vicinity, there were a few iconoclastic females who broke this mold. The defiantly independent heroine at the center of The Hidden Children steadfastly refuses to be held down by social conventions she sees as useless.