As Good as Dead:

Penelope Thomson is a young woman from the seventeenth century who is forced by her father into marriage with a young baron. The young couple travels from Holland to the New World almost immediately after their wedding. Penelope is shipwrecked, attacked by Indians, made a widow, left for dead, and compelled to make her own way in America in one of the most unique stories ever told. She meets Richard Stout, who is almost twice her age, and he becomes more than just her rescuer. They, along with other new settlers, are forced to battle a corrupt government and hostile enemies, all the while trying to hold on to what they have built.