I strongly recommend this book, Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles. It’s the story of a group of American woman, led by Anne Morgan (daughter of J.P. Morgan) and her life partner, Anne Murray Dike, who went to war-torn northeastern France before the end of World War I to help provide healthcare, nutrition, basic necessities, and other services to people who lived in an area so destroyed by war that some of the villages were completely annihilated.
Most of the volunteers who went with them were heiresses and rich debutantes who had to pay their own expenses. This novel, however, focuses on Jessie “Kit” Carson, a middle-class children’s librarian from the New York Public Library. Jessie believed with all her heart that children who had lost everything and suffered unspeakable terror and trauma needed the power of story to reignite their hopes and dreams. She established a lending library and instituted the practice of mobile libraries, which drove to more than 100 villages to loan books and offer a weekly story hour. Before her innovations, France did not allow children in libraries nor did libraries have open stacks patrons could browse.
It’s a heartwarming story that does not at all shy away from the terrible consequences of war. I can’t recommend it highly enough to history lovers and book lovers alike.
Many of us know at least a minimal amount about the tragic Trail of Tears, in which the U.S. government forced the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole) to leave their ancestral lands and move to the Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River. Thousands died during the journey.
What is less known are the events that led up to this calamitous outcome. In her biographical novel Red Clay, Running Waters, Leslie K. Simmons provides an in-depth look at how the Cherokee fought to retain their homeland by focusing the story on one important figure: Skaleeloskee, known to history as John Ridge. The son of a Cherokee leader, John was sent from his home to a mission school in Connecticut at the age of 16. He excelled at his studies and became an accomplished orator. He also fell in love with Sarah Bird Northrup, the white daughter of the school’s steward.
In the 1820s, a relationship between a native man and white woman was controversial, and the young couple’s desire to marry creates a firestorm of opposition. However, the two had formed a deep bond, forged in part because of their attraction to each other but more importantly because of shared ideals. Simmons excels at portraying their love, both in the beginning infatuation stage and over the course of time. After persisting for two years, John and Sarah finally were allowed to marry in 1824. The prejudice and discrimination they faced because of their relationship was merely a foretaste of what was to come.
Sarah traveled with John to Georgia to live in the Cherokee Nation, which stretched across parts of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. The Cherokee were in the process of developing a constitutional government similar to that of the United States. John became a member of the National Council. However, because of Americans’ lust for good farmland and the 1828 discovery of gold in Georgia, the United States began to pressure the Cherokee to cede their homeland and move.
One mistake whites often make when thinking of native peoples is assuming that they are somehow monolithic in their thinking and in their attitudes toward whites. As I learned while writing my own novel Blood Moon: A Captive’s Tale, that is often not the case. Factions existed among the Cherokee with strongly held, opposing opinions about how to deal with the U.S. government’s demands. John, supported by Sarah, fought hard for what he thought would be the best solution, but equally passionate leaders argued for other outcomes.
Simmons portrays the conflict in detail in her novel. The arguments were complex, and some of the people involved were inconsistent and at times devious. Although highly educated and skilled at both writing and speaking, John wasn’t always trusted by more traditional Cherokee who viewed him as “too white.” The situation in the novel vividly shows the dilemma often faced by native peoples: do they adopt white ways to gain tools to help fight for their people, or is the cost too high in the loss of their culture and perhaps legitimacy in the eyes of their people?
This novel will be especially appreciated by readers who enjoy policy debates and situations with multiple shades of grey rather than a clear blank-and-white outcome.
Readers’ Favorite Gives The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte the Gold Medal!
Welcome!
You have reached the author website of Ruth Hull Chatlien, author of The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte, based on the true story of Betsy Bonaparte, Blood Moon: A Captive’s Tale, based on the tale of Sarah Wakefield, taken captive during an Indian war, and Katie, Bar the Door, a contemporary tale of one young woman’s journey through trauma to healing.
Ruth Hull Chatlien has been a writer and editor of educational materials for nearly thirty years, specializing in U.S. and world history. She is the author of three novels. She lives in northeastern Illinois with her husband, Michael. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found gardening, knitting, or spoiling her dog Coco.
Ruth Hull Chatlien 