This is a multigenerational saga beginning in the Revolutionary era, and extending to the late 19th century. The book is not as much an immigration story – the family patriarch Jesse is already 6th-generation American when the story opens on his struggling farm in Vermont – but a migration story. We watch the very different experiences of his children as they take difficult journeys to start lives in various areas of the burgeoning United States.
New England farming was a notoriously difficult lifestyle. Notable among the experiences of Jesse’s children is that of Elijah, who moves to Virginia and marries into a genteel Southern plantation family, in contrast to his brother Calvin, who chooses a career as a lawyer and banker in Indiana.
Many facets of the story resonate with modern experiences: Elijah’s struggle to raise Southern sons who are lazy and entitled, spoiled by slave servitude; the speculative land bubble created by easy bank credit in 1837. Most notable is the saga of granddaughter Indiana Fletcher, who bequeaths her home to found Sweet Briar College in Virginia.
The book can be hard-going for the casual reader, structured as an academic study of contemporary letters, but the important themes ring out: the melancholic quality of life in the early United States despite almost limitless opportunity; education as a socioeconomic brass ring. Most surprising perhaps is the deep well of insecurity behind much of the upward-reaching behavior we normally attribute to American “exceptionalism.” A compelling read for students of the era.
First published in the Historical Novel Review
BONUS RECIPE: Holiday Mince Tarts
1¼ lb mincemeat (add 1cup dried apricots, 1/2 cup candied pineapple, zest of one orange, 1/2 tsp peppermint and 1/2 tsp almond extract all finely processed)
12 oz plain flour
3 oz lard
3 oz butter
pinch of salt
Powdered sugar for sprinkling
Make up the pastry by sifting the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and rubbing the fats into it until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Then add just enough cold water to mix to a dough that leaves the bowl clean.
Leave the pastry to rest in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, then roll half of it out as thinly as possible and cut it into two dozen 3 inch rounds, gathering up the scraps and re-rolling.
Then do the same with the other half of the pastry, this time using the 2½ inch cutter.
Grease 24 small muffin tins lightly and line them with the larger rounds. Fill these with mincemeat to the level of the edges of the pastry. Dampen the edges of the smaller rounds of pastry with water and press them lightly into position to form lids, sealing the edges.
Brush each one with milk and make three snips in the tops with a pair of scissors. Bake near the top of the oven for 25-30 minutes until light golden brown.
Cool on a wire tray and sprinkle with icing sugar.
When cool, store in an airtight container
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