Hope Leslie
Encyclopedia
Hope Leslie or Early Times in the Massachusetts is a novel
written by Catharine Maria Sedgwick. The book is considered significant because of its strong feminist
overtones and ideas of equity and fairness toward Native Americans, both of which were rare at the time the book was written. The book is a historical romance
, set mostly in 1643. A number of historical figures appear, including Puritan leader John Winthrop
, Puritan heretic Samuel Gorton
, and the Pequot Indian Mononotto.
. In the Bay colony, Fletcher marries a woman named Martha although he is still in love with Alice. After living in Boston, Massachusetts for a while, William moves the family to the newly founded Springfield, Massachusetts
and calls his home Bethel.
While there, Fletcher receives a letter that says Alice died while voyaging to the new colonies, but before dying, committed her two children, Alice and Mary, to Mr. Fletcher's care. Governor Winthrop procures two Indian servants to help Mrs. Fletcher with the increased domestic workload. The two servants are a sister and brother, Magawisca and Oneco, who are the children of the Pequot chief Mononotto. Mr. Fletcher and Oneco travel to Boston to pick up Alice and Mary, who have been rechristened as Hope and Faith. Oneco and Faith return to Bethel while Mr. Fletcher and Hope stay behind.
Before Mr. Fletcher returns from Boston, Mononotto and two Mohawk
warriors attack Bethel. Mrs. Fletcher and her infant son are killed, and Magawisca and Oneco are reunited with their father. Everell and Faith are taken captive. Mr. Fletcher, Hope, Digby, and Mr. Cradock arrive home to find everyone dead. They discover Jennet, a servant woman, who recounts the attack.
Mononotto leads his party through the wilderness to an Indian camp. There Mononotto attempts to execute Everell in retaliation to the wrongs he has suffered. Magawisca intervenes by throwing herself between the axe and Everell's neck. Her arm is severed and Everell escapes unharmed.
The next scene opens with a letter Hope has written seven years later to Everell who is studying in England. She writes of an episode where Cradock gets bitten by a rattlesnake while climbing Mount Holioke (later renamed Mount Holyoke
). Nelema stops by and does a treatment and he is cured. Jennet calls it witchcraft and Nelema is made to stand trial. Hope frees Nelema from jail and Nelema promises to send her sister Faith to her.
Hope is sent to live with the Winthrops in Boston for a while. Everell returns to America and stays with Mr. Fletcher, who now lives in Boston. Esther Downing, a niece of Mrs. Winthrop’s, becomes good friends with Hope. She seems to be everything that Hope is not: faithful, prudent, and studious. She is also kind. She tells a story of how Everell came to her death bed and her ensuing recovery. Esther is infatuated with Everell, which saddens Hope greatly. Everyone hopes Esther and Everell will marry, except Mr. Fletcher, who hopes to match the two children he raised.
The Winthrops want to pair Hope with Sir Philip Gardiner, a stranger who arrived in town on the same boat as Everell, and who has developed an interest in Hope Leslie. Sir Philip's page, Roslin, seems very odd indeed. It is later revealed that Roslin is Rosa, a former lover of Sir Philip's whom he has disguised as his male page. One evening, Hope and Esther attend a lecture pertaining to the case of Mr. Gorton. Uncharacteristically, Hope appears quite anxious. We later learn that Hope had that day received a visit from Magawisca, whom she had made plans to meet in the cemetery at 9pm that night. On the way home from the lecture, Hope impatiently leaves her escort, Sir Philip, and takes a detour to the burial ground. Hope briefly meets Roslin, who tells her that she must not trust Sir Philip. Unknown to Hope, Sir Phillip follows her and overhears the conversation with Magawisca that night. Magawisca explains that Faith has married Oneco and tries to warn Hope that her sister is very different from the sister she remembers. Nelema managed to tell Magawisca that Hope had saved her and wanted to repay her with a visit from her sister. Magawisca also explains that her sister is now a Catholic
.
Sir Philip runs into Hope on her way home, and he escorts her back to the Winthrop home. Everyone is worried because Hope was out alone at a late hour, and it had begun to rain heavily. Everell suspects that Hope and Sir Philip were out together.
To facilitate her meeting with Faith, Hope arranges for the party to stay on an island belonging to Winthrop, of which Digby is the guardian. While there, she implies to all present that Everell and Esther are going to get married, and puts their hands together. She never notices that Everell longs to be with her. Sir Philip comes, too, and she tells him that she never intends to marry him. Sir Phillip is upset by this.
Everyone else agrees to leave the island and Hope goes out to meet her sister on the shore. Hope embraces Faith and tries to talk to her only to realize that Faith no longer speaks English. Magawisca must interpret for them. Hope hugs her and tries to get her to come home with her. She even tries to bribe her sister, but to no avail. As they are meeting, a trap is sprung upon them. Magawisca and Faith are taken by English soldiers. Magawisca is imprisoned. Hope is taken captive by Oneco and meets up with Mononotto. Sir Phillip had laid the trap after overhearing Magawisca and Hope's plans in the cemetery.
Mononotto is struck by lightning as Oneco is trying to get away. He stops to take care of his father and while he does so, Hope escapes, but then runs into a group of sailors who chase her. She gets into a boat and the Italian sailor Antonio believes first that she is the Virgin Mary, and later that she is his patron saint. Hope does nothing to disabuse Antonio of this belief, and convinces him to row her to shore.
Hope arrives in town and passes out in Roslin/Rosa’s arms, who thinks of killing her out of jealousy for her closeness with Sir Philip, but doesn’t. Sir Phillip goes and visits Magawisca in jail. He gives her tools to escape with a promise that she take Rosalin with her. She refuses. Sir Phillip gets choked by Morton, whom he had claimed to be visiting. Sir Philip's true nature is momentarily revealed.
Everell attempts to save Magawisca, but fails. Hope also wants to free Magawisca, and comes up with a plan that involves Cradock, Everell, and Digby. At Magawisca's trial, Magawisca exposes Sir Phillip for the person that he really is. Sir Phillip leaves humiliated and determined to get Hope Leslie.
Jennet overhears Hope and Everell's plans to free Magawisca and communicates them to Sir Phillip. He plots to hire sailors to take her away. Hope takes Cradock with her to the jail and cleverly disguises him to look like Magawisca. She is so pleasant that the guard, Barnaby Tuttle, doesn’t notice the deception. While Hope, Cradock and Everell are gone, a sailor comes to the house, but nobody understands him. In the meantime, the generous Winthrop family has taken in a mysterious foreign sailor. The sailor turns out to be Oneco, who has returned to rescue Faith. Suddenly, they all realize that Hope is gone.
The sailors capture who they think is Hope and bring her back to the boat, which Rosa explodes by lighting a barrel of gunpowder, killing all but one sailor, who recounts the tale. Everell leads Magawisca to Digby, and she gets away safely. Antonio mistakenly reported to the house that Hope was taken and blown up, but to the family's relief, she is unharmed. By the end of the novel, Esther has realized that Everell and Hope love each other and she decides to return to England for a few years and remain unmarried. As if to right the original wrong of separating William Fletcher from Alice, their children, Everell Fletcher and Hope Leslie, are finally united.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Catharine Maria Sedgwick. The book is considered significant because of its strong feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
overtones and ideas of equity and fairness toward Native Americans, both of which were rare at the time the book was written. The book is a historical romance
Romance novel
The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...
, set mostly in 1643. A number of historical figures appear, including Puritan leader John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
, Puritan heretic Samuel Gorton
Samuel Gorton
Samuel Gorton , was an early settler and civic leader of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and President of the towns of Providence and Warwick for one term...
, and the Pequot Indian Mononotto.
Plot summary
The story begins in England with William Fletcher, a young man in love with a girl named Alice, whose father has forbidden her marriage to Fletcher on account of religious difference. Alice's father forces her to marry Charles Leslie instead. In despair, Fletcher decides to leave England and relocate to the Massachusetts Bay ColonyMassachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
. In the Bay colony, Fletcher marries a woman named Martha although he is still in love with Alice. After living in Boston, Massachusetts for a while, William moves the family to the newly founded Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
and calls his home Bethel.
While there, Fletcher receives a letter that says Alice died while voyaging to the new colonies, but before dying, committed her two children, Alice and Mary, to Mr. Fletcher's care. Governor Winthrop procures two Indian servants to help Mrs. Fletcher with the increased domestic workload. The two servants are a sister and brother, Magawisca and Oneco, who are the children of the Pequot chief Mononotto. Mr. Fletcher and Oneco travel to Boston to pick up Alice and Mary, who have been rechristened as Hope and Faith. Oneco and Faith return to Bethel while Mr. Fletcher and Hope stay behind.
Before Mr. Fletcher returns from Boston, Mononotto and two Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
warriors attack Bethel. Mrs. Fletcher and her infant son are killed, and Magawisca and Oneco are reunited with their father. Everell and Faith are taken captive. Mr. Fletcher, Hope, Digby, and Mr. Cradock arrive home to find everyone dead. They discover Jennet, a servant woman, who recounts the attack.
Mononotto leads his party through the wilderness to an Indian camp. There Mononotto attempts to execute Everell in retaliation to the wrongs he has suffered. Magawisca intervenes by throwing herself between the axe and Everell's neck. Her arm is severed and Everell escapes unharmed.
The next scene opens with a letter Hope has written seven years later to Everell who is studying in England. She writes of an episode where Cradock gets bitten by a rattlesnake while climbing Mount Holioke (later renamed Mount Holyoke
Mount Holyoke
Mount Holyoke, a traprock mountain, elevation , is the western-most peak of the Holyoke Range and part of the 100-mile Metacomet Ridge. The mountain is located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, and is the namesake of nearby Mount Holyoke College. The mountain is located in...
). Nelema stops by and does a treatment and he is cured. Jennet calls it witchcraft and Nelema is made to stand trial. Hope frees Nelema from jail and Nelema promises to send her sister Faith to her.
Hope is sent to live with the Winthrops in Boston for a while. Everell returns to America and stays with Mr. Fletcher, who now lives in Boston. Esther Downing, a niece of Mrs. Winthrop’s, becomes good friends with Hope. She seems to be everything that Hope is not: faithful, prudent, and studious. She is also kind. She tells a story of how Everell came to her death bed and her ensuing recovery. Esther is infatuated with Everell, which saddens Hope greatly. Everyone hopes Esther and Everell will marry, except Mr. Fletcher, who hopes to match the two children he raised.
The Winthrops want to pair Hope with Sir Philip Gardiner, a stranger who arrived in town on the same boat as Everell, and who has developed an interest in Hope Leslie. Sir Philip's page, Roslin, seems very odd indeed. It is later revealed that Roslin is Rosa, a former lover of Sir Philip's whom he has disguised as his male page. One evening, Hope and Esther attend a lecture pertaining to the case of Mr. Gorton. Uncharacteristically, Hope appears quite anxious. We later learn that Hope had that day received a visit from Magawisca, whom she had made plans to meet in the cemetery at 9pm that night. On the way home from the lecture, Hope impatiently leaves her escort, Sir Philip, and takes a detour to the burial ground. Hope briefly meets Roslin, who tells her that she must not trust Sir Philip. Unknown to Hope, Sir Phillip follows her and overhears the conversation with Magawisca that night. Magawisca explains that Faith has married Oneco and tries to warn Hope that her sister is very different from the sister she remembers. Nelema managed to tell Magawisca that Hope had saved her and wanted to repay her with a visit from her sister. Magawisca also explains that her sister is now a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
.
Sir Philip runs into Hope on her way home, and he escorts her back to the Winthrop home. Everyone is worried because Hope was out alone at a late hour, and it had begun to rain heavily. Everell suspects that Hope and Sir Philip were out together.
To facilitate her meeting with Faith, Hope arranges for the party to stay on an island belonging to Winthrop, of which Digby is the guardian. While there, she implies to all present that Everell and Esther are going to get married, and puts their hands together. She never notices that Everell longs to be with her. Sir Philip comes, too, and she tells him that she never intends to marry him. Sir Phillip is upset by this.
Everyone else agrees to leave the island and Hope goes out to meet her sister on the shore. Hope embraces Faith and tries to talk to her only to realize that Faith no longer speaks English. Magawisca must interpret for them. Hope hugs her and tries to get her to come home with her. She even tries to bribe her sister, but to no avail. As they are meeting, a trap is sprung upon them. Magawisca and Faith are taken by English soldiers. Magawisca is imprisoned. Hope is taken captive by Oneco and meets up with Mononotto. Sir Phillip had laid the trap after overhearing Magawisca and Hope's plans in the cemetery.
Mononotto is struck by lightning as Oneco is trying to get away. He stops to take care of his father and while he does so, Hope escapes, but then runs into a group of sailors who chase her. She gets into a boat and the Italian sailor Antonio believes first that she is the Virgin Mary, and later that she is his patron saint. Hope does nothing to disabuse Antonio of this belief, and convinces him to row her to shore.
Hope arrives in town and passes out in Roslin/Rosa’s arms, who thinks of killing her out of jealousy for her closeness with Sir Philip, but doesn’t. Sir Phillip goes and visits Magawisca in jail. He gives her tools to escape with a promise that she take Rosalin with her. She refuses. Sir Phillip gets choked by Morton, whom he had claimed to be visiting. Sir Philip's true nature is momentarily revealed.
Everell attempts to save Magawisca, but fails. Hope also wants to free Magawisca, and comes up with a plan that involves Cradock, Everell, and Digby. At Magawisca's trial, Magawisca exposes Sir Phillip for the person that he really is. Sir Phillip leaves humiliated and determined to get Hope Leslie.
Jennet overhears Hope and Everell's plans to free Magawisca and communicates them to Sir Phillip. He plots to hire sailors to take her away. Hope takes Cradock with her to the jail and cleverly disguises him to look like Magawisca. She is so pleasant that the guard, Barnaby Tuttle, doesn’t notice the deception. While Hope, Cradock and Everell are gone, a sailor comes to the house, but nobody understands him. In the meantime, the generous Winthrop family has taken in a mysterious foreign sailor. The sailor turns out to be Oneco, who has returned to rescue Faith. Suddenly, they all realize that Hope is gone.
The sailors capture who they think is Hope and bring her back to the boat, which Rosa explodes by lighting a barrel of gunpowder, killing all but one sailor, who recounts the tale. Everell leads Magawisca to Digby, and she gets away safely. Antonio mistakenly reported to the house that Hope was taken and blown up, but to the family's relief, she is unharmed. By the end of the novel, Esther has realized that Everell and Hope love each other and she decides to return to England for a few years and remain unmarried. As if to right the original wrong of separating William Fletcher from Alice, their children, Everell Fletcher and Hope Leslie, are finally united.