This book has some basis in history, especially the life of Caleb, a Native American who did matriculate to Cambridge, in the late 1670's, to study along with other scholars. Brooks, of course, takes liberties with the story, but Caleb's crossing, of religion and cultures, is the crux of the story. It's narrated by Bethia (to serve) Mayfield, aptly named as women are denied almost all rights, religious as well as secular, and must kowtow to the men of society. Bethia is a rebel, certainly in her mind, as she dares to befriend Caleb, when they are teenagers, and through coincidence, she ends up following him to Cambridge, literally as an indentured servant, to pay for her brother, Makepeace's tuition at a prep school for ambitious students. Much more than her brother, she covets knowledge, has learned Latin on her own, as well as the Native American language of Caleb, mostly by listening in the background as others talked. She grows up on what is now Martha's Vineyard, a seeming idylic childhood until her mother, then infant sister, Solace, die, her introduction to the hardness and vagaries of life. Her father, too, dies, a result of a shipwreck, living her at the mercy of her stiif, conservative and religious brother and grandfather.
Unbeknowest to all, she has developed a relationship with Caleb, before he becomes Christianized, and she gains respect, as a result, for his culture and religion, something that no one else in the story manifests, as the Native Americans and their beliefs are deemed savage and ignorant. In the face of this myth of Native ignorance is the success of Caleb and Joe, both Native Americans who matriculate to Cambridge, MA, a result of a society in England which hopes to inculcate both Christianity and learning among the Native Americans. Both men face huge obstacles, religious and physical, in their quest to be successful in a white man's society. We see their struggles through Bethia's eyes, as she becomes a scullery maid/cook, to not only stay close to her friends, but also to absorb as much learning as she can, listening to lectures and conversations of the scholars. She ends up befriending her master's son, a scholar in his own right at the College. He falls in love with Bethia, and she must choose between her love for life on Martha's Vineyard or life in the city, unattractive and urban though filled with learning and ideas. She ultimately chooses marriage.
The novel then jumps ahead thirty years and Bethia is dying, a mother and grandmother, looking back at her life. We learn what happens to both her and the two Native Americans in the past thirty years. Just before graduation and after marrying his love, Anne, Joe is lost in another storm at sea. And Caleb, just after graduating, comes down with consumption and dies. Thus, both Native Americans, though successful and capable, die, one by accident, the other by disease. This ends the Harvard experiment, with educating the Native Americans and the Indian Wars begin. Through most of violence, Bethia spared, as she and her husband end up returning to and living on Martha's Vineyard, having a family, living a typical family life.
The text juxtaposes the severity of the Puritan society, its intolerance, sexism, and disdain toward Native Americans, with its results, lives never lived to their fullest, mostly Bethia, because she is a woman, but also Caleb and Joe, because they are Native Americans. Brooks depiction of this period of history seems accurate though she does sympathize with the Native American dilemma, The Puritans, though often intolerant and inflexible, do have virtues: they want to educate the Native Americans and many of them fought against the intolerance of the majority of their fellows. In the end, though, its Bethia who we most admire and have sympathy for, as she, more than any of the other characters, deserves a better life. Unfortunately, she is a woman.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book because I had little interest in America in the 1670's. But I read with interest and enjoyment, savoring the plot changes, and saddened when it ended.
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