The Witch of Blackbird Pond
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| The Witch of Blackbird Pond | |
 First edition 1958 |
|
| Author | Elizabeth George Speare |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's novel, Historical novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Publication date | December 1, 1958 |
| Media type | Hardcover Paperback Audio |
| Pages | 256 pages |
| ISBN | NA & reissue ISBN 0-395-07114-3 |
The Witch of Blackbird Pond is a children's historical novel by American author Elizabeth George Speare, published in 1958. The story takes place in late 17th-century New England.
[edit] Plot summary
In 1687, sixteen-year-old Katherine Tyler, (known through out the story as Kit) leaves her home in Barbados when her grandfather dies to go live with her aunt and uncle in Wethersfield, Connecticut. On the way to her new home, there is a brief stop in Saybrook, a small town just down river from Wethersfield, and four new passengers board the Dolphin, the ship on which Kit is travelling. As the small rowboat returns to the ship, a small girl (Prudence) accidentally drops her doll in the water, and begs her mother to get it back for her. Her mother (Goodwife Cruff) harshly strikes Prudence and tells her not to be foolish. Impulsively, Kit jumps into the water and retrieves the doll. When she returns to the rowboat, she is met with astonished suspicion as few people could swim so well in Connecticut. Goodwife Cruff is the most cynical of them all, believing Kit is a witch, saying, “No respectable woman could stay afloat like that.” When she arrives in Wethersfield, she finds Connecticut very different from Barbados. In her previous home, she had hundreds of servants but here is expected to work along with the rest of the family. There is none of the luxury to which she was accustomed, and even the weather is miserably cold. She is requied to attend church services, twice each Sunday, which are long and dull. At church, Kit meets the rich, nineteen-year-old William Ashby, who begins courting her, though she does not care for him.
Kit's life improves when she and Mercy begin teaching the ‘dame school,’ for young children. Everything went well, until one day, being bored with the normal lessons, Kit decides that the children will act a part from the Bible. Mr. Eleazer Kimberly, the head of the school, enters the house just as things get out of hand. He is outraged at Kit for having the audacity to act out something from the Bible and shuts down the school. Heartbroken, Kit flees to the meadows. When she is there, she meets and befriends the kind, elderly woman named Hannah Tupper, who was outlawed from the Massachusetts colony because she is a Quaker. Kit and Hannah develop a deep relationship, and even after her uncle forbids Kit to continue the friendship, Kit keeps visiting Hannah. During one of her visits, she once again meets the handsome Nathaniel Eaton, the son of the captain of the Dolphin. Without realizing it, she falls in love with him, and though he doesn’t say so, Nat loves her as well. Kit also begins secretly teaching Prudence to read and write; Goodwife Cruff claims the child is a halfwit and refuses to allow her to attend the dame school.
When a deadly illness sweeps through Wethersfield, a mob gathers to kill Hannah, whom everyone believes is a witch who has cursed the town. Kit risks her life to warn Hannah, and the two women escape to the river just as the Dolphin appears from the early morning mist. Kit flags them down, and explains tearfully to Nat the horrifying events of the night. He takes Hannah aboard the ship, and then invites Kit to come with them. She refuses, explaining how Mercy is sick with the "illness", though Nat believes it is because she was about to be married to William Ashby.
After the Dolphin sails away, Kit returns home to find that Mercy’s fever has broken. In the middle of the same night, the townspeople come for Kit--Adam Cruff, Goodwife Cruff’s husband, had accused Kit of being a witch. The next day, after a night in a freezing shed, she is asked to explain why her hornbook has Prudence's name written throughout, as the townspeople fear that she and Hannah had been casting a spell over the girl. Kit refuses to explain that it is Prudence herself who wrote her name in the book, as she does not wish Prudence to get in trouble with her parents. Then, just as the case seemed to be decided, Nat appears with Prudence who testifies that she herself wrote her own name in the hornbook, not Kit.
In the end, Kit decides to return to Barbados, but then her plans suddenly change, when Nat appears in Wethersfield with his own ship, the Witch, named jokingly after her. At the port, they greet each other and go to her house where it is assumed that he and Kit ask her uncle for permission to marry.
[edit] Characters
- Katherine Tyler (Kit) (Main Character)
- Hannah Tupper (A quaker and outcast, accused of being a witch)
- Nathaniel Eaton (Nat)(Captain Eaton's son)
- Prudence Cruff (abused child of cruel and judgmental Goodwife Cruff)
- William Ashby
- Judith Wood
- Mercy Wood
- Matthew Wood
- Rachel Wood
- John Holbrook
- Dr. Gershom Bulkeley
- Goodwife Cruff
- Goodman Cruff
- Constable
- Captain Eaton
- Mistress Eaton
- Mr. Kimberley
- Governor Andros
| Preceded by Rifles for Watie |
Newbery Medal recipient 1959 |
Succeeded by Onion John |
