The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill: A Novel
- ISBN-10
- 1250093449
- ISBN-13
- 9781250093448
- Category
- Fiction
- Pages
- 368
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-09-12
- Publisher
- St. Martin's Press
- Author
- Jim Fergus
Description
The stunning sequel to the award-winning novel One Thousand White Women: A Novel. "Clever and satisfying...Fergus is a superb writer [and] the characters are as real as any pioneer women who braved the rigors of westering." —The Denver Post "A gripping tale, a history lesson infused with both sadness at the violence perpetuated against the Cheyenne and awe at the endurance of this remarkable group of women." —Booklist, starred review 9 March 1876 My name is Meggie Kelly and I take up this pencil with my twin sister, Susie. We have nothing left, less than nothing. The village of our People has been destroyed, all our possessions burned, our friends butchered by the soldiers, our baby daughters gone, frozen to death on an ungodly trek across these rocky mountains. Empty of human feeling, half-dead ourselves, all that remains of us intact are hearts turned to stone. We curse the U.S. government, we curse the Army, we curse the savagery of mankind, white and Indian alike. We curse God in his heaven. Do not underestimate the power of a mother’s vengeance... So begins the Journal of Margaret Kelly, a woman who participated in the U.S. government's "Brides for Indians" program in 1873, a program whose conceit was that the way to peace between the United States and the Cheyenne Nation was for One Thousand White Woman to be given as brides in exchange for three hundred horses. These "brides" were mostly fallen women; women in prison, prostitutes, the occasional adventurer, or those incarcerated in asylums. No one expected this program to work. And the brides themselves thought of it simply as a chance at freedom. But many of them fell in love with their Cheyenne spouses and had children with them...and became Cheyenne themselves. The Vengeance of Mothers explores what happens to the bonds between wives and husbands, children and mothers, when society sees them as "unspeakable." What does it mean to be white, to be Cheyenne, and how far will these women go to avenge the ones they love? With vivid detail and keen emotional depth, Jim Fergus brings to light a time and place in American history and fills it with unforgettable characters who live and breathe with a passion we can relate to even today.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill: A Novel
By Jim Fergus"The vengeance of mothers" explores the bonds among family and community, the search for identity and belonging, during a time of tumultous change in our nation's history.
-
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
By Jim FergusBased on an actual historical event but told through fictional diaries, this is the story of May Dodd—a remarkable woman who, in 1875, travels through the American West to marry the chief of the Cheyenne Nation.
-
Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill
By Jim FergusIn this final volume of the One Thousand White Women trilogy, Jim Fergus mixes with rare mastery the struggle of women and Native Americans in the face of oppression, from the end of the 19th century until today.
-
A Hunter's Road: A Journey with Gun and Dog Across the American Uplands
By Jim FergusIn an epic season of sport, Jim Fergus and his trusty Lab, Sweetzer, trek the mountains, plains, prairies, forests, marshes, deltas, and deserts of America.
-
The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932
By Jim FergusIn this novel based on historical fact, Jim Fergus takes readers on a journey of magnificent sweep and heartbreaking consequence peopled with unforgettable characters.
-
An Unseemly Wife
By E.B. MooreWhen her husband decides to leave their Amish community and move the family to Idaho, Ruth Holtz agrees, but when tragedy strikes and two English people also on the journey help her, she is forced to reevaluate her beliefs.
-
I Am Her Revenge
By Meredith MooreShe can be anyone you want her to be.
-
The Sporting Road: Travels Across America in an Airstream Trailer--with Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer
By Jim FergusFrom renowned outdoor writer Jim Fergus comes this collection which represents a kind of extended journey across the country from Colorado to Florida and points beyond.
-
Mother May I: A Novel
By Joshilyn JacksonA thinking (and feeling) reader’s thriller.” –Wall Street Journal "Chilling, thought-provoking, and hauntingly written, Mother May I kept me on the edge of my seat with its breathless race against time." — Megan Miranda, New York ...
-
Viking Warrior
By Judson RobertsThough raised a slave who could only dream of freedom, young Halfdan's fate may be about to change. If freed, he may train as a Viking warrior, and come to know the glories of true brotherhood and the horrors of unspeakable evil.