The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“The answer is in thy heart. Thee can always hear it if thee listens for it.”

In April of 1687, young Katharine “Kit” Tyler arrived at her uncle’s house in Wethersfield, Connecticut. She had given him no warning. When she left Barbados, her only guardian, her grandfather, had just died, leaving her within reach of a 50-year old man who was attempting to marry her. She fled. She had not sent word of her journey because she was afraid they would deny her a haven she desperately needed. She had nowhere else to go. Her parents had died when she was young.

When the ship, the Dolphin, was nearly at its destination, a small girl, Prudence, who had been standing along the railing, lost hold of her little cloth doll. The doll flew out into the water, the child cried out. Kit, used to swimming in the warm beautiful water of Barbados, jumped instinctively into the water to rescue the child’s doll. Shocked at the coldness of the water, she sputtered and gasped. She managed to rescue the doll, but was rewarded with wary eyes and suspicion when she was finally hauled back aboard.

Not many people in that area and time knew how to swim; women were considered witches if they floated when tossed into a body of water. And this was how Kit’s stay in America began.

She showed up on her uncle’s doorstep, unannounced. It was quite the spectacle. She was full of life, and vigor, bouncing into the house with the Barbados sunshine radiating from her face.

She was another mouth to feed though. His wife had had no sons. He went out early in the morning and worked in the fields all day by himself. Every household at that time had to make their own everything. They carded wool, they weaved, knitted, they made soap, bread. Nearly everything was handmade. Not because of the novelty, like a hipster, but out of necessity. They made near everything they possibly could. What they could not make, they bartered for. It was a very difficult life.

Kit started teaching the small children at the dame school. One afternoon, she had the children act out part of the Bible, the tale of the Good Samaritan, as a way to learn the story. The head of the school shows up just as the children are getting carried away in their acting out of the story. Enraged that they would do such a blasphemous thing, he sent all the children home.

Kit flees. She encountered Hannah, an old widowed woman who lived outside the village in a beautiful meadow. She is shunned from the Church Meetings because she was a Quaker. Hannah and Kit became very close friends. Nat, the son of the captain of the Dolphin, was also Hannah’s friend. He would take care of her little house, fixing the thatched roof, chopping wood for her for the winter, and looking after her when he could. Kit became close friends with him as well. Although she didn’t realize it right way, she fell in love with him.

Kit was warned by her uncle to stay away from the old woman. This is one thing that I feel often happens, in every time in history: people shame and deride and shun things they don’t or can’t understand. Children in the village started falling ill. Because sickness was not understood, the villagers blamed Hannah. She was accused of being a witch.

A mob gathered and burned Hannah’s small house to the ground. Kit rescued Hannah, managing to haul her safely to the river, and handed her off to Nat, who took her to the Sparrow. He intended to carry her to her family in a more Northern area of the East coast. She refused to leave without her cat. He braved the wrath of the town to fetch her beloved cat.

Kit returned to the town, she was accused and arrested of being a witch. She had secretly taught Prudence to read and write. Prudence, whose parents couldn’t read or write, and thought she was unable to learn, believed Kit had put Prudence under a spell. Prudence proved that she was not controlled by witchcraft when she read a passage of scripture to her astonished mother and father and the rest of the courtroom.

This is a wonderful book. I think everyone should read it at least once. Despite the delicious twists and turns, every character (even the cat) gets their happy ending; I believe some books are just meant to be that way.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond, 1958, Elizabeth George Speare

This post is part of the 31 Days of Bibliophilia series.