Hope Leslie

Infobox Book
name = Hope Leslie
title_orig = Early Times in Massachusetts


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author = Catharine Maria Sedgwick
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language = English
series =
subject =
genre =
publisher = Penguin Classics
pub_date = 1827
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pages = 448
isbn = 978-0140436761
oclc =
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"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. Historical figures appearing include Puritan leader John Winthrop and Puritan heretic Samuel Gorton, who appears in chains at a meeting house service, having been sentenced to appear at the service while awaiting trial and, later, deportation to England.

Plot summary

The story begins in England with William Fletcher, a young man involved with the Puritans who has decided to travel to the British colonies in America. He is 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 the Bay colony, Fletcher he marries an orphan girl, Martha, associated with the Winthrops. After living in Boston, Massachusetts for a while, William moves the family to the newly founded Springfield, Massachusetts.

While there, Fletcher receives two Indian children named Magawisca and Oneco for his guardianship. Magawisca is to be the servant girl to William's oldest boy, Everell. Shortly after welcoming the children, the family servant brings an Indian to the home who carries a scalp of an Indian chief. Magawisca thinks it is the scalp of her father, Mononotto, but soon learns it is from another chief. She learns that her father is still alive and gives the Indian a token to convey back to her father.

Soon, Fletcher receives notice that Alice Leslie has crossed the Atlantic but died in Boston, and has willed her two daughters, Alice and Mary, to him. Fletcher leaves for Boston to retrieve the two girls. While there he re-christens the girls Hope (Alice) and Faith (Mary). Mrs. Grafton, their aunt and Master Craddock, their tutor, accompany the girls. Fletcher becomes ill and sends Mrs. Grafton, Faith and Oneco home ahead of him.

Meanwhile, back in Springfield, Everell enjoys Magawisca’s company and they exchange ideas. Everell compares her to Ruth from the Old Testament. The baby of the house was fond of Oneco, a favorite of all the young ones, especially Faith, who clings to Oneco to protect her. Mrs. Fletcher explains all of this in a letter to her husband and awaits his arrival. She also requests that Everell spend a few years in England for his education.

Nelema, an old Indian woman approaches to sell some goods and speaks to Magawisca. That night Everell and servant Digby take watch. Everell sees Magawisca disappear into the woods. Everell talks to her after she returns and tries to calm her. Magawisca tells him how his people had attacked her village and killed most everyone. Her father wants revenge for this treatment. Magawisca tells Everell that not all his laws are just. Digby sends them off to bed. Magawisca wants to warn Mrs. Fletcher of the coming danger, but decides not to because of her love for her father.

Mrs. Fletcher hears news that her husband is coming home, and so sends Digby off to meet him while readying the house for his homecoming. While Digby is gone, a small party of Indians attacks the house and kills all except Everell and Faith, who are taken as captives. Mr. Fletcher, Hope, Digby, and the tutor arrive home to find everyone dead. They discover Jennet, a servant woman, alive and she recounts the attack.

That night Everell fell deep asleep because he was so tired. Magawisca is awake and tries to help him escape, but they fail. The chief was impatient to execute Everell, but he had to wait until morning. Everell was marched to a rock and Mononotto went to strike when Magawisca managed to throw herself between them and her arm was lopped off. Everell was able to flee home.

Next we jump to a letter that 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 was 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 then how she recovered. 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 Winthrop 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. We later learn 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. Unbeknownst 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 who 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 Mary (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 rows her to shore.

Hope arrived in town and passes out in Roslin/Rosa’s arms, who thinks of killing her 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, Ester 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.