Alternate histories always
grab my attention, and I’ve read a good number through the years from authors
like Orson Scott Card and Harry Turtledove. One
Thousand White Women is one of the best alternate histories I’ve read.
Jim Fergus has taken a bit
from history and expanded it to what never happened, and along the way, he
makes you believe it did happen. That’s a remarkable skill!
May Dodd, languishing in a
19th century insane asylum, takes advantage of a unique opportunity
to escape confinement. Placed in the asylum by her wealthy family for daring to
defy the strictures of her status and contemporary mores, May chafes at the
unfairness of her situation and longs to be free.
Concomitantly, a Cheyenne Nation
chief, seeking lasting peace for his people, goes to D.C. to meet with
President Grant to present an interesting proposal. If the United States would
send 1000 white women to marry Cheyenne braves, the children of such unions
would belong to their mothers’ clans, not the braves’ clans. Thus, the natives
would become civilized faster and absorbed readily into the dominant white
culture. For the 1000 white women, the Cheyenne would provide the U.S.
government with 1000 horses.
This proposal actually occurred.
However, Grant and others rejected the Cheyenne’s request as unthinkable. And
we all know how their actual Native American assimilation thing worked out.
In Fegus’ novel, the government
decides they will create a secret program to send forgotten women West as part
of the program. The women they gathered up were indigents, “mildly insane”
(like May), imprisoned, or women who had no other career or marital prospects.
What a great way to take a bit in history and create an alternate history for
it!
The description of the
train ride West and stops at various forts is filled with vivid images and a
rich ensemble cast of women from various walks of life, all of whom have their
separate reasons for joining the program. May keeps meticulous journals of her
time and adventures. Her story is revealed to the world through the journals
that a descendant tracked down after coming to believe the family tale of May’s
life to be untrue.
Her journals include
letters never sent to family members and others as well as detailed recounting
of conversations with other passengers. Through this device, we learn much
about the American West and the issues surrounding how to deal with the Native
Americans who live where the White man wants to live. We learn of these through
different expressed viewpoints, so that is enlightening.
However, May isn’t totally
believable. She expresses viewpoints and insights that are not of her time. She
seems like a time-traveler sometimes when she expresses ideas and uses language
that are anachronistic, even for a forward-thinking woman in the last half of
the 19th century. I address this in an
earlier post of the challenges of writing historical fiction.
I haven’t read the sequel, following twins, two of the program’s women. But I am looking forward to picking it up. That books is The Vengeance of Mothers, and if it’s as well-written and researched as One Thousand White Women, I am in for a treat as to historical information. Let’s hope from a reality standpoint that the womens’ perspectives are better portrayed.
The ending of One Thousand White Women is very
satisfying and even offers some surprises that are consistent with the story.
Finding out what happened to the others contributed to the feeling that the
book was a true story and really occurred, as well as bringing closure to the
book.
All in all, I enjoyed the
story, and even as I was stopped by May’s perspectives a number of times, the
richness of detail about life in the West made the book a very enjoyable read.
Bloggers need readers so
please spread the word about this post if you enjoyed it. Below are copy/paste
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Facebook:
Caroline Adams likes alternate histories and enjoyed Jim Fergus’ ONE THOUSAND
WHITE WOMEN. She reviews this novel based on a true proposal to trade 1000
horses for 1000 white women to become wives to Cheyenne braves, thus
assimilating the Cheyenne into U.S. culture. http://bit.ly/2BXZFc9
Twitter:
@Caroline_Adams9 reviews Jim Fergus’ ONE THOUSAND WHITE WOMEN, an alternate
history of an actual event in Grant’s presidency, proposed to solve “the Indian
problem.” http://bit.ly/2BXZFc9
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