The Learning Umbrella

Well, my streak of quitting early on a book is ended!  I chewed straight through Patriot Hearts: A Novel of the Founding Mothers, and wanted more when it ended.

This novel does what historical fiction does best - looks at the possible “untold story” around true historical events.  We can’t really know what the first Presidents’ relationships were like, but we can think about it.  The women who were there to support and help them are treated with respect and honored here.  I was struck by how hard their task really was.  When my husband was sent to war, it was hard to hold down the house and raise my baby here by myself, and I didn’t have to also work a farm by myself or deal with plagues.

The action begins with Dolley Madison gathering treasures from the White House before it was burned by the British in 1814.  As she looks at these treasures, she also talks and thinks about the women who came before her: Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, and also Sally Hemings.  The thread for Sally is the most interesting, examining how Jefferson could have had this relationship with one of his slaves and not freed her or their children.  This novel does not glamorize our founders, but shows how blind they were to the moral issue of slavery and how they sometimes made mistakes and disagreed with each other.  There is no villain to the story however, but just a collection of people trying to do what they think is best.

Historical fiction at its best!