The strong willed. Free thinkers. Healers, recluses, artists. Women and children. History has not always treated with fairness people who lack power and position, or who have walked away from a life of conformity. If the prevailing social climate is steeped in superstition and intolerance, speaking one’s truth can be dangerous. Salem in the spring of 1692 was a deadly place to question authority
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent is a fictionalized account of the witch trials held in colonial Massachusetts. The novel chronicles life in 17th-century New England, from frontier skirmishes with the native Wabanaki, to smallpox, and the religious fervor of the Puritans. The reader is introduced to this world through the eyes of Sarah Carrier, daughter of strict yet loving parents Martha and Thomas. This is a story about family. In fact, Kathleen Kent is a tenth-generation descendant of Martha Carrier. It’s the intense relationship between Sarah and Martha, however, which lends weight to the novel’s narrative. Cool and aloof is the manner in which Martha runs her household, yet no one is spared from her biting words and quick intellect. Martha Carrier is a force to be reckoned with and I fell in love with the character. My affinity toward this strong woman is in sharp contrast to the shame and anger Sarah feels about her mother’s outspoken nature. A child’s embarrassment of her mother is one thing. But when Martha stands up for her family refusing to be bullied by land-grabbing neighbors, the scorn of fellow villagers ignites a powder keg. The story takes a sickening turn as town folk make the only logical conclusion for Martha’s behavior. A woman of great passion and fearlessness is surely in league with the devil.
The book tells of a violent period in American history. The young nation was engaged in eradicating the indigenous population, English settlers were dying in droves from the bloody flux and the pox, and the ambitious said anything to gain stature in the emerging New England, no matter how ruthless. Kathleen Kent’s stunning prose captures the atmosphere of ignorance and hysteria that embodied the Salem witch trials. I was disgusted by the hate that clouded people’s judgment, especially the treatment of children as they were imprisoned for witchcraft. In spite of the persecution of the innocent, I was moved to tears by the love and courage that the Carrier’s gave to one another. There is one simple sentence in the novel that Sarah comes to know as her one, undeniable truth: “I am my mother’s daughter.” By reading the story of The Heretic’s Daughter, we all become Martha Carrier’s legacy.
The Wolves of Andover, Kathleen Kent’s new novel and prequel to The Heretic’s Daughter will be released on 8 November 2010.
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