The Vengeance of Mothers
The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill: A Novel
by Jim Fergus
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Pub Date Sep 12 2017 | Archive Date Sep 26 2017
Description
The stunning sequel to the award-winning novel One Thousand White Women: A Novel.
"Clever and satisfying...Fergus is a superb writer [and] the characters are as real as any pioneer women who braved the rigors of westering." —The Denver Post
"A gripping tale, a history lesson infused with both sadness at the violence perpetuated against the Cheyenne and awe at the endurance of this remarkable group of women." —Booklist, starred review
9 March 1876
My name is Meggie Kelly and I take up this pencil with my twin sister, Susie. We have nothing left, less than nothing. The village of our People has been destroyed, all our possessions burned, our friends butchered by the soldiers, our baby daughters gone, frozen to death on an ungodly trek across these rocky mountains. Empty of human feeling, half-dead ourselves, all that remains of us intact are hearts turned to stone. We curse the U.S. government, we curse the Army, we curse the savagery of mankind, white and Indian alike. We curse God in his heaven. Do not underestimate the power of a mother’s vengeance...
So begins the Journal of Margaret Kelly, a woman who participated in the U.S. government's "Brides for Indians" program in 1873, a program whose conceit was that the way to peace between the United States and the Cheyenne Nation was for One Thousand White Woman to be given as brides in exchange for three hundred horses. These "brides" were mostly fallen women; women in prison, prostitutes, the occasional adventurer, or those incarcerated in asylums. No one expected this program to work. And the brides themselves thought of it simply as a chance at freedom. But many of them fell in love with their Cheyenne spouses and had children with them...and became Cheyenne themselves.
The Vengeance of Mothers explores what happens to the bonds between wives and husbands, children and mothers, when society sees them as "unspeakable." What does it mean to be white, to be Cheyenne, and how far will these women go to avenge the ones they love? With vivid detail and keen emotional depth, Jim Fergus brings to light a time and place in American history and fills it with unforgettable characters who live and breathe with a passion we can relate to even today.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781250093424 |
| PRICE | $26.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 368 |
Featured Reviews
Donna B, Educator
The Vengeance of Mothers by Jim Fergus is the second book in the "One Thousand White Women" series. Both deal with the transfer of one thousand white women to the Cheyenne Nation as part of the "Brides for Indians" program in 1873. This book deals with the people and the relationships that were bonded in this program. You can only imagine the treatment and disdain that was shown to these women by the society of that time. Many of the women were supposedly women who were "unspeakables", convicts, prostitutes, insane, etc. I loved the first book and I enjoyed the second book. I think that it would be a worthy addition to anyone who is interested in learning more about the U.S. and their relations with Native Americans during that time in history. Recommended for those who love Historical Fiction.
The Vengeance of Mothers by Jim Fergus will be available September 12, 2017 by St. Martin's Press. An egalley of this book was made available by the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
Cathy H, Educator
I thought that this was a really good book. I had read One Thousand White Women a few years back. This book is a continuation. Not only do we meet a second group of women sent to be brides, we get to learn what happened to the first group. A good read.
Holly S, Reviewer
It is less common than you think for an avid reader such as myself to find a book that has you so hooked on the story that you read until the wee hours of the morning just to finish it.-- The Vengeance of Mothers is so amazingly well done it will keep you interested (and dumfounded) by things that the government has done to get, or get rid of, something they wanted to be gone or made easier. Treatment of Native Americans was absolutely horrendous, but this story is much more than the history. It is in turns history and love story, Its about family and justice, At the heart of The Vengeance of Mothers is, at its core, about family and the fact that sometimes family is not just what you are born in to but what you make out of a group of people you love. This is a story that NEEDS to be read.
Rosemary S, Librarian
Almost twenty years after the publication of One Thousand White Women, Fergus returns to his “Brides for Indians” story. While the United States government did not have such a program (that I know of), Fergus imagines that it did, and in its arrogance offered Native Americans the opportunity to assimilate into white culture by marrying a white woman and having children that would be considered “U.S. citizens”. In return the U.S. government would be given 300 horses, and the women, many “soiled doves” might have a chance at happiness, or at least freedom from the society that persecuted them. This story is the “journal” of Meggie Kelly, dated 1876, who tells the story of herself and her twin sisters assimilation into the Cheyenne Nation and the ultimate destruction of all they have come to love and hold dear by the American government. I loved One Thousand White Women and I’m so glad that Fergus wrote a follow-up. It’s every bit as good, as heart-breaking and thrilling as the original
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