I recently finished reading ‘Beheld’ by TaraShea Nesbit. I enjoyed it and gained, perhaps, a slightly different perspective of our colonial roots.
They say that history is written by the winners and, to be sure, it is generally their perspective of events that are told and passed down. Some of us are familiar with the narrative ‘Of Plymouth Plantation’ that was written by William Bradford, governor of the colony. But, of course, the writer gets to choose which facts to include and which to bury. This book is about some of those that Bradford chose not to tell us.
In particular, we learn about Bradford’s first wife, Dorothy, who fell overboard from the Mayflower while it was docked in Cape Cod Bay and drowned. It does seem odd that Bradford doesn’t mention it at all and that her very existence seems to be ignored.
This book is not a mystery, however. Dorothy is the novel’s recurring point of interest, appearing in the thoughts and memories of one of the key narrators, Bradford’s second wife, Alice. Alice and Dorothy had been childhood friends and when Dorothy died, Bradford sent for Alice and married her.
This is a novel about power and how those who have it use power to subjugate those who do not. The story is told by women. While we hear, in alternating chapters, from several people, the only first-person narrations belong to women – Alice, Eleanor Billington and later, Dorothy herself. There is tension between the Puritan majority and the Anglicans, personified by Eleanor and her husband who were brought to the colony as indentured servants.
It’s also a novel about cruelty. The Puritans believe themselves to be superior and civilized but they deploy barbaric cruelty to maintain their superiority. There is cruelty and subjugation everywhere – the Puritans over the Anglicans, the colonists over the natives, the men over the women. It’s all told in a quiet and matter-of-fact way that makes it even more disquieting to read.
Nesbit is a good writer and the book is a fairly quick read. Give it a shot and think about what parts of history we are told and what parts are buried.
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