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Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Lydia "Lidie" Harkness Newton: Her story. Only living child of Arthur and Cora Mary. Marries Thomas.
- Arthur Harkness: Lidie's father whose burial begins the story
- Harriet Harkness Brereton: Lidie's half-sister that is 20 years older
- Alice Harkness: Lidie's half-sister
- Annie: Alice's daughter
- Miriam Harkness: Lidie's half-sister, a spinster school mistress in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Also an abolitionist.
- Beatrice Harkness Silk: Lidie's half-sister
- Horace Silk: Beatrice's husband sells dry goods at Lorton and Silk. Dreams of going west to have his own store.
- Jonas Silk: Harold's father that is very involved with Lorton and Silk
- Roland Brereton: Harriet's husband and is originally from Kentucky.
- Lyman Brereton: Roland's father that brought his wife and two sons to Illinois.
- Burton Brereton: Roland's brother that saved the family on their journey from robbers/killers. Became famous for at least reducing the size of that family.
- Thomas Newton: Known as Tom and is an abolitionist from Medford, Massachusetts. Meets Lidie at Harriet's house on his way to Kansas with the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. Father and brothers own a sail making factory.
- Roger Howell: Neighbor of Harriet's originally from Wisconsin that brings Tom over to the Brereton's farm.
- Frank Brereton: Twelve year old son of Harriet and Roland.
- Frederick: Alice's husband and he owns a small lumbering company
- Hannah Harkness: Lidie's half-sister that lives in New York state
- Ella Rose Harkness Logan: Lidie's half-sister that lives in New York state.
- Lawrence: Alice's son
- Frederick, Jr.: Alice's son
- Catherine Beecher: Supervised all aspects of the Quincy Female Seminary. She wrote A Treatise on Domestic Economy which is quoted at the beginning of each chapter.
- Annabelle Tonkin: One of the four women on the Ida Mary with Lidie. She is the younger of the two spinster sisters.
- Dorothea Tonkin: The older sister traveling from Wisconsin to St. Louis.
- Mrs. Evelyn: A recent widow traveling on the Ida Mary.
- Mary Evelyn: Traveling on the Ida Mary with her mother.
- David B. Graves: Takes Thomas from Kansas City to Lawrence. He teaches them about greasing the goose.
- Charles Bisket: One of Thomas' friends
- Helen Bush: Add a description of this character.
- Mrs. Jenkins
- Susannah Jenkins: She is a single lady the same age as Lidie
- Mr. Bush: He is a little man
- Mr. Smithson: preaches the Sunday services to the Free Staters
- Roger Lacey: Mr. Bush's nephew. He has a wife and three kids back in Massachusetts.
- Reverend Moss: Owner of a livery stable in Lawrence where Lidie purchases Jeremiah.
- Jeremiah: Lidie's horse
- Mr. Sterns: shop owner
- John Jenkins: father of Susannah. He has white hair and a beard.
- Mrs. Holmes: She is Mrs. Jenkin's cousin
- Mr. Holmes
- James Lane: sometimes called "Jim" he is a powerful Free Stater in Kansas.
- Daniel James: A very handsome man from Ohio. He takes the Jenkin's claim.
- Ivy James: Daniel's wife. She was not born for the country life and is very beautiful, and wants to be accepted.
- Eddie james: their little boy about four years old.
- Sheriff Jones: A Missourian and Sheriff of Lawrence
- Mrs. Wood: Lives next door to the Free State Hotel and her house was turned into a cartridge-making factory.
- Louisa Wheelwright Bisket: A widow that marries Charles Bisket
- Lorna: Salve to the Day family that is "stolen" by Lidie.
- Helen Day: Daughter of Papa Day that is looking for a husband and scared of war.
- Richard Day: Known as Papa. He is a little man that is widowed with one of his three daughters still at home.
- Mrs. Hopewell: Wife of the sheriff of Kansas City
- Sheriff Frederick Hopewell: Sheriff of Kansas City, Missouri
Quotes edit
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“Worse, I was plain. Worse than that, I had refused the three elderly widowers who had made me offers and expected that I would be happy to raise their pack of motherless children. Worst of all, I had refused them without any show of gratitude or regret. So, I freely concede, there was nothing to be done with me. My sisters were entirely correct and thoroughly justified in their concern for me. It was likely that I would end up on their hands forever, useless and ungrateful.”
Lidie Harkness Newton -
“If you don't furnish your brain with what everyone knows, then itwill furnish itself with what no one else knows! And a female's brain is too weak to hold those sorts of things.”
Harriet Harkness Brereton -
“What a lovely thing to say! There is all the hope and happiness in the world in that one sentence. 'I just got married this morning, and we are on our way to Kansas!' You are the envy of everyone in the United States, my dear, if not the world.”
Annabelle Tonkin -
“I hope you married for love, my dear. If you are going to marry at all, that is the best way.”
Dorothea Tonkin -
“We are true Americans now, husband. We don't know where we are going or what for, nor do we know anyone we're traveling with. But we're perfectly certain it will all turn out best in the end.”
Lidie Harkness Newton -
“Every time I set out on what seems very much like an adventure and imagine myself lost in some vast solitude, I discover when I get there that there are plenty of men beforeme, and that they are all great talkers.”
Thomas Newton -
“Evil people must spread their evil everywhere. Scripture is absolutely clear on that. That is the nature of Satan. I've seen it already, and I've been in the west only a few days. Evil is all around us.”
Mrs. Holmes -
“Well, you know to a southern man, his honor is always worth another man's death.”
Lydia "Lidie" Harkness Newton -
“I suppose I'm of a reluctant turn of mind. I like to think I'm evenhanded and judicious, but perhaps I'm just reluctant. Perhaps I'm just one of those who hang back and then make up a good reason to do so. Perhaps I can't see the moment when it comes.”
Thomas Newton -
“The fires, like much of the weather, had a grand and powerful beauty of their own, if you could lift your mind out of fear and discomfort long enough to appreciate it, but anyone who had hoped that Kansas Territory would gently embrace men and their civilitzation was quickly and repeatedly disabused of these notions.”
Lydia "Lidie" Harkness Newton
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Northerners, even abolitionists, knew more about how and why to chop down the slavery tree than they ever knew about what to do with its sour fruit.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers -
couldn’t stand to be made to seem mean or dishonorable in their own eyes, that they would commit any aggression to efface that feeling.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
- Kansas Territory: Kansas before it became a state. Often referred to as K.T.
- K.T.: Kansas Territory - before Kansas was part of the United States.
- St. Louis, Missouri: Where those going out to the K.T. would switch riverboats from the Mississippi to the Missouri.
- Quincy, Illinois: Where Lidie grew up and the beginning of the novel takes place.
- Kasnas City, Kansas: Would leave the riverboat and travel into different parts of Kansas
- Lawrence, Kansas: Most of the Free Staters lived in or around Lawrence
- Big Springs, Kansas: A convention was held here against the illigimate goverment the State of Missouri was forcing on Kansas.
- Topeka, Kansas: Site where the Free State constitution was written.
- Independence, Missouri: Lidie and Lorna stay here when they begin their journey.
- Day's End Plantation: Home of the Day family and their slave Lorna
First Sentence edit
I HAVE MADE UP my mind to begin my account upon the first occasion when I truly knew where things stood with me, that is, that afternoon of the day my father, Arthur Harkness, was taken to the Quincy graveyard and buried between my mother, Cora Mary Harkness, and his first wife, Ella Harkness.
Table of Contents edit
Chapters 1 - 27
Glossary edit
- Free Staters: These people were against slavery. Many came from Massachussets to prohibit slavery in the new territories.
- Border Ruffians: Most were from the neighboring state of Missouri. While many were not slave holders they were trying to make the Kansas Territory enter the Union as a slave state.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Jane Smiley (Author)
Awards edit
- Spur Award (1999: Novel of the West, #1)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.54
Subjects edit
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( S ) › Smiley, Jane
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Family Saga
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Action & Adventure
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
- Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
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