Flight Of The Sparrow: A Novel of Early America

For a week, Sarah is feverish from an infection of her wounds. Mary has nothing to treat it with, and Weetamoo does not help. Weetamoo’s maid, Alawa, gives Mary food and encourages Mary to feed Sarah as well. Sarah’s health continues to decline. One day, Weetamoo forces Mary and Sarah to leave the wetu. Mary wanders over to another nearby wetu, where a woman named Quenêke takes them in. Mary settles near the fire, and that night, Sarah dies in her arms.

The next morning, Quenêke tells Mary to leave Sarah there and return to Weetamoo. All day, Weetamoo keeps Mary busy with chores. While fetching water, Mary goes to Quenêke and learns Sarah has been buried. The tall English-speaking warrior who had freed Mary earlier shows her the location of Sarah’s grave. Mary learns the warrior is a Christian. Mary sobs on his shoulder about her daughter’s death.

Mary is devastated and distracted after the death of her daughter. She thinks about the sewing scissors in her pocket and considers dying by suicide, but she knows it is a sin. One day, her son, Joss, arrives at the camp. She tells him that his sister is dead. Joss tells Mary her other daughter, Marie, is living with another Indigenous family and is healthy, although homesick, and that he is in at the encampment because his enslaver is going to raid the colony in Medfield. He says his enslaver treats him like a son.

When she returns to the Weetamoo’s wetu, Quinnapin tells Mary she has to wash. After bathing, Alawa and Weetamoo dress her in Indigenous clothing. However, Mary keeps her own shift, pocket, apron, and stockings, washes them in the river, and wears them under her deerskin dress.

Over time, Alawa and Mary become friendly. Mary learns that Alawa is an enslaved woman from the Mohawk tribe who was captured by Weetamoo’s warriors during her escape from an English family that beat her.

One afternoon, the warriors return victorious from their raid of Medfield, and the village celebrates.

That evening, Weetamoo tells Mary and Alawa to attend a celebration in the village. At the celebration, the English-speaking warrior gives Mary a Bible. She learns his name is Woaus or James Printer, a “Praying Indian” who has been trained as a printer’s apprentice. She thanks him for his gift.

Over the next few days, Mary realizes that a warrior named Monoco is stalking her around the village. One day, while sitting in the wetu with Weetamoo, Quinnapin arrives with Monoco. When Monoco touches Mary’s hair, Weetamoo angrily tells them to leave. Mary is shocked a woman would speak like that to a man.

A week later, Weetamoo allows Mary to walk around the village. Mary runs into a woman from her village, Ann Joslin, who is very pregnant. They talk. Ann says she wants to run away. Mary begs her not to.

Early the next morning, Weetamoo wakes Mary. They are preparing to leave the village. Mary asks Weetamoo to leave her behind, but Weetamoo smacks Mary and makes it clear she will not be released.

The group leaves that afternoon. At sunset, they make camp on a ridge. Weetamoo does not give Mary any food, and she is forced to scavenge. That evening, her nephew John arrives with his enslaver. John tells Mary that the Indigenous Americans set Ann Joslin on fire after she begged to be released as a warning to the others.

The next day, they continue walking and that evening they make a camp, where they stay for several days. While there, Alawa braids Mary’s hair like an Indigenous woman. The next morning, the party continues hiking. They come to a set of rapids. It takes two days to ferry the whole party across. They continue marching north to evade the English, who cannot cross the rapids. They arrive at a swamp where they make camp. There, she sees James Printer, who gives her some horse liver. However, another woman steals half of it. When he sees Mary eating the horse liver, he says she has “become Indian.” When she objects, he says it is a good thing that will keep her safe.

Mary is starving, as is the rest of the party. One day, while gathering sticks in the woods, James arrives and gives Mary some beef jerky. He tells her that Weetamoo protected Mary from being married off to Monoco. He also tells her that there are rumors Mary’s husband, Joseph, has remarried. Mary learns that Weetamoo is more powerful than Quinnapin because she is the sister-in-law of the important Wampanoag chief Metacomet. James says Mary should take the Indigenous name of Chikohtqua, meaning “Burning Woman.”

Mary begins to run into James more frequently. She learns that he was converted to Christianity by a man named Mr. Eliot and that he was sent to live with Mr. Dunstan, the president of Harvard. Mr. Dunstan arranged for James to work as a printer’s apprentice. She learns James is a widower with two sons. He came to live with the Nipmuc after he was imprisoned by the English in Boston and later on Deer Island. The Nipmuc captured him there.

A few days later, Weetamoo tells her they are going to see Massasoit Metacomet, whom the English call Philip. News arrives that English troops are nearby, and the camp prepares to flee. Mary considers escaping in the chaos, but when she sees James, she decides to go with the Nipmuc.