The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century

Gifted writer Martha Hodes, a history professor at New York University, has given readers an absorbing account of the life of a New England woman in mid-1800s. Hodes researched widely from many sources, and drew extensively on the letters of Eunice Richardson Stone Connally, to give us a riveting and accurate picture of her life and times. Hodes' prose is thoughtfully elegant and carefully crafted, as she takes us through small New England mill towns, as far south as Mobile, Alabama, and in the final years of Eunice's life, to the Cayman Islands, where Eunice at last found happiness and some measure of prosperity. The book is a fine blend of the events of Civil War era and the personal struggles of an ordinary woman who made some unusual choices. Hodes writes with a superbly intelligent grasp of Eunice's situation, and with a marvelous empathy for Eunice and the people near to her. I recently read a bloated best-seller about one of the most famous women of our own era, and I can't help contrasting the arch, dishy, and rather tiresome tone of that book, to this moving and authentic biography of an obscure woman of an earlier time. The book is richly satisfying and highly recommended.

A few quick comments regarding the previous negative critique... A). A great number, if not most, people from the laboring classes never achieve a solid sense of `class consciousness' (in other words, they do not consciously consider themselves of the `working class'). This was particularly true during the time and place of which Hodes writes ( though applicable today). Even if the economic circumstances of Hodes' key subjects fluctuated, they did 'labor' with their bodies to survive. Therefore, it is fair to allow Hodes to consider them laboring/working people, as these individuals' general economic experiences heavily impacted their existence/s. B). A key lesson one should learn while obtaining an "advanced degree in history" (as well as in high school history classes) is to be very careful about viewing the past through the lens of the present or assuming that subjects from the past (existing under diverging conditions and pressures historians are endlessly seeking to understand) should be expected to think or act as you or I would.. In other words, one's perception of "small town rural New England" of today should not discredit Hodes' historical analysis of the same region. (This is in reference to... "And no one who has spent any time in small town rural New England would buy into the author's contention that these people were obsessed with a racist-based fear that competition from black slave workers would further lower their social class...") C). It should not be assumed that every scholar concerned with class is a Marxist (or using "Marxist analysis," as if there is such a thing). I, myself, come from a working class background, count working class studies as one of my fields of interest, find some of Marx's ideas (and ideas of others who have been labled Marxists) useful, but do not limit my work to, or even base it on, "Marxist ideologies." Hodes' appears to work in a similar manner. There is much more I could critique about this unfair review, but the other comments (all five stars at this point) say much for the value others have found in Hodes' work. Ultimately, Dr. Hodes is a well respected scholar in the field of history who writes about the intertwining of race, gender and class. If one is not particularly concerned with these issues and/or considers those who are "grievance collectors, looking for new proofs of racism and classism in the past," as the Lover of Good Books does, you should probably read something else. Otherwise, I highly recommend that potential readers not be dissuaded by an unfair review.

As I can relate to the detail in the story relating to Grand Cayman and the Connolly Family, as I am from Grand Cayman, I found it to be a fabulous read. There was such history and fact told in the form of a story. An amazing amount of research has gone into this book and I feel so honored for Ms. Hodes to take such interest in our little Cayman Islands and our forefathers. This book shows one example of the many relationships like this that formed our island and our people.

THE SEA CAPTAIN'S WIFE: A TRUE STORY OF LOVE, RACE, AND WAR IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY tells of an ordinary New England working-class white woman who in 1869 decided to marry a black sea captain from the West Indies. The unexpected occurred: she went from a poor Yankee widow of a Confederate soldier to a genteel lady in an elite colored family in the Caribbean. Over five hundred family letters along with census records and local histories were used to reconstruct her story here, and comes form a history professor who lends historical authenticity and the drama and characterization of fiction to THE SEA CAPTAIN'S WIFE, making it a biography hard to put down. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

The Sea Captain's Wife is moving, engaging and informative. Not only does it piece together the story of a 19th Century woman's fascinating life, but it illuminates the process of the historian's work. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to read a good story and also learn something about what life was like for an ordinary American woman in the 19th Century -- a woman who, in the face of continual hardship -- made some courageous and unusual choices.