AUTHOR’S NOTE
It is worth a quick note on the use of history in this novel. Though much of the material is Gothic and fantastic in mood, it is founded on fact.
The College of Lucidity is, of course, a fabrication, supposed to be a provincial and incompetent version of, for example, the American Philosophical Society. The lesser experiments undertaken by the Collegians are either inspired by or drawn directly from works on scientific and philosophical speculation in the period. Educational experiments gauging non-Europeans’ ability to absorb the Classics and other disciplines were really pursued: In the late seventeenth century, Harvard University supposedly attempted the experiment with several Native American boys. In the eighteenth century, the Duke of Montagu sponsored a Jamaican student’s education at Cambridge University with an eye to determining his capacities. When the student, Francis Williams, did remarkably well, flourishing and becoming both a mathematician and poet, outraged critics of African equality — including the philosopher David Hume — attacked the attempt as being inconclusive, just as Thomas Jefferson, later in the century, would refuse to acknowledge the equality of African capacities when confronted in a similar situation by freed African American Benjamin Banneker and his excellent almanac.
As for the Revolutionary War material, it should be said at the outset that this is a novel, in which context it would be impossible (and even undesirable) to present all the available material in its full complexity. It was my purpose to try to re-create a moment when we did not know that the war would be won by the colonists — or what that victory would bring about. To my mind, attempting to understand the conflict as an uncertain revolution, as a civil war of Englishmen against their own legitimate government, restores awareness of the real bravery demonstrated by those provincial farmers and craftsmen who took up arms against the most powerful empire in the world.
The issues of Loyalism and patriotism, populism and class, and of the role of race in the Revolution are tremendously complex, and readers interested in these questions should turn to histories of the period to learn more. Historical narratives, untied to a single fictional point of view, will inevitably render a fuller picture of the subtleties and nuances of the conflict than a fictionalized account such as this may do.
Readers should keep in mind that the opinions expressed and the anecdotes related by these characters are reflections of what was believed to be true at the time by one group of people or another — not absolute fact. So, for example, I report a rumor that at the Battle of Old North Bridge, a soldier was scalped. The rumor is authentic, but the episode itself is not — it is now thought that a Patriot killed a soldier with a hatchet or tomahawk, and other soldiers reported it as a scalping. Similarly, Octavian’s mother understands the precedent of the Somerset Case to free all slaves in England, an understanding that apparently circulated among American slaves at the time. In fact, the reality was much more complicated.
Though I tried to stick as closely as possible to eighteenth-century diction and grammar, of course I adapted period style to modern fictional ends. As an example: In my treatment of clothing, I referred to a “banyan-robe” instead of simply a “banyan,” because otherwise the term would have been meaningless. I refer to a “tricorne,” although the word supposedly only appeared once the hats themselves were out of fashion. I felt it was necessary to be more specific than simply speaking of “a hat.”
Several of the scenes of mob unrest in Boston are composites, rather than specific real events. Take, for example, the tarring and feathering on page 75. The details are drawn from reports such as this, by Loyalist Anne Hulton:
The most shocking cruelty was exercised a few Nights ago, upon a poor Old Man a Tidesman one Malcolm he is reckond creasy, a quarrel was pickd wth him, he was afterward taken, & Tarrd, & featherd. Theres no Law that knows a punishment for the greatest Crimes beyond what this is, of cruel torture. And this instance exceeds any other before it he was stript Stark naked, one of the severest cold nights this Winter, his body coverd all over with Tar, then with feathers, his arm dislocated in tearing off his cloaths, he was dragd in a Cart with thousands attending, some beating him wth clubs & Knocking him out of the Cart, then in again. They gave him several severe whipings, at different parts of the Town. This Spectacle of horror & sportive cruelty was exhibited for about five hours.
The unhappy wretch they say behaved with the greatest intrepidity, & fortitude all the while. before he was taken, defended himself a long time against Numbers, & afterwds when under Torture they demanded of him to curse his Masters The K: Govr &c which they coud not make him do, but he still cried, Curse all Traitors. They brot him to the Gallows & put a rope about his neck sayg they woud hang him he said he wishd they woud, but that they coud not for God was above the Devil. The Doctors say that it is imposible this poor creature can live. They say his flesh comes off his back in Stakes.
(He did, as it happens, survive, and sent portions of his skin to Parliament to show them how he had suffered on their behalf.)
The origin of the Revolution is fascinating, and I recommend that those interested in exploring it further go beyond my brief précis of circumstances to examine the documents themselves and historians’ interpretations of these momentous events.