The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the… (edition 2007)

by Martha Hodes

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Member:	alaskabookworm
Title:	The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century
Authors:	Martha Hodes
Info:	W. W. Norton & Company (2007), Paperback, 384 pages
Collections:	Your library
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The Sea Captain's Wife by Martha Hodes

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I picked this up because it was something written by a woman with some link to the Cayman Islands. I was surprised to find a really moving account of a working woman's life around the time of the American Civil War and her search for happiness, told primarily through letters to her family. Her story is wrapped in insightful analysis from Martha Hodes on the time's social attitudes, illuminating her own, and her family's, choices.

I found The Sea Captain's Wife an interesting angle on a key part of American history, but what really made the book for me was Eunice's letters. Despite the huge differences between our nationality, class and education level, I felt her words speak to me down the years with gut-wrenching clarity. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone with an interest in women and their lives in society.

frithuswith | Feb 12, 2011 |

A stellar combination of genealogy and history, well-written and including a scrupulous account of how the author conducted her research -- a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in either. Unlike many widely ballyhooed books that slide from nonfiction into fiction, this one is solidly documented and rooted in historical knowledge -- and it still reads like a novel. You don't have to make stuff up to tell a great story! (

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hh219 | Aug 30, 2008 |

The title is deceptively racy, but I found this true story of a Northern working-class woman’s life both riveting and heart-wrenching. Told almost entirely through a recounting of her extensive letters to her family, with some editorial analysis added, this tale of a poor white girl who ultimately found happiness with a black merchant from the Cayman Islands was like nothing I’ve ever encountered before. This true story of Eunice Connolly’s drudgery in utter poverty, her heart-breaking struggles with single parenthood (after being widowed) and her transformation into a woman of means and position was fascinating and at times so sad that it brought tears to my eyes. (

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RachelfromSarasota | Jun 9, 2008 |

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The Sea Captain's Wife

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

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0393052664, Hardcover)

"What a terrific book! I could hardly put it down….A story of triumph over adversity."—James McPherson

Award-winning historian Martha Hodes brings us into the extraordinary world of Eunice Connolly. Born white and poor in New England, Eunice moved from countryside to factory city, worked in the mills, then followed her husband to the Deep South. When the Civil War came, Eunice's brothers joined the Union army while her husband fought and died for the Confederacy. Back in New England, a widow and the mother of two, Eunice barely got by as a washerwoman, struggling with crushing depression. Four years later, she fell in love with a black sea captain, married him, and moved to his home in the West Indies. Following every lead in a collection of 500 family letters, Hodes traced Eunice's footsteps and met descendants along the way. This story of misfortune and defiance takes up grand themes of American history—opportunity and racism, war and freedom—and illuminates the lives of ordinary people in the past. 47 illustrations.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:28:00 -0500)

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Historian Martha Hodes brings us into the extraordinary world of Eunice Connolly. Born white and poor in New England, Eunice moved from countryside to factory city, worked in the mills, then followed her husband to the Deep South. When the Civil War came, Eunice's brothers joined the Union army while her husband fought and died for the Confederacy. Back in New England, a widow and the mother of two, Eunice barely got by as a washerwoman. Four years later, she fell in love with a black sea captain, married him, and moved to his home in the West Indies. Following every lead in a collection of 500 family letters, Hodes traced Eunice's footsteps and met descendants along the way. This story of misfortune and defiance takes up grand themes of American history--opportunity and racism, war and freedom--and illuminates the lives of ordinary people in the past.--From publisher description.… (more)

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