Meggy MacIntosh: A Highland Girl in the Carolina Colony

Opening in January of 1775, in the city of Edinburgh, Meggy MacIntosh: A Highland Girl in the Carolina Colony - one of eight Newbery Honor Books selected in 1931, along with such titles as The Dark Star Of Itza, Queer Person, and Mountains Are Free (amongst others) - follows its eponymous orphaned heroine as, unhappy with the well-meaning but emotionally distant relatives with whom she is living, and determined to know something of adventure, she sets out to make a new life for herself in the Americas. Hoping to join her personal heroine, Flory MacDonald, whose famous rescue of Bonnie Prince Charlie had long been one of her favorite stories, Meggy runs away from home, substitutes herself for her cousin Veronica on a sea voyage, and show more generally finagles her way to North Carolina, only to discover that the new world isn't quite what she expected. With the colonies in turmoil, and fast heading into open revolt, she finds herself in a quandary: although sympathetic to the cause of the Patriots, she has great love for her fellow Highlanders, who, under the leadership of none other than Flory MacDonald, are staunch Loyalists. Where does Meggy really belong, and which side will she eventually choose...?

Seeing Elizabeth Janet Gray resolve that question regarding her heroine's loyalties - indeed, her very identity - is what made this book worth reading for me. I appreciated the complexity of emotion that she managed to capture, in her depiction of her Meggy: her uncertain and vacillating beliefs, when it came to the Patriot and Loyalist causes; her evolving feelings for and perceptions of Ewan, whom she hero-worshiped in Edinburgh, and for whom she felt almost a maternal kindness, by the end; and her simultaneous pride in, and disagreement with, the Highlanders who settled in North Carolina, but sided with the British. This latter, in particular, was terribly poignant. The scene in which the grizzled old soldier, a veteran of Culloden, speaks of being on the "winning side" this time, was terribly moving. Knowing what I do about the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellions, and of Culloden; and aware of which side really did triumph, in the Revolution, I found myself close to tears, while reading. A fine achievement on Gray's part!

All that said, I also found much that was dated and distasteful in Meggy MacIntosh, particularly in the author's depictions of the slaves, who are described, at various times, as "black monkeys," and who hardly emerge as human beings, in the story, let alone as sensitively depicted ones, with complex emotional lives. That contrast, between the nuanced view of the Revolution - the sensitive appreciation shown, for the idea that people on different sides of an issue can partake equally of high ideals and noble qualities - and the simplistically dismissive take on slaves, who are depicted (when they enter the picture at all) as incompetent and stupid, particularly struck me here, and I came away with the impression that this was authorial prejudice, rather than just a realistic depiction of the prejudices of the day. After all, it isn't characters who say or think that the slaves are like "black monkeys," it's the narrator.

It really is a shame, because I do feel that the book has merit, as a work of historical fiction. But unlike Downright Dencey (another of the books I have read for this Newbery project), I'm not sure there is enough merit to compensate for the racism - especially when the racism here seems so much more consciously held, on the part of the author. Recommended primarily to Newbery completists like myself, and to fans of historical fiction, with the proviso that there is some pretty sharply anachronistic content here. show less

Meggy is a young orphan living with her aunt, uncle and cousin in Edinburgh, feeling unwanted, lonely and restless, until a random opportunity to jump a ship to North Carolina gives her the chance at a new life, even if it is amidst colonies on the brink of war with England.
A nice little read, with a strong female lead who had me rooting for her from the start.