This rather odd behavior might be explained by a twenty-first-century discovery, made when what were assumed to be Pulaski’s bones were removed temporarily during a renovation of the monument—and said bones were discovered to be those of (apparently) a woman.
Well, stranger things have happened; vide the recent stir when the lead coffin of (presumably) Simon Fraser, the Old Fox, was opened and proved to contain the body of a young woman. In this instance, though, it’s possible that the feminine-appearing bones may really have been those of Casimir Pulaski, as recent DNA analysis appears to indicate that the bones belonged to an “intersex” person or hermaphrodite.
If the bones are indeed Pulaski’s and if he was in fact intersex or female, that’s a very good explanation for why he wanted to be taken aboard the Wasp, rather than being treated by an army physician ashore, where his secret would have been discovered and made public.
Haym Salomon—“The Financier of the Revolution.” A Polish Jew with a talent for banking, Salomon was one of the most important contributors to the success of the American Revolution, as time after time he succeeded in obtaining loans that kept Washington’s army afloat.
St. John’s Island—Was later named “Prince Edward Island,” as it’s called today. This is where Jocasta MacKenzie Cameron Cameron Cameron Innes and her fourth husband, Duncan Innes, moved after the beginning of the Revolution.
The City Tavern was an actual tavern in Salisbury and was actually called “City Tavern.” (For the benefit of sharp-eyed readers who will be thinking to themselves that “city tavern” shouldn’t be capitalized …) The Salisburyites were apparently a pragmatic lot, given the names of local attractions such as “Town Creek” and “Old Stone House (1766).” “Great Wagon Road” is about as romantic as it got in that neck of the wood—and Salisbury didn’t name the road, just abutted it.
Colonel Johnson of the Southern Department (Indian agents)—There were two Johnsons who headed the department, one succeeding the other, though I don’t think they were related.
Non-English Figures of Speech
a vos souhaits / a tes amours—The traditional French Canadian blessing upon hearing someone sneeze. Translated literally, it means “to your dreams / to your loves.” (A little more graceful than “Gesundheit” or the onomatopoetic “Blesshu” perhaps …)
stercus—“Excrement” (Latin).
filium scorti—“Son of a bitch” (Latin).
cloaca obscaena—“Obscene sewer” (Latin).
“tace is the Latin for a candle”—This is a common tag in eighteenth-century conversation among the upper classes (who spoke Latin). “Tace” is the imperative meaning “keep silent,” and the candle is symbolic of light. Ergo, the expression means (essentially) “keep it dark”—in other words, “be discreet and don’t say anything regarding what we’ve been talking about.”
pozegnanie—“Farewell” (Polish).
Gáidhlig phrases and figures of speech are defined in the text.
William Butler Yeats—The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
Miscellany
Shreddies—RAF-issue underwear. So called, apparently, because the woven pattern of the cloth from which they were made strongly resembled the appearance of a Shredded Wheat biscuit.
Part Three’s Heading is derived from a quote by the novelist Florence King:
“In social matters, pointless conventions are not merely the bee sting of etiquette, but the snake bite of moral order.”
—FLORENCE KING
Black Freemasons—At one point, Claire wonders whether there are black Freemasons. In fact, there were. Prince Hall, a well-known abolitionist and black leader, established Prince Hall Freemasonry (Boston).
Haitian Navy
You see frequent references in historical accounts to the “Haitian Navy” Chasseurs-Volontaires, who fought with the Americans during the Siege of Savannah. In fact, Haiti didn’t exist as a polity at this point in history, and these black volunteers were actually from Saint-Domingue (later the Dominican Republic) and other places, and their background is fascinating, but not something I was able to go into during my discussion of the Battle of Savannah. The following details, however, are from the blackpast.org website and give a fuller picture:
D’Estaing’s troops were mainly composed of colonial regiments coming from various locations such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint-Domingue. The 800 men from the French Caribbean colonies were organized into a regiment called Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue. These soldiers were des gens de couleurs libres (free men of color) who voluntarily joined the French colonial forces. The gens de couleur were mixed-race men of African and European origin from Saint-Domingue. They were born free and thus were distinct from free slaves, or affranchise, who were born enslaved or became enslaved during their lives and then freed themselves or were freed. This distinction allowed the gens de couleur a higher social and political role in the French colonial West Indies. According to the 1685 French Black Code, they had the same rights and privileges as the white colonial population. In practice, however, strong discrimination by white French colonial residents impeded the gens de couleurs from fully exercising them.
Cultures and Language
This is not the time or place to discuss the portrayal of cultures in fiction, save to say that
No two people who belong to a culture experience it in the same way, and
If writers felt constrained to write only about their own experience, culture, history, or background … libraries would be full of dull biographies, and a lot of what makes a culture—the variety and vigor of its art—would be lost, and the culture would die.
That said, when you write about anything outside your own personal experience, you need the assistance of other people, whether you get it from books (necessary, if you’re writing about historical situations and events) or from personal stories and advice.
During the last thirty-three years, I’ve had the good luck to come across a number of kind and helpful people who were more than willing to advise me about the details of their own culture (as experienced by them), and consequently, I think the various portrayals of those cultures have deepened and improved over the course of the writing of these books. I hope so.
When this happens, though, naturally details will vary, and as you acquire more contacts and more knowledge, you’ll run into some conflicts between accounts. Given that you really can’t go back and revise major events and characters in an earlier book, the best you can do is to adjust the current writing so far as is possible, and use the improved information when writing the next book.