Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers!
On page 10, Harriet tells a young Isabella that hypocrisy is the
enemy of truth, the coward's way out. What circumstances prompt
this moral proclamation, and how deeply does it affect Isabella?
Discuss Harriet's and Isabella's opinions of each other as each
reflects on the past while Henry lies dying. After seeing a
woman struck by her disapproving husband at Anna Dickinson's
speech in Hartford, Isabella realizes how closely paralleled are
slavery and the treatment of women, especially underprivileged
women. What similarities do you see in the abolition and women's
suffrage movements and their philosophies as described in this
novel? Do you agree that the situation of the slave and that of
the nineteenth-century woman is similar? Why or why Mary Beecher
points out to Harriet that betrayal is never simple. Consider
those characters accused of betrayal in this novel, such as
Isabella, Frank Moulton, Elizabeth Tilton, and Victoria
Woodhull. Why do