Pauper Auction

About this item

"A gorgeous and meticulously-researched historical fiction examining a young woman's struggle to escape unexpected poverty and find autonomy and purpose in early New England. Mankind are always seeking after happiness in some way or another. ~ Leavitt's Farmer's Almanac, 1805" The fall from beloved wife of the town blacksmith to widowed pauper was swift. Margery Turner sits in the Thorneboro, New Hampshire Meetinghouse on the second Tuesday of March, 1805. She and the other indigent town residents wait their turn to be auctioned out to the lowest bidder who will accept the paupers into their homes in return for town funds. The young widow and an abandoned child named Agnes find themselves taken in by farmer and ciderist Samuell Wheeler and his elderly mother, renowned bed rug maker Hannah Wheeler. Margery swears to herself that she will not forever remain a pauper in purse or purpose. Secrets and sorrows live on the prosperous