The Copperhead

"The Copperhead" is a farmer in northern New York who sympathizes with the South in the anti-slavery struggle, and who in consequence is boycotted by his neighbors. He is driven from church, not allowed to sell his milk at the neighborhood creamery, and in a hundred ways ostracized and treated with scorn. To add to his burden, his son falls in love with the daughter of the arch-enemy of the family, a ranting Abolitionist, and then goes to the war, only to be reported " missing" after the battle of Antietam. Finally the farmer's house is set on fire by a crowd of young roysterers who have come with the intention of tarring and feathering him and his " hired man," and then the reaction in favor of the Copperhead sets in. The book ends with the return of the "missing " soldier and the reconciliation of his father's family with that of the young school-teacher in whom he is interested. Mr. Frederic's descriptions of life in a rural community at the beginning of the war are true, and his character studies not only have power and individuality, but are evidently based upon careful observation of real life.

Dettagli