The Morgesons

Stoddard's works were not widely read during her lifetime. The novel was lost to literary history for over a hundred years, perhaps because of scholars’ inability to categorize it. Yet The Morgesons has since become an important part of the canon of American literature. The meum and tuum of blood were inextricably mixed; so they contented themselves with giving their children the old Christian names which were carved on the headstones, and which, in time, added a still more profound darkness to the anti-heraldic memory of the Morgesons. They had no knowledge of that treasure which so many of our New England families are boastful of--the Ancestor who came over in the Mayflower, or by himself, with a grant of land from Parliament. It was not known whether two or three brothers sailed together from the Old World and settled in the New. They had no portrait, nor curious chair, nor rusty weapon--no old Bible, nor drinking cup, nor remnant of brocade.