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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Puritan Hypocrisy
Love, Values, and Attraction
Difference, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Home and Belonging
Sexism
Summary
Analysis
As soon as the Dolphin embarks on the river from Saybrook to Wethersfield, the wind dies down. Without wind in its sails, the ship moves at a painfully slow pace. Impatient, Kit asks a redheaded sailor if the journey usually takes so long. He genially tells her that this trip can take much longer—there is rarely any wind on this river. But he doesn’t mind; the ship is his home, and he is “satisfied, wind or no wind.”
While Kit is anxious to reach her destination, the trip to Wethersfield is drawn out, which may foreshadow that Kit’s journey to feel at home will take much longer than she expects. By contrast, the sailor Kit speaks with isn’t unhappy that the trip is taking such a long time. To him, the Dolphin—and not any particular piece of land—is his home.
Themes
Kit is frustrated. She doesn’t have much patience left, and she doesn’t want to be around hostile Goodwife Cruff and her husband, who is “too spineless to stand up […] against his shrew of a wife.” Kit feels terrible for their scrawny child, Prudence, whom Goodwife Cruff only feeds scraps. Sadly, Kit hasn’t seen Prudence with the wooden doll since she saved it.
Kit isn’t a patient person, which fits with her impulsive behavior from Chapter 1. Unfortunately for Kit, her relationship with Goodwife Cruff hasn’t improved, which suggests that Goodwife Cruff still thinks that Kit is a witch. Goodwife Cruff seems to be a hostile woman in general, as evidenced by her poor treatment of Prudence. The book criticizes Goodman Cruff for not “stand[ing] up” to Goodwife Cruff, who is described as a “shrew.” In the 17th century (and the 1950s, when the book was written), women were generally expected to be submissive to their husbands, who were typically the more dominant figures in married couples.
Themes
New Englanders, Kit has decided, do not forget easily. In addition to Goodwife Cruff’s continued hostility, Captain Eaton and Nat are also still cold to her. Only John Holbrook is kind to Kit.
Captain Eaton may be frosty with Kit because she acted so impulsively by jumping into the water—he may have expected a young woman to act with more restraint. Nat may still be upset that he got his clothes wet for Kit, but it is also possible that he feels embarrassed because she’s a better swimmer than he is, and women at this time were often assumed to be inferior to men. John, however, remains kind to Kit, again showing his thoughtfulness.
Themes
John spends almost all his time reading, sometimes even forgetting to eat. But as soon as the sun sets, he and Kit talk. She learns that he had wanted to go to Harvard, but he didn’t have enough money. Luckily, Revered Bulkeley, a famed scholar of both medicine and theology, accepted him as his pupil.
John is a dedicated worker: he diligently reads all day, and he hopes to continue studying under Reverend Bulkeley. Given that John is studying under a theologian, it’s likely that he’s devoutly religious as well.
Themes
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Kit is embarrassed to hear John talk about being poor. She grew up surrounded by luxury and never once questioned it. John is shocked to hear about childhood—didn’t her parents make her do chores? But Kit’s parents died when she was very young, so Kit was raised by her grandfather and the people he enslaved. Kit begins to describe her now-deceased grandfather, whom she loved very much, but she’s afraid that she is going to start crying. John expresses his sympathy for her loss.
Kit is embarrassed to hear about John’s struggles with poverty because she doesn’t know what it means to be poor, and the striking difference between her childhood and John’s makes her uncomfortable. John is surprised at her childhood in return, mainly because she has never worked before. This passage also reveals that Kit’s grandfather enslaved people, which Kit doesn’t seem to find abnormal or problematic.
Themes
Kit is looking forward to meeting her Aunt Rachel, her mother’s sister. Rachel left England for America after she met a Puritan man (Matthew) and eloped with him. Although Kit has never met her aunt, her grandfather told her that Rachel had been beautiful and joyful. Hearing this, John suddenly warns her that “That was a great many years ago.” Kit doesn’t understand his warning.
John’s warning implies that Kit’s Aunt Rachel may not be as happy as she once was. The reader doesn’t know yet if this is because the Puritan lifestyle has changed or, or if her marriage to Kit’s Uncle Matthew is an unhappy one. Notably, the passage implies that Rachel wasn’t a Puritan before she met Matthew (since Kit and her grandfather aren’t Puritans), which means that they did not originally share the same lifestyle or religious beliefs.
Themes
On the seventh day of the long, slow journey, Captain Eaton has then crewman pull the boat forward. Two sailors row ahead in a smaller boat and anchor one end of a long rope into the water. The men on the Dolphin have the other end of the rope, and they begin to pull the ship toward the smaller boat. It is very slow going, and seeing the men labor so strenuously makes Kit uncomfortable.
The painstaking labor that the crew undertakes to pull the ship toward its destination foreshadows how Kit’s journey to feel at home in Wethersfield will be difficult work. Seeing the labor makes Kit uncomfortable, which speaks to her privilege—not only has she never done chores, but she also doesn’t want to see labor in action. She grew up on a plantation, so she has always been surrounded by hard work. But her reaction here suggests that she views manual laborers—including the people her grandfather enslaved—as inferior.
Themes
In the hot sun, Nat and some of the other sailors jump into the river to swim and cool off. Nat taunts Kit, telling her to join, even though he knows that she can’t. When he comes aboard, Nat apologizes for mocking her. Kit genially admits that she is very jealous that he can cool off in the water, adding that she wishes she could get away from the dirty, horse-stinking ship for a bit.
Nat knows that Kit can’t join because it would only further incriminate her to people like Goodwife Cruff, who already thinks that Kit is a witch because she can swim. The superstition that witches float (whereas “respectable” women sink) requires judging women in a way that men aren’t judged. This is made clear as Kit enviously watches Nat swim—society restricts her behavior more than his.
Themes
Nat becomes enraged. He asks Kit whether she would like the smell if the ship’s hold was “full of human bodies,” tormented and locked in chains. Kit is shocked, repulsed, and confused at his words. He goes on to ask whether she ever thought about how the people who were forced into slavery got to Barbados. Kit has never thought about this.
Nat is angry that Kit is criticizing his beloved ship; like the redheaded sailor, Nat feels at home on the Dolphin. In return, Nat criticizes Kit’s homeland of Barbados, an island where British colonizers enslaved many thousands of Black people to work on plantations. Nat explains to Kit that slavery is an inhumane practice that brutalizes and exploits people. Kit’s participation in the enslavement of Black people (even passively by living on her grandfather’s plantation) likely means that Kit believes Black people are inferior to white people and therefore don’t deserve equal treatment. It has seemingly never occurred to Kit that enslaved people are tortured in the way Nat describes here.
Themes
Nat continues, telling Kit that the slave trade still exists in New England—there are “plenty” of colonists who are willing to pay a high price for enslaved Black people. But he and his family refuse to participate, even though they could make a lot of money. He angrily snaps that he and his family are “almighty proud that [their] ship has a good honest stink of horses.”
Nat informs Kit that there are many New Englanders who enslave people, just as Kit’s grandfather did. Nat acknowledges that his family could make a lot of money from participating in the slave trade, but they don’t because they believe that it is morally wrong. So, even though Kit has insinuated that the ship’s “stink of horses” is offensive to her as an upper-class young woman, Nat is “proud” that he and his family work in an “honest” and non-exploitative way, even if that work is hard and dirty.
Themes
Nat stalks off, leaving Kit feeling annoyed that he ruined their chance of being friends again. She tries to be glad that at least John Holbrook still wants to be friends with her, but she admits to herself that he always seems shocked by her behavior. Just last night, she surprised him by reading from his book—he couldn’t believe that she could read, since she spent her whole childhood playing and never working.
Kit does not take Nat’s words to heart; instead of reconsidering her racist beliefs, she is merely annoyed that Nat was short with her. In fact, the only person on the ship who still is friendly to her is John, but John’s constant shock at Kit’s behavior hurts their friendship. John seemingly has strict ideas about propriety, and though he is kind to Kit, his reactions betray his prejudices against different ways of living.
Themes
This surprised Kit—she had never thought that reading was work. She had especially enjoyed reading plays. John flushes at her comment—the Puritans of New England do not read plays. As he tells her, “the proper use of reading is to improve [one’s] sinful nature.”
Kit’s reading plays shocks John because, according to Puritan culture, reading should always have a religious purpose. He is set in the Puritan way of life, and Kit’s different lifestyle shocks him.
Themes
Sometimes, Kit feels John pulling away from her, as though he is uncertain whether he wants to be friends. At the same time, his inflexible righteousness worries her—he will never understand why she loves books or why she enjoyed her carefree childhood.
Because Kit and John do not see eye to eye on what is acceptable behavior, they struggle to be friends. Instead of trying to understand each other, they let their prejudices get the better of them—they each think they know what the “right” way to behave is, and they each believe the other person is wrong for thinking differently.
Themes
At last, the Dolphin arrives in Wethersfield. Kit is again disappointed by the sight that greets her: rough wooden structures and unending forests. As the other passengers disembark, Kit overhears Prudence telling Goodwife Cruff that “the pretty lady” is also coming to Wethersfield. Kit calls out to Prudence, telling her that she hopes to see her often. Goodwife Cruff snatches Prudence away from Kit, demanding that Kit stay away from her child and adding that strangers are not welcome in Wethersfield.
Kit is disappointed when she sees that Wethersfield is much more barren than her home in Barbados, and she doesn’t feel excited at the prospect of moving somewhere that feels so unlike home to her. Meanwhile, Goodwife Cruff makes it clear that the townspeople will not welcome Kit because she is unfamiliar to them. The implication is that the Puritans of Wethersfield are prejudiced against newcomers. Even though the Puritans are also transplants from another country (they migrated from England), they are hypocritically unwelcoming to other newcomers.
Themes
When Captain Eaton sees that no one is welcoming Kit, he expresses his concern—he sent word to Wethersfield that the Dolphin was arriving today, so Rachel and Matthew should be at the shore to greet her. Knowing that she needs to tell the captain the truth, Kit informs him that her aunt and uncle don’t actually know that she is coming to stay with them.
Kit’s decision to keep her arrival a secret from Rachel and Matthew hints that she doesn’t expect them to warmly welcome her to Connecticut. And given how the Puritans aboard the Dolphin have treated her thus far, her concerns may be well-founded.
Themes
Captain Eaton is annoyed that Kit didn’t tell him the truth about her voyage; now, he will have to deliver her to her relatives. He instructs Nat to carry Kit’s luggage as they walk into town, and Kit begins to feel anxious.
Captain Eaton is upset because he is now responsible to deliver Kit safely to her aunt and uncle, which takes up more of his time. In 17th-century New England, women were rarely trusted to be on their own, so they often needed chaperones. Captain Eaton may fear that, should Kit’s aunt and uncle refuse to take her in, he may have to take care of her until she can figure out another solution.
Themes
