Catharine Maria Sedgwick Plot Summary of Redwood (1824)

Having broken his arm in a carriage accident while on vacation, Mr. Henry Redwood is forced to recuperate for five to six weeks in the home of the Allens, New England farmers. Redwood's daughter, Caroline, is a city girl and looks down upon the country folk, including Ellen Bruce, the novel's heroine, whose parentage is mysterious but who lives with the Allens. Caroline is bored silly until the man her father wants her to marry, Charles Westall, arrives. However, Charles seems more impressed with Ellen than with Caroline. In an effort to make herself look good, Caroline speculates upon and disparages Ellen's mother. Ellen overhears this conversation and confronts everyone present. Ellen reveals that her mother died when she was young; that her father was married to her mother although he pretended not to be, and is still alive; and that a full explanation of the details is contained in a little metal box which Ellen must not open until she has reached a certain age, which is near. Later that evening, Caroline observes Ellen holding the metal casket, and then hiding it away. After Ellen leaves, Caroline manages to open Ellen's casket, using one of her many trinket keys. She reads the letter with horror and is startled when she sees the miniature picture. She takes both, and replaces the now-empty casket. Ellen now departs with Aunt Deborah, an Amazon figure in the novel, to rescue Emily Allen, a young relative, from a Shaker colony. Charles offers to go along, but Ellen refuses: she thinks that because of her unknown parentage, she's not good enough for Charles. When Ellen and Deborah get to the Shaker colony, they are told that Emily has already run away. Disappointed, they leave; a dog madly barking leads them to an old Indian's cave, where they find Emily tied up. It turns out that the older Shaker who had been harassing Emily (trying to get her to leave the Shaker colony and to marry him) had left her in the old Indian's cave and paid him with alcohol; after drinking too much, the old Indian died, leaving Emily tied up without any keeper. On their way home, Emily, Ellen and Deborah meet Caroline and Mr. Redwood and Charles Westall at an Inn. Mr. Redwood is very ill; he is plagued by thoughts of his first wife, whom he abandoned. To make things worse, his daughter Caroline attempts to run away with a British soldier; although they are found out before they can actually marry, Mr. Redwood agrees, reluctantly, to the match. Ellen finally opens the metal casket, and finds it empty. Caroline, who has been having nightmares, admits to having tampered with it, and gives the contents back to Ellen. It turns out that Ellen is Mr. Redwood's daughter, which makes her good enough for Charles after all. Ellen and Charles marry and live happily ever after. Caroline goes off to the West Indies with her husband, where she bears a daughter and promptly dies. In the letter that ends the novel, Aunt Deborah comments on how lucky this daughter is to be raised by Ellen-a mother much more fit than Caroline ever could have been.