A WOMAN OF MARKED CHARACTER

The first book in a two-part historical fiction series about Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix, a woman from a prominent Cherokee family in the 19th century.

Ridge Paschal Pix was born in what is now west Georgia to Major Ridge, a prominent leader of the Cherokee Nation, and his wife Susanna. When the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Bill of 1830, Ridge and his family became convinced that removal west was the only way to protect their people from the violent incursions of Georgian settlers. Sarah’s father, Major Ridge, and her brother, John Ridge, were among the Cherokee people who signed the Treaty of New Echota of 1835, which Cherokee leaders, such as John Ross, deemed a betrayal. Sarah and her new husband, George Paschal, joined her family on their journey to Arkansas along the route that would later be called the Trail of Tears. When John Ross’ party arrived, they blamed the Ridges and the Treaty Party for their losses and assassinated Sarah’s father, brother, and cousin. Well-educated and decisive, Sarah took on the role of family matriarch, intent on avenging her fallen kin, while managing her own household amid a frequently fractious marriage. This novel covers her life up to 1848; an upcoming sequel will cover the second half. In her historical novel, Webb blurs fact and fiction, animating the subject and era. The first half of Sarah’s life, which this book depicts, occurs during the most tumultuous and tragic chapter of Cherokee history. The author thoroughly limns the years of politics and strife to better contextualize Sarah’s narrative, and she includes many passages of Sarah speaking in first-person: “When John Ross gained the doorway I stepped forward as if to shake his hand. Did I see fear in his eyes? I pulled from my sleeve a thorny rose. I looked straight into his face and softly said as I had on his rose-covered porch, ‘Your arrogance killed my family and our people!’” For the most part, this is done well, but the result often reads like nonfiction, without the intimacy of a fully realized protagonist. Still, for such an important period of history often overlooked in historical fiction, this is a welcome addition.

A portrait of a remarkable woman who played an outsize role in Cherokee and early American history.