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Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana History
AN AWARD WINNING BIOGRAPHY
1885-1914. Mary Fields, a fifty-three-year old second-generation slave, emancipated and residing in Toledo, receives news of her friend’s impending death. Remedies packed in her satchel, Mary rushes to board the Northern Pacific. Days later, she arrives in the Montana wilderness to find Mother Mary Amadeus lying on frozen earth in a broken-down cabin. Certain that the cloister of frostbit Ursuline nuns and their students, Indian girls rescued from nearby reservations, will not survive without assistance, Mary decides to stay.
She builds a hennery, makes repairs to living quarters, cares for stock, and treks into the mountains to provide food. Brushes with death do not deter her. Mary drives a horse and wagon through perilous terrain and sub zero blizzards to improve the lives of missionaries, homesteaders and Indians and, in the process, her own.
After weathering wolf attacks, wagon crashes and treacherous conspiracies by scoundrels, local politicians and the state’s first Catholic bishop, Mary Fields creates another daring plan. An avid patriot, she is determined to register for the vote. The price is high. Will she manifest her personal vision of independence?
MIANTAE METCALF MCCONNELL’S RESEARCH enabled USPS historians to verify Mary Fields as the first African American woman star route mail carrier in the United States. A fact-based chronicle of Fields’ life in Montana from 1885 until her death in 1914, the narrative examines women rights, bootleg politics, Montana’s turn-of-the-century transition from territory to state and its scandalous woman suffrage election.
PRAISE FOR DELIVERANCE MARY FIELDS
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
“Under McConnell's hand, the atmosphere, frontier challenges, and landscapes of Montana come to life. Mary Fields is a true historical figure, dramatized in novel format. Her story will delight readers who look for a blend of accurate historical facts, hard-hitting drama, and realistic scenes powered by a feisty protagonist whose values and concerns become part of the social changes sweeping the nation.”
—Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Reviewer & Editor, California Bookwatch
McConnell has fashioned a historical narrative marrying prose and poetry, fact with creative writing. With the discerning eye of a photographer, the deft hand of a historian, and the literary heart of a poet, the life of Mary Fields, legendary black woman of Montana, rises off the page into living history. If the reader has any interest in Mary Fields, aka Stagecoach Mary, Deliverance is the one book you must read.
—Cowboy Mike Searles, Author, Professor of History, Augusta University, GA.
A great story and history of Mary Fields, an important black westerner. A must read for youths and adults. —Bruce A. Glasrud, Author, Specialist Black American West History, Professor, California State University.
1885-1914. Mary Fields, a fifty-three-year old second-generation slave, emancipated and residing in Toledo, receives news of her friend’s impending death. Remedies packed in her satchel, Mary rushes to board the Northern Pacific. Days later, she arrives in the Montana wilderness to find Mother Mary Amadeus lying on frozen earth in a broken-down cabin. Certain that the cloister of frostbit Ursuline nuns and their students, Indian girls rescued from nearby reservations, will not survive without assistance, Mary decides to stay.
She builds a hennery, makes repairs to living quarters, cares for stock, and treks into the mountains to provide food. Brushes with death do not deter her. Mary drives a horse and wagon through perilous terrain and sub zero blizzards to improve the lives of missionaries, homesteaders and Indians and, in the process, her own.
After weathering wolf attacks, wagon crashes and treacherous conspiracies by scoundrels, local politicians and the state’s first Catholic bishop, Mary Fields creates another daring plan. An avid patriot, she is determined to register for the vote. The price is high. Will she manifest her personal vision of independence?
MIANTAE METCALF MCCONNELL’S RESEARCH enabled USPS historians to verify Mary Fields as the first African American woman star route mail carrier in the United States. A fact-based chronicle of Fields’ life in Montana from 1885 until her death in 1914, the narrative examines women rights, bootleg politics, Montana’s turn-of-the-century transition from territory to state and its scandalous woman suffrage election.
PRAISE FOR DELIVERANCE MARY FIELDS
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
“Under McConnell's hand, the atmosphere, frontier challenges, and landscapes of Montana come to life. Mary Fields is a true historical figure, dramatized in novel format. Her story will delight readers who look for a blend of accurate historical facts, hard-hitting drama, and realistic scenes powered by a feisty protagonist whose values and concerns become part of the social changes sweeping the nation.”
—Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Reviewer & Editor, California Bookwatch
McConnell has fashioned a historical narrative marrying prose and poetry, fact with creative writing. With the discerning eye of a photographer, the deft hand of a historian, and the literary heart of a poet, the life of Mary Fields, legendary black woman of Montana, rises off the page into living history. If the reader has any interest in Mary Fields, aka Stagecoach Mary, Deliverance is the one book you must read.
—Cowboy Mike Searles, Author, Professor of History, Augusta University, GA.
A great story and history of Mary Fields, an important black westerner. A must read for youths and adults. —Bruce A. Glasrud, Author, Specialist Black American West History, Professor, California State University.
530 pages, Paperback
First published September 20, 2016
162 people are currently reading
1259 people want to read
About the author
Miantae Metcalf McConnell
8 books34 followersMiantae Metcalf McConnell, born and raised in California, spent childhood summers in Montana on her grandparent's farm. It was there her heart remained, in the wild open where she rode horseback, fished for trout and spent endless hours exploring a diverse natural landscape.
Years later she returned to claim Montana as her home of residence (not unlike her Montana homesteader ancestors) and continues to live there today.
Readers who would like to learn more about additional events and people who lived in Montana during the Deliverance Mary Fields time period, might like to visit Miantae's website: www.miantaemetcalfmcconnell.com
Years later she returned to claim Montana as her home of residence (not unlike her Montana homesteader ancestors) and continues to live there today.
Readers who would like to learn more about additional events and people who lived in Montana during the Deliverance Mary Fields time period, might like to visit Miantae's website: www.miantaemetcalfmcconnell.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
February 7, 2018
The front cover of Deliverance proclaims Mary Fields (c. 1832–1914), the putative subject of the novel, ‘First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States’. The cover also announces that this is ‘A Montana History’.
Mary Fields had been born into slavery and was only freed with Abolition. She must have been a woman of great determination and perseverance, for she won the respect and friendship of the communities she served, and was an independent businesswoman. ‘Black Mary’, as she was known by many, even became the ‘mascot’ of a local baseball team. She did not become an employee of the US Post Office; rather, in common with other persons, she was contracted to deliver the mail on a specified route based on her initial bid, her guarantees and her dependability. In 1885 Mary was awarded the contract to deliver mail from Cascade, Montana to St Peter’s Mission.
Not a great deal else is known about Mary Fields, but Miantae Metcalf McConnell has undertaken extensive research into her subject and has added to our knowledge of this redoubtable woman. One of McConnell’s stated ambitions in writing her novel is to enable Mary to become ‘an inspiration to all peoples: past, present and future’. Therein lies a problem.
When novelists begin to consider a project, they seek an answer to an important question: is there a novel here? In this case, is there a novel here that can comfortably extend over a thousand pages (as measured in iBooks)? In my opinion, the answer to both these questions is an emphatic ‘no’.
The paucity of information on Mary Fields has inspired McConnell to add, and add, and add to her narrative, expanding it to bloated proportions, so that it is shapeless and unorganized, despite the appearance of structure provided by part titles, intertitles, section breaks, and prologue and epilogue. The impressive bibliography of works consulted by the author seems to have unleashed a torrent of prose unrestrained by a guiding intelligence that should have been screaming ‘Enough already!’ An author too attached to her subject, too excited about telling the whole truth, and intoxicated by her historical milieu will inevitably lose all sense of proportion: everything is precious, and all her inventions are vital. The avowed motivation to inspire readers lays a dead hand on creativity, on balance, on history.
Deliverance is rife with confusions that begin with the plethora of titles/subtitles/straplines on the front cover, leaving readers in doubt as to what kind of book they are meant to be reading. That doubt, it seems to me, is shared by the author, whose prologue is an epically misjudged venture into geological prehistory. There follows an eighty page account of Mary struggling through a snowstorm, eventually leading to a search party and recovery. This section is interminable and completely typical. I thought myself entitled to expect a book about Mary, but lo! there are all these other interesting characters we simply must follow, endlessly and in tedious detail.
As for the writing itself, McConnell has an excellent vocabulary, which she displays at every opportunity, often at some cost to intelligibility:
This is irritatingly overwritten and stuffed with pleonasm. McConnell invariably goes for the unusual word (heads can’t simply turn or twist or jerk, they must ‘torque’), and her predilection for the missing conjunction is confusing. Reading this stuff is exhausting: the mind longs for straightforward, concise prose without artifice.
Alone with herself, Mary is much given to uttering helpful contextual remarks designed for the reader’s benefit:
‘Yep’ indeed. Surveying the wintry landscape, she lets us know that ‘Folks came thinking it was gonna be easy’, a sentiment I soon came to appreciate as I struggled valiantly through another hundred pages of deep narrative drifts and icy squalls of description.
As if the novel’s massive cast of supporting characters were not already more than enough, room is made for the souls of the dead and apparitions of younger selves, the latter of whom speak in pious platitudes to their older avatars:
It is at junctures like these that one suspects an ulterior religious motive behind the novel, which would also explain the banality of the dialogue. Nobody – not even a murderer – speaks in a convincing voice. Everything – racial bigotry, lust, Christian devotion, horses, cooking – is sanitized for our protection. One looks in vain for provocation, challenge, stimulation.
The lives of forgotten, marginalized persons – among them, people of other ethnicities to our own, and women – are in desperate need of recuperation. Many of those lives are fascinating, enlightening and inspiring, but if we seek deliberately to make them inspiring from our own positions of power and privilege, then we do them a grave disservice and perpetuate the historical imbalances that marginalized them in the first place. Such lives are already inspiring; they don’t need us to make them so. When I compared Deliverance with the short entry on Mary Fields in Wikipedia, I’m afraid I much preferred the latter.
Mary Fields had been born into slavery and was only freed with Abolition. She must have been a woman of great determination and perseverance, for she won the respect and friendship of the communities she served, and was an independent businesswoman. ‘Black Mary’, as she was known by many, even became the ‘mascot’ of a local baseball team. She did not become an employee of the US Post Office; rather, in common with other persons, she was contracted to deliver the mail on a specified route based on her initial bid, her guarantees and her dependability. In 1885 Mary was awarded the contract to deliver mail from Cascade, Montana to St Peter’s Mission.
Not a great deal else is known about Mary Fields, but Miantae Metcalf McConnell has undertaken extensive research into her subject and has added to our knowledge of this redoubtable woman. One of McConnell’s stated ambitions in writing her novel is to enable Mary to become ‘an inspiration to all peoples: past, present and future’. Therein lies a problem.
When novelists begin to consider a project, they seek an answer to an important question: is there a novel here? In this case, is there a novel here that can comfortably extend over a thousand pages (as measured in iBooks)? In my opinion, the answer to both these questions is an emphatic ‘no’.
The paucity of information on Mary Fields has inspired McConnell to add, and add, and add to her narrative, expanding it to bloated proportions, so that it is shapeless and unorganized, despite the appearance of structure provided by part titles, intertitles, section breaks, and prologue and epilogue. The impressive bibliography of works consulted by the author seems to have unleashed a torrent of prose unrestrained by a guiding intelligence that should have been screaming ‘Enough already!’ An author too attached to her subject, too excited about telling the whole truth, and intoxicated by her historical milieu will inevitably lose all sense of proportion: everything is precious, and all her inventions are vital. The avowed motivation to inspire readers lays a dead hand on creativity, on balance, on history.
Deliverance is rife with confusions that begin with the plethora of titles/subtitles/straplines on the front cover, leaving readers in doubt as to what kind of book they are meant to be reading. That doubt, it seems to me, is shared by the author, whose prologue is an epically misjudged venture into geological prehistory. There follows an eighty page account of Mary struggling through a snowstorm, eventually leading to a search party and recovery. This section is interminable and completely typical. I thought myself entitled to expect a book about Mary, but lo! there are all these other interesting characters we simply must follow, endlessly and in tedious detail.
As for the writing itself, McConnell has an excellent vocabulary, which she displays at every opportunity, often at some cost to intelligibility:
Blasts of noise screeched. Flesh lunged, shrieks wailed …
Beads of sweat pimpled her forehead …
Overhead, an onslaught of pewter clouds gestated into columns. Whiffs of dry air whirled across snow mounds, quipping tiny crystals airborne. Dusk retreated. Legendary north winds, known for hurling glaciers, amassed and fisted, launched into fury …
Striated layers of mist hung at ground level.
This is irritatingly overwritten and stuffed with pleonasm. McConnell invariably goes for the unusual word (heads can’t simply turn or twist or jerk, they must ‘torque’), and her predilection for the missing conjunction is confusing. Reading this stuff is exhausting: the mind longs for straightforward, concise prose without artifice.
Alone with herself, Mary is much given to uttering helpful contextual remarks designed for the reader’s benefit:
Guess it’s a bona fide town with the new post office. Got one store, one church, one schoolhouse, two sheep sheds, and three saloons – looks like a tintype of life sequestered in the wild and wooly. Yep.
‘Yep’ indeed. Surveying the wintry landscape, she lets us know that ‘Folks came thinking it was gonna be easy’, a sentiment I soon came to appreciate as I struggled valiantly through another hundred pages of deep narrative drifts and icy squalls of description.
As if the novel’s massive cast of supporting characters were not already more than enough, room is made for the souls of the dead and apparitions of younger selves, the latter of whom speak in pious platitudes to their older avatars:
I am here because there is still hurt inside you. To be a true servant of God you cannot have personal desires mixed in your heart.
It is at junctures like these that one suspects an ulterior religious motive behind the novel, which would also explain the banality of the dialogue. Nobody – not even a murderer – speaks in a convincing voice. Everything – racial bigotry, lust, Christian devotion, horses, cooking – is sanitized for our protection. One looks in vain for provocation, challenge, stimulation.
The lives of forgotten, marginalized persons – among them, people of other ethnicities to our own, and women – are in desperate need of recuperation. Many of those lives are fascinating, enlightening and inspiring, but if we seek deliberately to make them inspiring from our own positions of power and privilege, then we do them a grave disservice and perpetuate the historical imbalances that marginalized them in the first place. Such lives are already inspiring; they don’t need us to make them so. When I compared Deliverance with the short entry on Mary Fields in Wikipedia, I’m afraid I much preferred the latter.
June 11, 2018
This is an exhaustingly researched book, roughly 504 pages or so of Mary Fields or “Stagecoach Mary” as she is so often known. Mary was the first African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States. She was also an emancipated slave.
The western landscape plays a significant part of this story as McConnelll does a wonderful job placing you in the Montana wilderness where Mary’s journey takes hold. The author also performed extensive research gathering unknown or little known information about this amazing woman who literally weathered many storms, traversing the western countryside helping others in her path. Being a black woman in the West at the turn of the century was certainly an anomaly so of course Mary faced many obstacles with racism and being a woman during this time. But Mary persevered registering to vote in the state of Montana and was an advocate and champion for rights for all people.
If I can quibble about anything in the book, it’s that since there’s a paucity of information known or left about Mary’s life, the author was forced to embellish or litter the pages with fanciful dialogue or far too many imagined scenes. Trimming the book by 125-150 pages might’ve been a good idea. It’s an historical novel, a genre I thoroughly enjoy, but would’ve preferred an actual biography with less pages and maybe more in-depth information on black life in the west, or something of that nature.
Overall, kudos to the author for bringing to light a marvelous and courageous figure I and many others were previously unfamiliar with.
The western landscape plays a significant part of this story as McConnelll does a wonderful job placing you in the Montana wilderness where Mary’s journey takes hold. The author also performed extensive research gathering unknown or little known information about this amazing woman who literally weathered many storms, traversing the western countryside helping others in her path. Being a black woman in the West at the turn of the century was certainly an anomaly so of course Mary faced many obstacles with racism and being a woman during this time. But Mary persevered registering to vote in the state of Montana and was an advocate and champion for rights for all people.
If I can quibble about anything in the book, it’s that since there’s a paucity of information known or left about Mary’s life, the author was forced to embellish or litter the pages with fanciful dialogue or far too many imagined scenes. Trimming the book by 125-150 pages might’ve been a good idea. It’s an historical novel, a genre I thoroughly enjoy, but would’ve preferred an actual biography with less pages and maybe more in-depth information on black life in the west, or something of that nature.
Overall, kudos to the author for bringing to light a marvelous and courageous figure I and many others were previously unfamiliar with.
August 7, 2019
The paperback version of this book is very misleading. The back cover states it is "award-winning literary nonfiction biography". I can't find any award it has won other than being named one of 10 books to read by O Magazine. It definitely is not nonfiction. No matter how meticulous the research, no author can know what a character said to herself when nobody else was present. Nobody can know what someone's spirit said shortly after she died!!!
The book was much too long and would have been better at 200 pages rather than over 500. It turned what should have been a riveting story of a historical figure into a bore.
The book was much too long and would have been better at 200 pages rather than over 500. It turned what should have been a riveting story of a historical figure into a bore.
May 7, 2021
Horribly written, overdramatized, and takes a lot of liberties with the facts known about Mary's life.
April 30, 2020
Incredible story of an amazing woman!! Truly loved this book. Written like a novel!
August 16, 2017
This book was entered and was a FINALIST in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:
Title: Deliverance
Author: Mary Fields
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers: 19
Stats
Editing: 10/10
Writing Style: 10/10
Content: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
Of the 19 readers:
19 would read another book by this author.
18 thought the cover was good or excellent.
19 felt it was easy to follow.
19 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
10 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘her knowledge of the subject’.
9 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘her writing skills’.
19 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘Powerfully written with excellent characterisation. The author knows her history and seamlessly has her characters live within it. Wonderful cover too.’ Female author, aged 51
‘This author works wonders with her pen. The prose really is lovely; every sentence is a joy to read. A fascinating tell on the life of Stagecoach Mary.’ Male reader, aged 52
‘Here we have a well-researched, thoroughly enjoyable novel based on a strong, black woman living in the west. I’d highly recommend it anybody.’ Male reader, aged 67
‘Long but still interesting. Rich pickings for any history student.’ Male reader, aged 44
‘Excellent in many ways. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on women’s right to vote. This was very well researched; I’d recommend it to history students. It’s so well written I had no idea what happened and what didn’t. I always enjoy books with a strong female hero.’ Female reader, aged 18
‘A fascinating, hard-hitting saga. A FINALIST and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Title: Deliverance
Author: Mary Fields
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers: 19
Stats
Editing: 10/10
Writing Style: 10/10
Content: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
Of the 19 readers:
19 would read another book by this author.
18 thought the cover was good or excellent.
19 felt it was easy to follow.
19 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
10 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘her knowledge of the subject’.
9 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘her writing skills’.
19 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘Powerfully written with excellent characterisation. The author knows her history and seamlessly has her characters live within it. Wonderful cover too.’ Female author, aged 51
‘This author works wonders with her pen. The prose really is lovely; every sentence is a joy to read. A fascinating tell on the life of Stagecoach Mary.’ Male reader, aged 52
‘Here we have a well-researched, thoroughly enjoyable novel based on a strong, black woman living in the west. I’d highly recommend it anybody.’ Male reader, aged 67
‘Long but still interesting. Rich pickings for any history student.’ Male reader, aged 44
‘Excellent in many ways. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on women’s right to vote. This was very well researched; I’d recommend it to history students. It’s so well written I had no idea what happened and what didn’t. I always enjoy books with a strong female hero.’ Female reader, aged 18
‘A fascinating, hard-hitting saga. A FINALIST and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
October 3, 2016
Mary Fields was born into in slavery and creates a new life for herself in the rough conditions of the Montana frontier. Faced with constraints and prejudice due to her skin color and gender, she earns the respect and affection of her community. Her strength of character leads her to independence and even to become the first woman voter in her town in the time of the woman’s suffrage movement.
This book gives voice to the experiences of pioneers and of Native Americans, of missionaries and of politicians, captured through regional dialects and evocative descriptions. Although grounded in Montana’s history and environment, the book sheds light on the struggles and experiences of all who formed the American West. Mary Fields and the people around her come to life in this engaging narrative about a truly inspiring woman.
This book gives voice to the experiences of pioneers and of Native Americans, of missionaries and of politicians, captured through regional dialects and evocative descriptions. Although grounded in Montana’s history and environment, the book sheds light on the struggles and experiences of all who formed the American West. Mary Fields and the people around her come to life in this engaging narrative about a truly inspiring woman.
March 6, 2018
Absolutely one of the best books I have ever read. This is a true story of a remarkable woman named Mary Fields who was the only black person in Montana in the 1800's.
Despite the racial prejudice and being a woman she managed to survive by working in a convent, owning a cafe, doing laundry, babysitting, and delivering mail.
She was a six-foot tall, two hundred pound cigar smoking woman who held a rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other hand, and she knew how to use them, being the sharpshooter that she was.
She was an ex-slave, but she could read and write. Mary had a sense of humor, confidence in herself, and she was generous. She was the first African American who was registered, and did vote in an election in the state of Montana.
The book became tedious with information about voting rights for women.
Despite the racial prejudice and being a woman she managed to survive by working in a convent, owning a cafe, doing laundry, babysitting, and delivering mail.
She was a six-foot tall, two hundred pound cigar smoking woman who held a rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other hand, and she knew how to use them, being the sharpshooter that she was.
She was an ex-slave, but she could read and write. Mary had a sense of humor, confidence in herself, and she was generous. She was the first African American who was registered, and did vote in an election in the state of Montana.
The book became tedious with information about voting rights for women.
December 3, 2018
I am an African-American woman. I loved this biography from start to finish. The insights into the situations of Native-American families, the history of the African American Episcopal Church in Montana were of particular interest to me especially as they were connected to Mary Fields. The way Mary Fields connected through her speech, care and nurturing with nature and the starry universe and her friends was such a testimony to how we are all connected. The description of the natural environment, the mountains and the water's journey through the Northwest made the reader feel the place. Its effect on the missions and friendship of Mary Fields and Hattie made this biography all the more riveting. Thank you for your research, thank you for your love of history. This is a truly American story..
September 28, 2016
Absolutely Best Historical Fiction Book EVER!!
I'm still in tears from finishing this remarkable true story book. Kudos to the author, Miantae M McConnell, for meticulously doing the solid research and for bringing Mary White Crow Fields into our lives and awareness. There is actually no way to compare Ms McConnell's writing style except to say it's similar to another beloved author, James Michener. I very highly recommend this book, especially if you're at all interested in A. Montana history B. The African American treasure who helped to gain the woman's vote in Montana. Just an amazing real woman, black, white or yellow! I was asked to review this incredible book-best book I've ever reviewed. Please remember me Miantae when you write another book!!
I'm still in tears from finishing this remarkable true story book. Kudos to the author, Miantae M McConnell, for meticulously doing the solid research and for bringing Mary White Crow Fields into our lives and awareness. There is actually no way to compare Ms McConnell's writing style except to say it's similar to another beloved author, James Michener. I very highly recommend this book, especially if you're at all interested in A. Montana history B. The African American treasure who helped to gain the woman's vote in Montana. Just an amazing real woman, black, white or yellow! I was asked to review this incredible book-best book I've ever reviewed. Please remember me Miantae when you write another book!!
October 22, 2016
A terrific non-fiction that reads like fiction. We wouldn't believe it as a fictional tale.
The story of Mary Fields would be a terrific read in any event, but to know that it is NON-fiction, thoroughly researched and historically accurate is amazing. Ms. McConnell has presented a true-life drama that is a real page-turner from start to finish. Of course, as a woman, I appreciate the gains that Mary made in her life, in her community, in Montana. And to know that she was African-American and had come from the slave culture, and was able to step into her own personal freedom with resolve and perseverance is truly inspirational. The writing is excellent. Thank you for sharing this important person in our history in such a beautiful way.
The story of Mary Fields would be a terrific read in any event, but to know that it is NON-fiction, thoroughly researched and historically accurate is amazing. Ms. McConnell has presented a true-life drama that is a real page-turner from start to finish. Of course, as a woman, I appreciate the gains that Mary made in her life, in her community, in Montana. And to know that she was African-American and had come from the slave culture, and was able to step into her own personal freedom with resolve and perseverance is truly inspirational. The writing is excellent. Thank you for sharing this important person in our history in such a beautiful way.
January 30, 2019
I love this story. I must read at least one thousand history books a year. There are not enough history books about women. I could read this book again. I was in Shelby , Montana about thirty years ago and I saw a stature there of stage coach Mary. I asked about her but no body seems to know who she was. A native American told me that she help some sick people in that town. I always wanted to know her story. So when I saw ur book I jump to it.
Could you please write something about native American women they seem to get lost on the reservation. I would love to know if they have developed over the years. Mary fields is a five stars book. Thanks very much. I gave this book to a lot of young women to read...
Could you please write something about native American women they seem to get lost on the reservation. I would love to know if they have developed over the years. Mary fields is a five stars book. Thanks very much. I gave this book to a lot of young women to read...
February 6, 2017
An amazing book. The true story of Mary Fields, a survivor of slavery, who battled against the odds in Montana in the late 19th and early 20th century. She was the first black mail carrier and the first black person registered to vote in Cascade.
The story is more than hagiography. Early in the story M M McConnell presents a complex tale of the loyalties, sometimes conflicting, between Mary and the Native American girls struggling to maintain their identities in the church boarding school desiring to make them assimilate, and the Ursuline superior, also Mary's friend.
Mary has to find ways to straddle several worlds and to survive. A true heroine in a well told tale.
The story is more than hagiography. Early in the story M M McConnell presents a complex tale of the loyalties, sometimes conflicting, between Mary and the Native American girls struggling to maintain their identities in the church boarding school desiring to make them assimilate, and the Ursuline superior, also Mary's friend.
Mary has to find ways to straddle several worlds and to survive. A true heroine in a well told tale.
October 2, 2016
If you enjoy historical fiction, you won't be able to stop reading this American West story full of drama and authentic characters. If you gravitate towards social justice issues and enjoy dramas with contrary points of view, look no further.
McConnell expertly transports the reader into the landscape of Montana. Her prose lingered in my mind and prompted me to imagine how I might have fared as a pioneer in Mary Fields' world. I love stories that ignite me, inspire me to root and cheer for fearless risk-taking women!
McConnell expertly transports the reader into the landscape of Montana. Her prose lingered in my mind and prompted me to imagine how I might have fared as a pioneer in Mary Fields' world. I love stories that ignite me, inspire me to root and cheer for fearless risk-taking women!
March 5, 2017
I stumbled across this book when I clicked on a book deal link only to discover I was too late and the deal had expired, Deliverance was suggested as an alternative recommended read. I am glad I took the recommendation and read this book.
Mary Fields exemplified perseverance with a capital P. This story was satisfying on so many levels, for the historical content about homestead life, women's suffrage and discrimination as well the interpersonal relationships, the bonds of friendship, love and respect.
Mary Fields exemplified perseverance with a capital P. This story was satisfying on so many levels, for the historical content about homestead life, women's suffrage and discrimination as well the interpersonal relationships, the bonds of friendship, love and respect.
January 22, 2018
Somewhere in this overblown 500 page book is a 250 page biography that I'd like to read. Instead, it seemed that the author held a thesaurus in one hand while dreaming of ways to make 50 words say what 20 could have done just as well or better.
To say she put words in the mouths of historical figures - badly - is an overstatement. I had my doubts that a 60-something, uneducated ex-slave could speak the language that McConnell imagined.
I did not like this book. It was a waste of my time, and the worst form of creative non-fiction.
To say she put words in the mouths of historical figures - badly - is an overstatement. I had my doubts that a 60-something, uneducated ex-slave could speak the language that McConnell imagined.
I did not like this book. It was a waste of my time, and the worst form of creative non-fiction.
February 19, 2017
I feel blessed that I found and read this book. It was a page Turner, and it also reminded me of my Mother Mary who past on Good Friday 2008.
My Mother Mary was so loved, at her funeral my grandson his first funeral drew a picture of what he did on his Easter break for his kindergarten class. The crowded church with the heads and a red carpet leading to her Casket. It was beautiful to see what he saw with his 5 year-old eyes
My Mother Mary was so loved, at her funeral my grandson his first funeral drew a picture of what he did on his Easter break for his kindergarten class. The crowded church with the heads and a red carpet leading to her Casket. It was beautiful to see what he saw with his 5 year-old eyes
May 8, 2017
Better than most
For a fictionalized version of Mary Field's life this was fairly good. The author is an accomplished writer so it was extremely well written. However as with most fictionalized history there is just too much added filler. Towards the end the several chapters involving women's right to vote about put me in a coma!! Overall the book is too long but still very enjoyable.
For a fictionalized version of Mary Field's life this was fairly good. The author is an accomplished writer so it was extremely well written. However as with most fictionalized history there is just too much added filler. Towards the end the several chapters involving women's right to vote about put me in a coma!! Overall the book is too long but still very enjoyable.
July 1, 2017
Excellent historical book
My family &I traveled west for vacation. I began reading this fascinating book during that time. This author truly made Mary & all the characters come to life. This book is also full of accurate historical data making me realize the privileges I enjoy today are because others fought for those rights. Wonderful, delightful, insightful book. Congratulations to a new favorite author of mine, Miantae Metcalf McConnell.
My family &I traveled west for vacation. I began reading this fascinating book during that time. This author truly made Mary & all the characters come to life. This book is also full of accurate historical data making me realize the privileges I enjoy today are because others fought for those rights. Wonderful, delightful, insightful book. Congratulations to a new favorite author of mine, Miantae Metcalf McConnell.
February 25, 2017
A Great Historical Read
It was awesome to read about her journey. The prejudices that she suffered and still trying to do right by her fellow man, the history that she made. It did saddened my heart that she did not make it to Saypo. She died not knowing all the people that truly loved her
It was awesome to read about her journey. The prejudices that she suffered and still trying to do right by her fellow man, the history that she made. It did saddened my heart that she did not make it to Saypo. She died not knowing all the people that truly loved her
March 4, 2017
This book is a true story and is an amazing read, especially if you love history. It tells of Mary's hardships and perseverance and how she stuck with and battled corner with prejudice. She just wanted to be treated and for all to be treated fairly. I strongly recommend this book and dare you not to be touched by Mary's spirit and determination!
November 9, 2017
Beautiful story. I loved this book. It's a story about one woman, and the circle of women that spiral around her throughout her life. People and places are often cruel and harsh, but there is compassion, kindness, and beauty in the world. Mary Fields found, and shared compassion, kindness, and beauty in the faces of adversity, and cruelty.
February 23, 2017
Excellent!
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true accounts of people and history. This remarkable woman surpassed so many trials and setbacks that I found myself rooting for her throughout the entire book.
I very much enjoyed this book!
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true accounts of people and history. This remarkable woman surpassed so many trials and setbacks that I found myself rooting for her throughout the entire book.
I very much enjoyed this book!
October 8, 2017
Deliverance ... is a fabulous story of a black woman with not only a strong spirit but a strong and loving heart. She exists in the midst of the most evil as well as though with good and true hearts. You will laugh, cry, and be so glad that you got to know her through the pages of this book.
December 18, 2018
Amazing woman, someone to look up to.
A must read about courage, determination and faith. Well written and a great read. Montana history and a courageous woman overcoming so much hate to achieve good for all of us. Thank you Mary Fields.
A must read about courage, determination and faith. Well written and a great read. Montana history and a courageous woman overcoming so much hate to achieve good for all of us. Thank you Mary Fields.
March 4, 2017
Enjoyed this historical book about civil and women's rights, perseverance, the west...
January 12, 2018
This was a very excellent book. I hated to put it down. I sure was sorry when it came to an end.
Read
December 12, 2024I have known about this book for a long time after it was cited in Oprah's "O" magazine. It is a sprawling account of the life of a remarkable woman. Mary Fields was an emancipated slave who because of her connection with Ursuline nuns, follows her Mother Superior friend from Toledo to Montana. She is the only black person in small town of Cascade and gains a reputation for her strength, endurance and character. She becomes the first African American woman to be a Star Route mail carrier, driving a horse-drawn buckboard 34 miles each day in all weathers. She becomes an accepted member of her community by running a laundry and a cafe. However, she must also endure prejudice and threats from the racist men who cannot abide her independence. Mary develops friendships with the Indian children who attend the local school run by the nuns. In particular she protects Onatah, a young girl, and as the decades unfold, roles are reversed and Onatah looks out for her. The novel portrays the changing development of the town of Cascade from its days as a mission post as it embraces"civilization" and how Mary adapts to each stage. She longs for the passage of votes for women so she can be an equal citizen. Mary is a sympathetic and heroic character and we hope for this victory on her behalf. A convincing portrayal of Montana's history written from Mary's point of view.
September 30, 2021
Deliverance Mary Fields — Miantae Metcalf McConnell (Prologue + 4 Parts/27 titled chapters+ Epilogue) September 20-29, 2021
Prologue is a very short story in itself, not expecting the biography to begin as such. Interesting.
OK. I waffled back and forth as to wondering is this fiction or a biography of Mary Fields. (I got conflicting answers.) I conclude that this is a biography with some fiction (but aren’t most biographies that way?)
It is still a good book, if not a tome to read. I am not a tome reader, but Mary Fields really sounded interesting to me.
This is a story of a woman who came out west to a missionary to tend to her dying friend and then stayed on to help the native children at the missionary. But that isn’t the end of the story. Through hardship, love, loss and racism…always racism….Mary succeeds. Mary grew a lot from one incident that changed her life and didn’t stop there. She constantly sought to grow and challenge herself and those around her. She found something and then tried her hand at it; if that didn’t work she tried something else. In may ways, this book is inspiring.
But there is also a lot of hardship and it absolutely pulled at my heart. This is not a story for empathic folks.
Overall, a good read.
Four stars.
Prologue is a very short story in itself, not expecting the biography to begin as such. Interesting.
OK. I waffled back and forth as to wondering is this fiction or a biography of Mary Fields. (I got conflicting answers.) I conclude that this is a biography with some fiction (but aren’t most biographies that way?)
It is still a good book, if not a tome to read. I am not a tome reader, but Mary Fields really sounded interesting to me.
This is a story of a woman who came out west to a missionary to tend to her dying friend and then stayed on to help the native children at the missionary. But that isn’t the end of the story. Through hardship, love, loss and racism…always racism….Mary succeeds. Mary grew a lot from one incident that changed her life and didn’t stop there. She constantly sought to grow and challenge herself and those around her. She found something and then tried her hand at it; if that didn’t work she tried something else. In may ways, this book is inspiring.
But there is also a lot of hardship and it absolutely pulled at my heart. This is not a story for empathic folks.
Overall, a good read.
Four stars.
November 11, 2020
I found this book in the gift shop at the Ulm Pishkun Buffalo Jump state park in the heart of Mary Fields' country. Having just read two excellent books about the women pack horse librarians of Kentucky, I thought this would be a good follow up. Wrong. It's a 510 page slog. I was very disappointed with the number of distracting typographical errors, mostly punctuation and missing words. The actual story could have been so much better with a lot less people, especially with all the pretentious initialed characters - very hard to keep them all straight. Given the sub title: First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States, there was remarkably little about this significant detail - I would love to have read more about her mail carrier exploits and the characters along her route. Considering Mary's relationship with Nadie, why didn't the author create a newspaper article about Nadie's murder, which Mary would certainly have read? I wanted to read more about Mary and a lot less about the peripheral people and the development of Cascade. Book could have easily been contained in about 300 pages.
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