A Little Maid of Old New York

by Alice Turner Curtis, Elizabeth Pilsbry (Illustrator)

Originally published in 1921, this historical novel is set in 1783 at a time when British soldiers were still in control of New York City. It is a story of the adventures of a courageous loyal American girl, Annette Vincent, and her best friend, a Tory.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Historical

224 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1921

About the author

Children's and young adult historical fiction author Alice Turner Curtis was born in Sullivan, Hancock County, Maine, USA. Her maiden name is Alice L. Turner. She is listed in the Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books. Her father was a sailmaker. She was married (in Boston on 20 May 1895) to Irving Curtis (18 Jan 1835 – 18 Nov 1910). Her parents (both born in Maine) were John Vinal Turner and Susan Ann Spear. Alice lived her life in Maine and Massachusetts (notably, in Boston). She had been in the literary profession since at least 1895 (with Marjorie's Way being her first known book, published in 1904).

Alice Turner Curtis is the author of "The Little Maid's Historical Series", originally published, during the period from 1910 to 1937. Reprinted by Knopf in the 1940's and 1950's with illustrations by Sandra James. Some books were reprinted by Applewood in the 1990's with the original illustrations. One book containing two original stories was printed by Derrydale Books in 1991. She is also known for the Grandpa's Little Girls series, The Yankee Girl Civil War Stories, the Frontier Girl series, The Little Heroine series, the Marjorie series, the Little Runnaways series, and other books.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of Alice Turner Curtis' Little Maid series, a collection of twenty-four books, each featuring the story of a young girl during the time of the American Revolution, A Little Maid of Old New York relates the adventures of Annette Vincent, a ten-year-old girl living in occupied New York in 1783, shortly before the withdrawal of British troops from the city. Although her family are all ardent Patriots, Annette's best friend, Kathy Down, is the daughter of prominent Tories, and the majority of the book centers on Annette's efforts to remain true to her friend, while also demonstrating to her skeptical older cousin, John Van Arsdale, that she is loyal to the American cause.

This is only the second Little Maid book I have read (the first being A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay ), but I already detect certain themes that most likely recur in the other titles. For a story set during a time of such violent political and social upheaval, A Little Maid of Old New York is rather sedate. Originally published in 1921, I imagine that it must conform, in this respect, to established trends in girls' literature of the era. The conflicts seem too easily resolved, with little of the ugliness that one would expect between Patriots and Tories, and the characters often seem a little one-dimensional in their virtue.

Located in a far more urban setting than A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay, this title also features a setting of greater affluence. Unfortunately, this means that there are more African-American servants and slaves, all of whom speak in the stereotypical "dialect" assigned to "negroes" in books of this type. At one point one of these characters refers to another slave as a "n*gger." There are also numerous patronizing throw-away remarks concerning Native Americans, who apparently still "lurk" around Staten Island, in a vaguely threatening manner.

Ugliness such as this is often encountered in children's books published before a certain date, but its frequency in this specific title was off-putting. Somehow its juxtaposition with the sentimental innocence of the story makes it all the more disturbing.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is quite interesting. There are plenty of interpersonal relations. The historical elements do not seem as dramatic as those in previous books, as to the part the main character played in them, but the book is no less enjoyable than the others.

The story is about Annette Vincent, a number of her friends, Annette's cousin John Van Arsdale, and some others. Annette is good friends with Kathy Down, whose father sides with the British. Annette's other friends aren't very nice to Kathy, because of her family's patriotism situation; so, Annette resolves to be even nicer to Kathy. Annette does some sneaky stuff. Annette's loyalty is seemingly under question because of these facts (but she is loyal), and because she apologizes for previous bad behavior to Sir Guy Carleton, whom she had met at Kathy's house. But her loyalty is eventually proven to the satisfaction of John, and both she and John do some patriotic stuff that impresses George Washington.

Kathy and her family secretly plan to move (although Kathy tells Annette), and eventually do. Kathy gives Annette a present to open on her birthday, which turns out to be something she had been making, which Annette had thought was intended for Sir Guy Carleton. She's happy. The present has a note (but it doesn't put Annette in a compromising situation as I thought it might; I was glad for that).

At one point, not far from the end of the book, Delia (one of Annette's friends) has a birthday party, and they invite six girls from an orphanage to attend, one for each of the six girls who they already knew were attending (not from the orphanage). Annette's girl is Nancy. She has Nancy visit. The visit ends up being longer than first intended. They plan for her to stay until after Annette and Nancy's birthday party (they decided to have Nancy's birthday celebration every year on Annette's birthday; I suppose Nancy didn't know her own birthday). Nancy sees that Annette is sad soon before the birthday; so, she runs away, thinking Annette tired of her (but Annette was sad that she would have to go). Meanwhile (before Nancy runs away to go back to the orphanage), Annette's parents secretly are planning to adopt Nancy. Nancy realizes she doesn't know how to get back to the orphanage. She stays the night outside somewhere, and General Oliver De Lancey's servant finds her and they give her breakfast, as they seek to find out who she is and where she belongs. She tries to run away. Then John discovers her. They take her back to the Vincents who reveal their secret (and she comes to know that Annette still likes her). So, she's happy. Nancy misses her friend, Milly, from the orphanage, however (they do meet again, at least).

They get some small white dogs for their birthday.

John is delivering a letter from the governor to Captain Duncan, on a ship of sorts. Annette and Nancy are with him. John trips on some rope or something and the letter goes flying as if to go overboard, but Annette goes to catch it and tumbles overboad—but Nancy grabs her dress so she doesn't go all the way in. The letter remains dry. John helps them back, and this is where he first seems convinced of Annette's loyalty. Annette says that Nancy saved her life, and that the letter's state, and John's lack of future embarrassment are owed to Nancy. John admits that she was plucky, but he praised Annette much more, whether or not that was intended. He seems amazed at Annette's patriotism, in fact.

Anyway, later on when some historical event is happening and the British are leaving a certain area, the British leave their flag behind, and grease the pole so that people won't be able to climb up to replace it with an American flag. People fail to climb. Annette searches for her cousin John, whom she is convinced can climb it. John has been dreaming about taking this flag down himself for a while now. She finds John in his boat and tells him about the predicament. John goes and replaces the flag (before George Washington arrives), and then they are honored by George Washington.

I described the latter part of the book more since it's fresher on my mind, and I just read that today. The lull in reading was probably mostly because of my vegetable gardening and stuff like that (not because of a lack of interest in the book).

I read this scanned copy of it (online): https://archive.org/details/littlemai...

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

MCL. Delia and Betty were really nice to the six little asylum girls. Ann's girl was named Nancy. They adopted her in the end.

[Evangeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's so fun to reread a series that meant so much to Little Me.

They're still entertaining and cute. I think that this one was my favorite out of all of them, and it still is.