Sarah Bishop by Scott O'Dell

First published: 1980

Subjects: Death, family, friendship, gender roles, and war

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical fiction

Time of work: The 1770’s

Recommended Ages: 13-18

Locale: Long Island, New York City, Wallabout Bay, northern Westchester County at Long Pond, and Ridgeford

Principal Characters:

• Sarah Bishop, a fifteen-year-old who is trying to cope with the loss of her family
• James Bishop, Sarah’s father, a Tory who is faithful to King George
• Chad Bishop, Sarah’s brother, a Patriot who enlists in the rebellion
• David Whitlock, a friend of Sarah’s brother and a fellow Patriot
• Mrs. Jessop, a neutral, Christian neighbor who cares for Sarah
• Mr. Pennywell, and
• Mrs. Pennywell, owners of the Lion and Lamb tavern, where Sarah works
• Captain Cunningham, a British officer who tries to hold Sarah responsible for a fire that she did not start
• Sam Goshen, a trapper and trader who tries to befriend Sarah
• Isaac Morton, a Quaker storekeeper who becomes a friend to Sarah

Form and Content

Scott O’Dell’s Sarah Bishop is a straightforward narrative of a young woman’s fight to survive the personal consequences of the American Revolution. The early conflict in the book centers on Sarah’s father and brother, who have chosen different sides in the rebellion. Sarah’s father, James, has remained loyal to the “homeland,” while her brother, Chad, enlists with the Patriots. At first, the Patriots merely warn James that his views are unpopular, but one night they burn his barn and house while tarring and feathering him. He dies the next day. After her father’s death, Sarah leaves her neighbor, Mrs. Jessop, and sets out to find her brother, having had no word from him since his enlistment.

While negotiating the various levels of the military, Sarah finds a place to stay for the night but is caught in a fire, one that a British officer accuses her of starting. While held by the British troops, a kind lieutenant allows her to go to the prison ship where Chad was sent. When she arrives, she talks with her brother’s friend, David, who tells her that Chad died that morning. Escaping from her captors, Sarah returns to Mrs. Jessop, acquires a gun, and “disappears” into the wilderness for solace. Relying on her own survival skills, she creates a home for herself in a cave on Long Pond, sharing it with a white bat that becomes her pet.

Sarah’s peaceful life is upset when she rescues Sam Goshen, a trapper and trader whose leg is caught in his own bear trap, and brings him back to her cave to recover from the accident. Sarah knows that Sam Goshen as a womanizer because he gave her a ride when she was running from the British and made advances. Consequently, she is uncomfortable in his presence and uneasy having him in her cave.

Sarah makes periodic visits from Long Pond to Ridgeford, a nearby town, to get the essentials that she cannot create from the wilderness. There, she meets Isaac Morton, a Quaker who realizes who Sarah is by the posters that the British troops have posted asking for her capture. He does not turn her in, however, and tries to befriend her, asking her to attend a Quaker meeting. Because of what are perceived as antisocial ways, including her attachment to her musket, Sarah is accused by Isaac’s father of performing witchcraft and causing an extensive drought and rampant illness in the town. “Rescued” by the town constable and jailed for her own protection, Sarah is eventually allowed to testify in her own defense, as does Isaac. Deciding that he does not have enough support to prosecute her, Isaac’s father dismisses the charges and a more sociable Sarah leaves town to return to her cave home, promising Isaac that she will return for the next meeting.

Critical Context

Like Sarah Bishop, most of Scott O’Dell’s work is historical fiction, so it comes as no surprise that an award for a work of this genre set in the New World is given in his honor: the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. O’Dell wrote other novels with strong, female characters such as Sarah. Karana, the central character of Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960), which won the Newbery Medal, lives alone on an island off the coast of California. She is finally rescued by Spanish priests after eighteen years, but one wonders whether Karana will find as much peace and happiness at the mission—and within civilization—as she did on her island home, a question that could be asked of Sarah as well. The question for Karana is answered in the sequel, Zia (1977), which reveals her last days as witnessed through the eyes of her niece.

Bright Morning is a similarly strong female character in O’Dell’s Newbery Honor Book Sing Down the Moon (1970). In a memorable story that reflects the dignity of the Navajo people, Bright Morning convinces her wounded fiancé to escape from a U.S. fort after their imprisonment there along the “Long Walk,” the horrific three hundred-mile forced march of the Navajo from their canyon homes to Fort Sumner. Like Sarah, they find refuge in a cave in their familiar homeland and, once there, begin a new life with their newborn son, their spirits healed. Other Newbery Honor Books by O’Dell are The King’s Fifth (1966) and The Black Pearl (1987).