The Courage of Sarah Noble

The Courage of Sarah Noble, written by Alice Dalgliesh and published in 1954, follows the experience of young Sarah as she accompanies her father to Connecticut. It is based on a true story that took place in 1707, though Dalgliesh admits in the “Author’s Note” that she has “had to imagine many of the details” of Sarah’s story; thus, this is a work of historical fiction and not a biography or nonfiction text.

Dalgliesh was a prolific and respected writer of children’s literature, and The Courage of Sarah Noble is the first of three of Dalgliesh’s books to be named runner-up for the Newbery Medal. It also won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, an award for books similar to Carroll’s best-known works. Dalgliesh earned degrees in education and literature, going on to teach at Columbia University and serving as the first children’s book editor at Charles Scribner and Sons.

The Courage of Sarah Noble is controversial due to its depiction of the Schaghticoke people as well as white characters’ racism and prejudices, both of which are predictable, perhaps, given the eras in which the original event took place and in which the book was written. The text addresses the way experience with cultures different from one’s own can lead to greater understanding, acceptance, and inclusion.

This guide refers to the third Aladdin Paperbacks edition, published in 2000.

Content Warning: The source material uses offensive language in reference to the Schaghticoke people, and it is replicated here only in direct quotes of the source material.

Plot Summary

When none of his other children want to accompany John Noble from their home in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the land he purchased for a new home in Connecticut, his eight-year-old daughter Sarah volunteers. Her story begins with the first night she and her father must sleep in the woods. Sarah reminds herself to keep up her courage, as her mother told her to do when she left home. Sarah clutches her fur cloak for comfort while her father keeps watch. John is grateful for his daughter’s company and her cooking, though he wonders if he has done the right thing in bringing her with him.

The next night, Sarah and her father knock on the door of Mistress Robinson, whom Sarah immediately identifies as unlike her own loving and affectionate mother. Though Mistress Robinson invites them in, allowing John and Sarah to sleep by her fire, her children scare Sarah with their warnings about violent “Indians.” Mistress Robinson’s own words make Sarah uncomfortable, so she asks for her cloak before falling asleep.

Sarah and her father finally reach the plot of land he purchased, and she is struck by the beauty of the place. John reassures her that the “Indians” who live nearby are “good.” He reminds Sarah that they will treat everyone with kindness in their home. They spend the night in a nearby cave, and Sarah manages her fears by telling her father about the animals they hear, proud to feel that she is keeping up her courage and his. John builds a shed, fence, beds, and a table with stools to make the cave more comfortable, then tells Sarah she must remain there while he builds their house. Alone, Sarah takes out her Bible and puts on her cloak. Soon, a group of Schaghticoke children approaches her, and she welcomes them in English. She is shocked by their near nakedness, compared to her many layers of clothing, but she begins to read to them. When she discovers that they do not speak English, her impatience drives them away.

The children do return, however, and Sarah teaches them English words. In return, they show her where to find wild strawberries. A Schaghticoke man whose name John Noble “cannot” pronounce offers to help him build the house, and John calls the man “Tall John.” Sarah asks her father’s permission to visit the homes of her Schaghticoke friends, and he allows her to visit “Tall John’s” home. She has difficulty with his children’s names, so she calls the boy “Small John” and the girl “Mary,” after Sarah’s mother. That fall, John finishes the house, and he tells Sarah that she will need to stay behind with “Tall John’s” family while he goes to collect the rest of their family and belongings. Sarah is afraid, and her father reassures her of her safety, but he secretly worries and wonders if he’s doing the right thing in leaving her.

Sarah and “Tall John’s” children figure out ways to communicate, and Sarah manages the familiar and the unfamiliar aspects of life with a Schaghticoke family. When she prays at night, she prays for her own family as well as her host’s, prompting “Tall John” to explain to his children that Sarah speaks to her “Great Spirit” just as they speak to their own. “Tall John’s” wife makes deerskin garments and moccasins for Sarah because her clothes are stiff and heavy, and Sarah feels free when she wears them. She notes that the Schaghticoke community seems to fear violence from another Indigenous group to the north, but, one day, “Tall John” assures her that there is no more danger. Sarah then plays with the other children before realizing that her father has returned. He barely recognizes her in her new clothes, and he advises her to put her old clothing back on to see her mother. Sarah does so but cannot bear to put her feet back into her heavy leather shoes, so she keeps the moccasins on.

Sarah wonders if her mother will recognize her now that her skin has darkened from the sun, and she has grown taller. Though Mary Noble comments on both, she is most surprised by Sarah’s moccasins. When Mary refers to the Schaghticoke as “savages,” Sarah corrects her, and John claims that “Tall John’s” wife is nearly as good a housekeeper and mother as Mary herself. Mary doesn’t believe it. She is glad Sarah can go back to being a little girl, but Sarah retorts that she is not little anymore. Sarah declares that she will marry, have 12 children of her own, and become a teacher. When she goes to sleep, she no longer needs her cloak, and it hangs on a peg nearby.