The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times

About the book

Meshach Milburn's conspicuous inherited hat makes him an object of ridicule, but his financial discipline gives him power over people who consider themselves his social superiors. Judge Custis's debts bring that power dangerously close to his daughter Vesta, turning courtship into a negotiation over money and inherited rank. Townsend expands the family conflict into a regional historical romance set around the Chesapeake and Delaware peninsula. Local customs, ironworks, and remembered families share the narrative with the violent world associated with Patty Cannon and kidnapping into slavery. The author draws on local records and recollection, but shapes them into fiction rather than a documentary account. The hat becomes a visible emblem of the contest between pedigree, accumulated wealth, humiliation, and the desire for recognition.

• Class and financial power
• Regional memory
• Coercion and human dignity

Why read it

The seemingly comic hat becomes a serious symbol of the social judgments and resentments driving the plot.

English text of the 1884 Harper and Brothers edition