Today, Eloise and I learned about Mary Fields in a fantastic new book called Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver, written by Tami Charles and illustrated by Claire Almon.
Mary Fields was an African American woman who spent the first 33 years of her life in slavery. After she was free, Mary moved to the Wild West, and in Cascade, Montana in 1895, she responded to a Help Wanted sign for a stagecoach driver to carry mail and supplies to a school in the mountains. It was a dangerous job and the manager doing the hiring told Mary, "We don't hire people like you." Mary wouldn't leave, though, and took a turn to show the manager what she could do. She hitched horses and drove the coach better than the white men vying for the job.
The manager hired her, and for eight years, Mary fearlessly carried deliveries to the mountain school, fighting off both bandits and wolves along the way. All of this in her 60s.
Eloise and I both enjoyed learning about Mary Fields today.
Upon finishing the book, Eloise said, "Mom, she's definitely a rebel girl. I know it." We were glad to learn then, after a quick Google search, that, yes, Mary Fields is included in the Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls 2 book, which we are looking forward to reading together soon.
3 comments:
Thanks for the info, new to me, about this book and the Rebel Girls book.
I've been buying too much stuff on Amazon lately, but maybe I'll need to stop doing that tomorrow instead of today.
I learned from reading this!! "Rebel Girls"
Aww, I love that she said that after reading. I knew she would love Rebel Girls! I will have to read it with her when I babysit next. Miss my lovebug.
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