A Lion to Guard Us

Amanda and her siblings’ resilience against opposition and misfortunes despite their young age is a recurring element in A Lion to Guard Us. Their resilience is present from the first chapters in Mistress Trippett’s home, where they are coping with their father’s absence and mother’s illness. Despite being children, each sibling plays their part: Amanda works long hours while taking on a maternal role, and her siblings are consigned to the back stairs, unable to even come into the kitchen or speak to anyone. Jemmy and Meg adapt to these conditions because they must, but this existence saddens Amanda: “It hurt[s] her to see them there, like two puppies that nobody want[s]” (7). Another example of Amanda’s early resilience occurs when Dr. Crider offers to help her carry the heavy water pail and she refuses, knowing that accepting his help will get her reprimanded. While all three Freebold children are young enough that they should be enjoying childhood, their life in the working class demands their resilience, and they rise to the occasion.

After the death of their mother, Amanda knows she can’t simply mourn because she has to embody a mothering role. Rather than sink into grief, she comforts her siblings and then works out a plan to travel to Virginia and reunite with their father. Their situation emboldens her to take risks like going to the Virginia Company and asking Mistress Trippett for her mother’s money. She is also strong enough to guide Meg and Jemmy through their night on the street, keeping them safe until Dr. Crider offers them a haven. While Dr. Crider’s care allows the children to soften, they draw on their past experiences of resilience when he disappears, and they are able to care for themselves during the shipwreck and in Bermuda. This includes building a house together, contributing to the community’s efforts to feed each other, and in Jemmy’s case, hunting down the stolen door knocker. While the children still yearn for their father, their experiences have left them capable of taking care of themselves and each other.

This resilience is an ambiguous trait. Meg and Jemmy are quiet and reserved around other people, and Meg in particular suffers from neglect: “[She] was too quiet, too good […] She’d never played like other children. She didn’t know how” (37). Amanda has lived in this survival state for long enough that she never gets that childlike spark back. However, there’s still time and space for Jemmy and Meg to become children again. Under Amanda’s care, they develop voices and begin to play. On the ship, Jemmy runs around with his friends, and on the island, Meg spontaneously begins jumping on a mossy rock, pretending to be a bird. Amanda is amazed since it is the first time she has seen Meg play. Even after being shipwrecked for months, Meg and Jemmy retain their sense of wonder when they finally reach America, looking eagerly over the rails for animals and Indigenous people. While the Freebold children exhibit strength throughout the narrative, these shifting perspectives show that wonder and innocence are also resilient traits that can be recovered after trauma.