Every time a name or event is mentioned in this novel, I wonder if it is fact or fiction. Certainly, the main characters, the Master family, are fictitious. However, the people they come in contact with or the events they live through definitely seem to be historically based.
The Dred Scott decision is something I hadn't heard of before. Dred Scott was a slave and what happened to him set American slaves back many years, caused further division between the North and South and spurred the Civil War. Peter Cooper is mentioned as having built America's first railroad steam engine, then funding the Cooper Institute to provide free night classes for men who worked and day classes for women. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 are mentioned in a discussion between Hetty and Frank, as they wait to hear the featured speaker at the Cooper Institute, Lincoln. When he enters to begin his speech, the description provided matches the image I have of him. "walking stiffly and somewhat stooped at the shoulders came a very tall, thin, dark-haired man. The lines in Lincoln's clean-shaven face were so deep that they were like chasms. From under his shaggy eyebrows, his gray eyes surveyed the crowd gravely..." What suprised me in his description was his voice - "...so high, so harsh and so unpleasing that it grated upon the ear and made the hearer wish he'd stop." How could this be? A president would be a good speaker and have a strong voice. Sure enough, research confirms his description - even his voice is accurately described.
I am finding New York to be a well-researched, interesting novel and can't wait to learn more about the issue of slavery as the story progresses.
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