Authors Interviewing Their Characters: Jacqueline Friedland

We asked Jacqueline Friedland if she would be willing to interview Abigal Milton, the main character of her novel TROUBLE THE WATER.

 Set against the vivid backdrop of Charleston twenty years before the Civil War, Trouble the Water is a captivating tale replete with authentic details about Charleston’s aristocratic planter class, American slavery, and the Underground Railroad. 

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Rebecca Weiss Photography

Interview with Abigail Milton from TROUBLE THE WATER, by Jacqueline Friedland

Abigail, thank you for being here to speak with us.  We are aware that you traveled from Liverpool, England to Charleston, South Carolina in 1845.  Can you tell us a little about your life in England before you left?

First I’d like to say hello to the readers of Women Writers.  Thank you for hosting me today. As to my life in England, well, it was rather bleak, I’m afraid. My da’ had owned a furniture shop in Liverpool, you see, but the way he afforded to open it was by borrowing great sums of money.  When a storm led to the flooding of Liverpool, the shop included, all was lost.

The inventory was destroyed, and my da’s credit with it.  We were forced to move from our pink brick home to a tenement in Wigan, a factory town where everything is covered in soot and cotton dust.  Each of us had to set to work, collecting pitiful wages and forsaking our schooling. My sister Gwendolyn and I went with our da’ to the cotton mill.  My ma’ found work laundering at a local inn, and my brothers took up employment down the docks, even young Charlie. The enormity of my da’s debt was such that the money was never enough.  

How was it working in the cotton mill?

Ha! The factory was awful.  Each of the jobs more tedious than the one before it, and cotton fibers, cotton dust, floating every which way.  Imagine spending more than fourteen hours a day on your feet doing a repetitive task and coming home with barely any coins to show for it. If you missed a day, fired.  If you slackened your speed, fired. Children as young as seven spending the day in the sweltering cage of the factory. And don’t get me started on the children working as piecers who lost arms and fingers to the machinery.

So it must have been welcome respite when you finally arrived in America.

Well, I hoped it would be, respite, like you said.  But truth be told, it was rather frightening when I stepped off the steamship into the chaos of Charleston.  I hadn’t any idea what to expect of my new home, and I was horribly unprepared for the pandemonium of the wharf.  It might have been helpful had there been someone waiting to collect me once I disembarked, to welcome me, but, well, you know how that turned out.

When you first met Douglas Elling, your host, he came off as gruff and unfriendly.  Did you consider making a run for it, starting a new life somewhere else in the U.S.?

It’s funny you should ask, as I did, in fact, think about running off quite frequently in those first weeks.  I thought I could find a ship or a train to take me north, and I might be able to disappear, begin a life where I was my own master.  I wasn’t frightened by the notion either, as travelling across the ocean had perhaps made me braver than I once was. All that stopped me from taking flight was my sense of obligation to my parents.  I had agreed to spend the year with Mr. Elling. They were dealing with enough with back in Wigan. I was reluctant to add to their burdens by failing to remain where I had promised. Barring any extreme circumstances, I decided to stay.

When did you begin to think you might actually enjoy your stay at the Elling estate?

I suppose the first time I felt hopeful was when Larissa brought me to town to purchase dresses from Madame Marchand.  Larissa convinced the petite seamstress to close her shop for the afternoon and attend to my needs. It was more enjoyable than I expected, and I began to grow excited about my new life.  Of course, that was only until I went outside to wait for Larissa and overheard two young ladies gossiping about my housing situation.

Can you explain what happened?

Well… I went to a bench across the way from the dress shop while Larissa settled the final details.  I remember so clearly the hot wrought iron of the bench warming my thighs through the tattered dress I wore.  Two young ladies exited the milliner just then. One was saying that she wanted to hop across the street to purchase some sort of trim from Madame Marchand.  The other young lady, the one with the beak nose, informed her that the shop had been closed for the afternoon in order to outfit Mr. Elling’s new ward. As much as I wanted to dissolve into the wrought iron of the bench, I couldn’t stop myself from listening to their words.  The pretty one asked how the new ward could stand it, living with someone such as Mr. Elling. She queried her friend “Do you think she knows about him, what he’s done?” Just at that point, the milliner hollered for the young women to return inside, that one had forgotten the ribbon for a hat.  As soon as they disappeared, I ran back into the dress shop, hoping we could depart before they returned to study me.

And yet, you did stay because you made new discoveries?

Yes, life at the Elling estate and in the American South took many turns I never expected, but I was able to see a way to carve a life for myself, different than I ever imagined.  I hope you will read my story and find out more about it.

Thank you again for coming to speak with us today.

It was my pleasure.  

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About TROUBLE THE WATER

Abigail Milton was born into the British middle class, but her family has landed in unthinkable debt. To ease their burdens, Abby’s parents send her to America to live off the charity of their old friend, Douglas Elling. When she arrives in Charleston at the age of seventeen, Abigail discovers that the man her parents raved about is a disagreeable widower who wants little to do with her.

Tags: character interviews, featured

Category: On Writing