Fire & Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834 [Hardcover]

Nancy Lusignan Schultz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2000

From its founding in 1826, the convent on Mt Benedict had been roumoured to conceal physical and sexual abuse of nuns and female boarding students within its walls. In 1832 Rebecca Theresa Reed allegedly escaped and wrote a tale of women held against their will and subjected to cruel treatment by convent authorities. A series of anti-Catholic lectures by the Reverend Lyman Beecher stoked existing fears of a papal plot and these lectures eventually lead to a riot during which a drunken mob burnt the convent to the ground. The arsonists' ringleader became a local folk hero. Based on years of research this book offers a tale of violence and redemption, from an era when anit-papist diatribes were the stuff of standing-room only lectures; independent women were feared and reviled; and a new nation was struggling with its own identity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1834, a group of fiercely anti-Catholic rioters burned Mt. Benedict, an Ursuline convent just outside of Boston that was home not only to a community of nuns, but also to the prestigious girls' school they ran. Using this singularly explosive example, Schultz, professor of English at Salem State College, conveys the larger current of anti-Catholic sentiment that was prevalent throughout early 19th-century America. While such religious intolerance had existed in New England since the Puritans first landed, the most recent anti-papist explosion could be traced to the departure from the convent of a novice named Rebecca Reed just two years before. A convert to Catholicism, Reed entered the convent school as a charity student and initially aspired to become a nun. However, she began to chafe under the requirements of convent life and imagined that there was a conspiracy plotting to imprison her in a convent in Canada. After fleeing Mt. Benedict, she published an anti-Catholic expose, Six Months in a Convent, filled with tales of abuse that she and other nuns allegedly suffered. Indeed, Reed wasn't the only nun to run away. Her escape was followed by that of a Sister St. John, who the hardworking but overwhelmingly poor townsfolk believed was brought back against her will by the bishop. The Ursuline nuns' dual purpose to serve the poor and to educate wealthy young women was increasingly resented by the struggling laborers who traveled to CharlestownAoften from farms in distant New HampshireAin search of work. Reed's escape, coupled with a series of anti-Catholic sermons by the Reverend Lyman Beecher (Harriet Beecher Stowe's father), served as the spark that ignited the townsfolk's burning anger. Schultz is to be commended for her riveting historical study, which is plotted like a novel, with tight pacing and fully realized characters. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The Ursuline Convent at Mt. Benedict in Charlestown, MA, was brutally vandalized and burned in 1834, and this dramatic depiction integrates the details of that harrowing event with the historical context. Situated on a hill, surrounded by acres of gardens and orchards, the convent educated not only young nuns but the daughters of elite Boston Protestants as well. It quickly became the focus of hostility on the part of struggling local brickmakers, for whom the convent symbolized religious mysticism and elitism, feeding the already nativistic, anti-Catholic sentiment of the period. One summer evening, a drunken mob attacked the convent, vandalized the cloister and mausoleum, and then burned the building down, coming back later to destroy the gardens. Rumors had circulated about sex and violence within the walls of the convent, so themes involving class, gender, and religion are woven into a gripping tale. But this work by Schultz (English, Salem State Coll., MA) is essentially a scholarly treatment, well researched, with footnotes, and with the welcome bonus of readability and drama. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.DBonnie Collier, Yale Law Lib.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (October 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684856859
• ISBN-13: 978-0684856858
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #585,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating episode from history with resonance for today, October 21, 2000

By 

Adam Hamel (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire & Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834 (Hardcover)

This book tells a truly engrossing story of the events that led up to the burning of the Ursuline convent in Charlestown, just outside of Boston, by an angry mob. Professor Schultz insightfully examines the many different issues of religious intolerance, ethnic predjudice, and economic class struggles that culminated in a night of violence. She has developed a cast of wonderfully complex and interesting characters. The portraits she has painted of Mary Anne Moffett, Bishop Fenwick, Rebecca Reed, and John Buzzell are vivid and compelling.

Having been raised Catholic, and having attended Catholic schools (with the Sisters of Notre Dame in grammar school, and the Xavarian Brothers in high school), I was amazed by the ignorance about Catholic religious life on the part of the Protestants. I was also shocked that, so soon after the American Revolution, an act of religious intolerance so dramatic as the burning of the convent could have occurred right here in Boston (the refuge of Puritan victims of religious intolerance).

But, at the same time, this is not simply a shameful episode in history...as the author notes, it has resonance in our own time. Reading this book made me stop and think about my attitudes toward people whom I do not fully understand through my own ignorance. My initial disbelief that nineteenth-century Protestants would ascribe such bizzare activities to Catholics does not seem so strange when I think of my own ignorant reaction to the Mormons' restrictions on caffine and alchohol, and the Christian Scientists' reluctance to seek medical attention. As an outsider, these practices seem odd to me, and I am unable to place them in the whole context of the sect's belief system. Combine that kind of ignorance with the ethnic and class issues brewing in nineteenth century Boston, and it begins to make sense that an event like the convent burning could have happened...and sadly continues to happen today.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly-researched, paced like a novel, September 3, 2004

By 

Casta Lusoria (Washington, DC area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire & Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834 (Hardcover)

An interesting read. I picked it up expecting it to be a semi-mystery in a nonfiction setting, and got a nonfiction book (my fault for not reading the jacket!). The author is a Professor of English at Salem State College in Salem, MA; she's also written on fear and religion in two other texts. She did a lot of digging into the various letters, court records, and news archives to find supporting evidence to lay out the story of the history and events that led to the eventual destruction (arson, semi-riot) of the Ursuline convent and school in Charlestown, MA in 1834. It's an interesting look into convent education of young women (many of them non-Catholics; it was de rigeur for wealthy Unitarian and Episcopalian parents to send their daughters for convent education, and the Ursulines had a rich history and system for providing it, despite any number of setbacks in Boston), and the functioning of a cloistered religious order.

I'm a non-Christian-- not that it matters, but I read lots of things about lots of different Faiths-- and couldn't put the book down. Racism against Irish and Catholics in Boston in the 19th century was a very real, very unpleasant thing in that time. Schultz' book was a very interesting read, laid out like a novel-- but with academic footnotes. There are parts that were lacking in closure, in many cases because the information trail simply stops-- not Schultz' fault, but worth noting. Picked it up as a leftover from the Dyer Library's book sale in Saco, Maine. Worth it! A good read. The Justice system in the U.S. may not be perfect, but it's come a long way since 1834 in Boston. Being a Boston-area native, this is not a proud point in the region's history-- but absolutely worth learning about-- and from.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating read!, December 7, 2000

By 

Kate Barker (Burlington, VT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire & Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834 (Hardcover)

I found Fire and Roses and fully engaging read. As a native Bostonian, I was completely swept up in the historical events that took place in the mid-eighteen hundreds in my very own backyard! Fire and Roses, a captivating account of the burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, MA, is must read. I give my utmost praise to Nancy Schultz, who not only proves to be a historical mastermind of the 19th century but also a brilliant storyteller.