Caleb's Crossing

63 pages • 2 hours read

Caleb's Crossing

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

PART 1, CHAPTERS 1-3

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Reading Check

1. Who is the narrator of the novel?

2. What is the profession of Bethia’s father?

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Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why did Bethia’s grandfather seek the patent (or deed) to the island?

Paired Resource

“Who Are the Wampanoag?”

This introduction to the history and traditions of the Wampanoag comes from the Plimoth Patuxet Museum.
This information connects to the themes of Tensions Between and Among Indigenous People and European Settlers and Gender and Racial Disputes.
What are some of the traditions and beliefs that set the Wampanoag apart? How did these beliefs cause the Wampanoag to clash with European settlers?

PART 1, CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. What does Caleb want to become when he grows up?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Bethia feel guilty about dancing in the Wampanoag ceremony?

2. Why does Bethia call Cheeshahteaumuck “Caleb”?

PART 1, CHAPTERS 7-9

Reading Check

1. Who is Nahnoso?

2. Why does Bethia become sick in the Wampanoag village?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why must Caleb stop seeing Bethia? How does Bethia react?

PART 1, CHAPTERS 10-11

Reading Check

1. Why is Bethia’s father excited when he returns from the Wampanoag village?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. According to many settlers, why might God have sent smallpox to the Indigenous groups?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 1-6

Reading Check

1. Where is Bethia living when she narrates Part 2?

2. Who is Joel?

3. Who is hoping to marry Bethia?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Bethia regard herself as responsible for her mother’s death?

2. Why does Bethia dislike living in Cambridge?

Paired Resource

“Remembering the Ladies: Women in Colonial America: 1600-1775”

The American Battlefield Trust offers this overview of the role of women in colonial America.
The information in this resource connects to the theme of Gender and Racial Disputes.
How were the lives of women in colonial America more limited than men’s lives?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 7-12

Reading Check

1. To whom does Bethia’s father bequeath his property?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Bethia’s grandfather plan to pay for Makepeace’s education?

2. Why does Bethia take a few days before consenting to her grandfather’s plan?

Paired Resource

“New England Colonies’ Use of Slavery”

This National Geographic article discusses forms of slavery and indentured servitude practiced in colonial New England.
This resource connects to the themes of Tensions Between and Among Indigenous People and European Settlers and Gender and Racial Disputes.
How did New England keep slavery alive in the Americas? What role did slavery play in New England economic life?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 13-18

Reading Check

1. How does Master Corlett punish Bethia for cursing?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Makepeace decide to leave Cambridge?

2. Why does Master Corlett suggest Bethia marry his son Samuel?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 19-23

Reading Check

1. Where does Bethia begin working after leaving Master Corlett?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do Bethia and Samuel fight?

Paired Resource

“Digging Veritas–The Indian College”

The Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University provides an introduction to the history and archaeology of Harvard’s “Indian College.”
Connects to the themes of Tensions Between and Among Indigenous People and European Settlers; Knowledge, Faith, and Debate; and Gender and Racial Disputes.
Why was the “Indian College” created? Why did it fail?

PART 3, CHAPTERS 1-5

Reading Check

1. How does Bethia educate herself while working at the buttery?

2. What is the name of Bethia’s first child?

3. Whom does Joel marry?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do Bethia and Samuel move to the island?

PART 3, CHAPTERS 6-10

Reading Check

1. What does Bethia whisper to Caleb before he dies?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Joel die?

Recommended Next Reads

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This novel is set during an outbreak of Bubonic plague in an English town.
Shared themes include Knowledge, Faith, and Debate and Gender and Racial Disputes.
Shared topics include historical fiction and community.
Year of Wonders on SuperSummary

Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone

This historical novel is set during Captain John Smith’s voyage to North America.
Shared themes include Tensions Between and Among Indigenous People and European Settlers and Culture, Identity, and Power.
Shared topics include colonial America and historical fiction.
Blood on the River on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

PART 1, CHAPTERS 1-3

Reading Check

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4,650+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
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1. Bethia Mayfield (Part 1, Chapter 1)

2. Minister (Part 1, Chapter 1)

Short Answer

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Study Guides you won’t find anywhere else
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1. Bethia’s father explains that her grandfather sought the deed to the island because he didn’t trust the higher officials of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who were not always honest in their dealings with him. Bethia’s grandfather made sure to get legal rights to the island from English as well as Indigenous authorities so that he could live there in peace, away from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Part 1, Chapter 2)

PART 1, CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. A pawaaw (a possessor of magic) like his uncle Tequamuck (Part 1, Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. After dancing in the Wampanoag ceremony, Bethia feels guilty because she believes it is a sin to worship any god other than the Christian God. (Part 1, Chapter 4)

2. Bethia renames Cheeshahteaumuck after a companion of the Biblical figure of Moses, hoping that this name will help her new friend accept Christianity and thus achieve salvation. (Part 1, Chapter 5)

PART 1, CHAPTERS 7-9

Reading Check

1. Caleb’s father (Part 1, Chapter 9)

2. Bethia drinks from Tequamuck’s gourd. (Part 1, Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. Caleb tells Bethia he must stop seeing her because he is going to begin training to become a pawaaw. Bethia is very upset by this news because she believes that becoming a pawaaw will move Caleb further away from the true God. (Part 1, Chapter 7)

PART 1, CHAPTERS 10-11

Reading Check

1. Bethia’s father thinks he might be able to convert the sonquem Nahnoso. (Part 1, Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Many settlers speculate that God sent smallpox to the Indigenous population to turn them towards Christianity, since many of the Indigenous people began abandoning their pawaaws when they proved powerless against the disease. (Part 1, Chapter 11)

PART 2, CHAPTERS 1-6

Reading Check

1. At the school of Master Corlett in Cambridge (Part 2, Chapter 1)

2. The son of Iacoomis (Part 2, Chapter 3)

3. Noah Merry (Part 2, Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. Bethia comes to believe that her mother’s death was a punishment for her own inappropriate behavior, especially her secret friendship with Caleb. (Part 2, Chapter 2)

2. Bethia finds Cambridge crowded and uncomfortable, and she herself is always tired because she is overworked. (Part 2, Chapter 4)

PART 2, CHAPTERS 7-12

Reading Check

1. Makepeace (Part 2, Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. Since he does not have enough money to pay for Makepeace’s education, Bethia’s grandfather suggests indenturing Bethia to Master Corlett to cover the cost of Makepeace’s education at his boarding school. (Part 2, Chapter 9)

2. Though Bethia decides she will consent to her grandfather’s plan to indenture her in Cambridge, she does not tell her grandfather this right away because she enjoys having Makepeace fearful of her power over him. (Part 2, Chapter 10)

PART 2, CHAPTERS 13-18

Reading Check

1. By allowing Makepeace to beat her (Part 2, Chapter 14)

Short Answer

1. At Corlett’s school, Makepeace realizes that he is not a very skilled student and is unlikely to succeed at Harvard, so he decides to quit the school and return to the island. (Part 2, Chapter 13)

2. Realizing that Bethia does not wish to marry Noah Merry and hoping that she stay at Cambridge to continue helping him, Master Corlett suggests that Bethia consider marrying his own son Samuel. (Part 2, Chapter 14)

PART 2, CHAPTERS 19-23

Reading Check

1. At Harvard’s buttery (Part 2, Chapter 21)

Short Answer

1. When Samuel learns of Bethia’s role in helping Anne escape, he becomes angry because he believes she is too involved with the Indigenous people. Anne becomes angry in turn because she maintains her right to have her own values and beliefs. (Part 2, Chapter 19)

PART 3, CHAPTERS 1-5

Reading Check

1. By listening in on the lectures through the buttery hatch (Part 3, Chapter 2)

2. Ammi Ruhamma (Part 3, Chapter 3)

3. Anne (Part 3, Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. When their son Ammi Ruhamma is 10, Bethia and Samuel move back to the island to avoid the violent conflict between the European settlers and the Indigenous leader Metacom. (Part 3, Chapter 4)

PART 3, CHAPTERS 6-10

Reading Check

1. The words that Tequamuck had taught her (Part 3, Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. Sailing back to Cambridge for graduation, Joel’s boat founders on an island, and he and the other people on the boat are violently killed by the Indigenous inhabitants. (Part 3, Chapter 6)