A Lion to Guard Us

The Freebold family is defined by their struggle with poverty in London, and poverty becomes a motif in the text. In Mistress Trippett’s house, Amanda is an unpaid servant while her mother is ill, and the money her mother owns is taken by Mistress Trippett and never returned. The description of the Freebolds’ sparse material possessions reinforces their lack of wealth. For example, the room the children share in Mistress Trippett’s home is “a tiny room in the back of the house” that contains only a pallet with a cover made from “a piece of red velvet curtain, faded and old” (8, 10). These descriptions reinforce that their poverty is maintained by Mistress Trippett, who keeps the family in worse conditions than necessary and gives them old castoffs. When the children are thrown out of her home, they are confronted with both poverty and homelessness. When Jemmy sees an inn, he tries to pull Amanda toward it and Amanda explains that they can’t go in there because “It’s only for those with money” (36). These scenes introduce an element of social critique in the text, asserting that poverty is maintained by upper-class individuals and social norms rather than a natural fact of life.

Both the children and their parents view the “New World” as a place to escape their poverty. Amanda explains to Anne Hopkins that although she was a servant in London, she “won’t be a servant in the New World” (62), interweaving contemporary ideas of the American dream in the text. Dr. Crider’s actions emphasize that poverty can be alleviated when better-off people choose to help; though he has less to offer than Mistress Trippett, he buys them good food and clothing and gives them a real bed to sleep in. However, the voyage to Virginia reasserts class boundaries as those with greater social standing and money have rooms while everyone else stays in the hold of the ship together. After Dr. Crider dies, the children once again have to fend for themselves, showing that poverty endures even in the more idealistic “New World.”