What They Said and What They Meant

My editor asked me if I really meant that my protagonist considered herself better than everyone else in town. I had referred to her as one of the “better sort” in a story.

Everyone in the town found themselves in one of four categories. The “better sort” owned land, and had people working for them; they were influential in the government of the town and perhaps of the county or colony. The “middlins” were mostly skilled workers who sold their labor to others but who were capable of holding down good jobs. The “poorer sort” were free but unskilled workers. At the bottom of the ladder were the slaves and the indentured, who may in fact be skilled laborers.

This story is set in the early 18th century. Hannah absolutely believed she and Silas were better than most anyone in the town and that those positions were God given.

As a writer I am caught between presenting these people as I think they were and presenting them in a way that is palatable to today’s reader. I use my grandparents’ speech patterns to make the dialogue sound old but still understandable. Now and then I have to change words or meanings or actions in order to make the character sympathetic. Hannah would never accuse anyone of witchcraft or ignore a beaten child or wife. But she would never expect to vote or keep for herself any money she earned.

So what did I do about her being the “better sort”? I made her a member of the gentry instead.