Toliver's Secret

Toliver’s Secret is a middle-grade historical fiction book published in 1976 by Esther Wood Brady. Brady was born in 1906 and lived in New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., during her lifetime. She worked in “public schools tutoring children with reading difficulties” (167), which bolstered her expertise in writing books suitable for young readers. Brady wrote one other book called The Toad on Capitol Hill. Published in 1978, it is sometimes called A Wish on Capitol Hill. It follows an 11-year-old girl and her family caught up in the British march on General Washington in 1814.

Toliver’s Secret takes place in late 1776 in New York and New Jersey. The main character, Ellen Toliver’s Grandfather, works as a Patriot spy, but he is injured and cannot smuggle an important message about the British Army’s movements out of New York into Elizabeth, New Jersey, just south of Newark. Ten-year-old Ellen disguises herself as a boy to deliver the message. She faces many obstacles on her way, and though she begins the journey timid and afraid, she finds her bravery and self-confidence. The book explores the expectations that 18th-century gender roles impose on young people, as well as the impact of war on individuals and families on both sides.

The book was placed on the 1978 Kansas William White Master List. It was a 1979 nominee for the Charlie May Simon Children’s Book Award, the Mark Twain Readers Award, the Vermont Golden Dome Book Award, the William Allen White Children’s Book Award, and a 1980 nominee for the Young Hoosier Book Award.

This guide refers to the Dell Yearling 1976 paperback edition.

Content Warning: The novel briefly alludes to stereotyped depictions of Indigenous Americans and refers to this group using the undifferentiated term “Indians,” which this guide reproduces in quotation marks. The novel contains depictions of bullying. There is a nonsexual scene where an adult woman uses physical force to try to take Ellen’s trousers off, which some readers may find disturbing.

Plot Summary

Ellen Toliver is a 10-year-old girl living in British-occupied New York in late 1776. Several months earlier, the British pushed General George Washington’s forces out of New York and New Jersey. Ellen’s father was killed in late August at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, and her brother, Ezra, went missing. Alone, she and her mother walked from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan to move in with Ellen’s Grandfather. Since British soldiers, whom they call “redcoats,” are staying in his bedrooms thanks to the Quartering Act, Ellen and Mother sleep in the kitchen. Grandfather, a wigmaker and barber, sleeps in his shop.

One day, Ellen sees Mother and Grandfather baking Grandfather’s snuffbox into a loaf of bread. They make Ellen swear never to speak of what she saw. Ellen is a timid girl who is afraid to leave the house and get the morning’s water because Dicey, a girl who bullies her, is always at the pump. Grandfather thinks Ellen should stand up to her, but Mother doesn’t want Ellen to fight anyone like a “boy” would. That day at the pump. Dicey scares Ellen away again. Rather than stand up for herself, Ellen walks twice the distance to the next nearest pump.

When she returns, she sees that Grandfather sprained his ankle. He is upset because the snuffbox in the bread contains a message that must be delivered that night to a courier who will take it to General Washington. Ellen realizes Grandfather is a Patriot spy. Despite Mother’s protestations, Grandfather thinks Ellen should go in his stead. He promises that the journey won’t be difficult. After he explains it in detail, Ellen agrees. She will go to Elizabeth, New Jersey, across New York Bay, and deliver the message to Mr. Shannon at his tavern. Mother cuts her hair, and Ellen dresses in Ezra’s old clothes to disguise herself as a boy. Grandfather thinks a boy carrying a bread loaf won’t draw notice.

Ellen sets out afraid but finds that no one recognizes her. Two boys steal her bread. She gets it back and runs away but finds herself in an unknown part of town. She wants to go home but is proud of herself for fighting the boys and running faster than them. She decides to keep going. She makes it to the East River but finds that the farmer and oysterman boats Grandfather said would be there have gone home early.

Instead, she’s pulled onto a boat with British soldiers by a man named Dow, who wants her bread. Another soldier, Higgins, tells Ellen she reminds him of his son back home. Higgins stands up for Ellen to Dow and gives her words of encouragement. The soldiers are supposedly going to Elizabeth, the same place Ellen is going. When they arrive, she finds that they are in Amboy, over 10 miles from Elizabeth. Ellen tries to get a ride from a stagecoach and a man with a cart but is turned down. With some more words of encouragement from Higgins, she decides to walk to Elizabeth.

The forests along the road frighten Ellen, but she keeps going. A man on horseback named Murdock comes upon her. Since he lives half a mile from Elizabeth, he offers her a ride. At one point, Ellen drops her bread in a stream, and her eagerness to get it back begins to make Murdock suspicious of her. She goes to his house, hoping he’ll take her the rest of the way to Elizabeth after he eats dinner.

His wife, Mrs. Murdock, doesn’t want Murdock or Ellen to go out again that night. She tries to get Ellen’s wet clothes off her, and fear of her gender being discovered makes Ellen flee. She forgets the bread, but Mrs. Murdock tosses it out for the pigs, and Ellen is able to get it again. Ellen walks the half mile to Elizabeth. She stops at a smith’s shop. The two men inside are suspicious about what Ellen is carrying under her jacket, and she runs, fearful.

When she gets to Mr. Shannon’s tavern, Ellen is discouraged to see Mrs. Shannon being so friendly with British soldiers. Mrs. Shannon tells Ellen that Mr. Shannon will be gone for several days getting more ale. Hopeless, Ellen sits by the fire until Mrs. Shannon invites her into the tavern’s private rooms. She sees one of the men from the smith’s shop, who turns out to be Mr. Shannon. Ellen hands off her message. She and Mrs. Shannon commiserate over the things they must do to fool British soldiers into thinking they are sympathetic to the Crown.

The next day, two of Mr. Shannon’s trusted friends take Ellen back to New York. Once there, Ellen finds she is no longer afraid of the things that used to scare her, like people on the street or Dicey. She stands up to Dicey. A while later, the snuffbox is returned with news that Ezra is alive and that Washington successfully crossed the Delaware and is gaining ground on his way back to New York.