Pelican Girls by Julia Malye (aka La Louisiane) follows a fictional account of the lives of 3 of the girls that were sent to Louisiana by the French Government in an effort to help the colony thrive. Based on the real life casquette girls – so called because of the chests they used to carry their stuff – these girls were chosen specifically because they were reasonably guaranteed to be virgins. Sending women to marry the colonists in New France had been going on for a while, but the girls that were originally sent were not exactly paragons of virtue (for the time). They were prostitutes or those in mental hospitals and as such arrived on prison ships. The girls who arrived on Le Pélican (where they get their other name) were considered more desirable, because they were orphans or from convents. Poor girls, but at least they could be counted among the virtuous. Young was the name of the game here, cause most of them were between 12 and 25, with the Pelican girls specifically being 14-19.
The cover for this book is a painting by Joseph Meeker done in 1874 of the Louisiana swamp. Despite the fact that it looks like it could be a scene from our book, or even one in real life, it’s actually based on a poem that was popular at the time called Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847), written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Plot Summary
Paris, 1720. La Salpêtrière hospital is in crisis: too many occupants, not enough beds. Halfway across the world, France’s colony in the wilds of North America has space to spare and needs families to fill it. So the director of the hospital rounds up nearly a hundred female “volunteers” of childbearing age—orphans, prisoners, and mental patients—to be shipped to New Orleans.
Among this group are three unlikely friends: a sharp-tongued twelve-year old orphan, a mute ‘madwoman,’ and an accused abortionist. Charlotte, Pétronille, and Geneviève, along with the dozens of other women aboard La Baleine, have no knowledge of what lies ahead and no control over their futures. Strangers brought together by fate, these brave and fierce young women will face extraordinary adversity—pirates, slavedrivers, sickness, war—but also the private trauma of heartbreak and unrequited love, children born and lost, cruelty and unexpected pleasure, and a friendship forged in fire that will sustain through the years.
Tags & Warnings
Historical Fiction – War – Colonization – Rape – Death – Abuse – Sexual Assault – Miscarriage – Pregnancy – Violence – LGBT+
Spoilers Ahead!
Our story begins in 1720 and ends in 1734 – 14 years broken up into 3 parts of 4 chapters each:
- Part 1
- 1720 March to November
- This part covers the selection of the girls and the beginning of their journey to America
- Part 2
- 1721 February to 1726 May
- This part covers their arrival, and getting used to their new lives in Louisiana
- Part 3
- 1727 November to 1734 June
- The final part covers how the girls are holding up with their new families, and how they manage to come together as friends after so long
Part 1
Margarite
We open up to the women’s prison and here we get to see the setup of our book, in that the lady in charge (Margarite) has to chose young fertile girls to be sent to the new colony of Louisiana for the men there to take as brides.
The list is passed around. On the ceiling, Muses hand each other laurel wreaths and violently red apples
That quote really sums up her feelings about the whole thing, and does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of themes and foreshadowing.
She’s an old woman in her 60’s and comes from an aristocratic family. She talks about life in Paris at the time and the views of the poor – that is to say – the world through the eyes of the rich. Seeing as how she’s had so much time around ‘the poor’ she has a better understanding but still, her opinions are coloured by the attitudes of the time. She also seems to be in competition with her sister, who is married to the old chief of police (a position their father had) and is the mother of the current one. One of the ladies she picks was actually sent there by her sister.
Even though she thinks Louisiana is a scary place, she has no qualms about sending the girls there – because again, poor people aren’t the same as the proper ladies. She does hesitate and, not exactly agonize over it, but she gets second thoughts – but not over the sending, over the who. She is particularly iffy about sending a little girl named Charlotte, whom she ‘saved’ as a baby.
Genevieve
In this chapter we kick off where the last one ended and the girls are being taken from the convent/hospital to the boat that will get them to Louisiana.
Genevieve is the girl that was brought from the prison, and was only there because of the Lady’s sister. Turns out it’s because she helped girls with their abortions after she had one herself.
We learn that her family used to have a silk farm in Provence but it burned so they moved to Paris. Unfortunately they die and she is left alone. She is working in a tannery when she is found by Amelie who brings her to work as a laundress in the Lady’s house. She becomes close friends with her and her younger brother Felicien. They sleep together (once) and that results in her pregnancy. When Amelie finds out some weeks later (cause she was sick in front of her) she tells her about where she can get help. Genevieve uses this knowledge to help other girls and eventually one of them gets caught and that’s how she gets arrested. Lucky for her the Lady thinks it’s just the one incident. During the whole time she and Amelie develop a romantic relationship.
While on the journey she makes friends with Charlotte, Etiennette, and Petronille. The first part of her journey is her anxiety about being sent back, then found out, then Charlotte does find out and she and Etiennette avoid her, till Petronille comes to her asking for help.
Petronille
The boat was docked for repairs and now we finally set sail out onto the Atlantic. We also find out that the pregnancy was once that was dubiously consenting at best.
Petronille Is a highborn lady that was sent to the convent cause her family thought she was simple and then she got caught with the gardener – but her mom realized that it’s not that they did anything (they didn’t) it’s that Petronille could never conceive that there was something to be done.
Anyways, as we set sail on the open ocean she isn’t sick anymore, but most of the other girls and the nuns are so she and Genevieve and 2 of the other older girls take care of everyone. In doing this, she starts meeting up with one of the sailors who was kind to her – Baptiste. Genevieve warns her against this fearing (rightfully – due to past circumstance) that he would hurt her and she can’t help her like she did before, but Petronille is confident in his conduct and continues to meet him.
When they come to the crossing of the Tropic of Cancer there is a special ceremony they do on ships for first time crossers and they do this for the girls. She had met Baptiste the night before in the pantry and he kissed her telling her it would be a special day tomorrow. She hoped this meant marriage as in her last conversation with Genevieve she had guessed that the nuns allowed her to meet with him because they hoped she met a husband for their new life in Louisiana early. This hunch is further confirmed by one of the nuns running in to her on her way to the pantry and saying the ship is a small place.
‘women are bad luck on ships’ and men on earth she thought
I feel you sis.
Charlotte
Pirates attack the ship and it’s implied that two of the girls were raped.* Charlotte was hiding under a row boat so when the pirates turned towards where all the other women were she ran and let out the sailors who fought them off. Also sister Gertrude has a gun! And stood face to face with them! We love it.
The begining of the chapter was about Charlotte’s feelings and how she has major abandonment issues (which is to be expected). She thinks Gertrude is stealing Etiennette from her and that the superioress not choosing her for this trip was abandonment. She is a child however and is so very wrong. She’s even jealous of her friend trying to find news of her older sister, because all the love she knows comes from Etiennette and she wrongly assumes you can only have one.
* All the girls get anxiety and PTSD from this btw, but the also admire Charlotte for freeing the sailors and ultimately saving all of them from a worse fate
Part 2
Genevieve
Etiennette is married! A month ago. And now Charlotte and Genevieve are getting married. Petronille wants to see her sailor but gets sick the day before the others are to be wed. Months later we see her leave on a boat. Etiennette, who we thought was taken away by her husband is still in town and comes to see Charlotte at the same time as Genevieve.
Petronille
She’s depressed, like clinically. Her husband takes her farther inland (he seems to be well off) and there she gets pregnant. She makes a friend in the wife of one of his friends and after they go for a horse ride and get lost she discovers that they are having an affair. She’s come to terms with Baptist never coming for her (as she finds out he was on another island at the time) and had just started getting better and then she sees them together. She also finds out that Etiennettes sister died on the journey 😔
Charlotte
She’s 15 now and 18 months ago had a miscarriage, and is also very clearly depressed. Her husband is a boat guide and gone a lot, but also he’s less wealthy than some of the other men. They’ve moved to Nola along with a bunch of others after a hurricane and now all the girls have at least one kid. Their friendships are based on what their husbands do for a living. Etenniette has just had her second kid and Charlotte is feeling jealous of her for giving birth, seeing herself as a failure.
She tries a folk remedy one of the other girls tells her about and does get pregnant again, but only for a few weeks before she has another miscarriage. This time the advice is to sleep with another man lest her husband be the issue. She attempts to make herself more alluring during Etiennettes party but doesn’t go through with it. Etiennette brings up that she tried to kiss her while they were staying at the warehouse when they first arrived and she realizes that she does not feel the same so she denies remembering the incident.
Genevieve
It’s five years later and we get an update on what’s been happening. They have a daughter, but Pierre has died. His sister – who has a rich husband and five kids – implies that Genevieve should give her her daughter. She gets a job at the governors house instead. Her daughter Melanie gets lost/stuck in a bush trying to climb a tree to see her father – who Genevieve said would use the oak tree that his coffin was made of to climb to heaven – and thus rumours fly of her being a bad mother.
This leads the sister in law to speak to the clerk about having Melanie forcibly put in her care. Genevieve meets a man at the governors house who is going to Louisiana and agrees to take her if she marries him. She says yes. They stop at where Petronelle lives and they get a chance to catch up
Part 3
Charlotte
Charlotte is very much still a child. Her husband died recently and Etiennette moved to Canada with her 5 kids – the last one almost killed her – she decides to join a convent and happens to see Genevieve there, she still dislikes her and so is not very happy to see her. Genevieve teaches her and the others how to read and one day while sitting in the snow, Charlotte notices Genevieve’s broken hand. They kiss. Charlotte is so absorbed in this and trying to get it out of her system that when next she sees her with a bruise on her neck or hears her complaints about her husband she ignores it.
Genevieve thinks the kids means Charlotte will help her so asks the superioress if she can board there and that Charlotte can vouch for her. To us it’s clear she is attempting to escape an abusive husband. To Charlotte she can only think that Genevieve wants to be closer to her and so she sabotages her request.
Utu’wv Ecoko’nesel
This time we switch to the POV of one of the native girls that lives where Petronelle does. We get to see what they think of this whole thing and from her teaching Petronelle medicine, we learn Genevieve is marrying for a third time and her husband is abusive. Also he had a kid with the other woman that they pretend is not his.
Her husband also rapes Utu’wv Ecoko’nesel one night in her way back from the house and she does not go back. At least till she hears of the plot to attack the settlement; she warns Petronelle and leads her and her two kids away but leaves them in the woods to go their own way.
Petronelle
We get to see the aftermath of what happened in the last chapter. Petronelle has made it to New Orleans and stays in the convent with charlotte a bit before moving in with Genevieve. It’s been a few months now and it’s full on war. Then they hear the natives were captured and just under 400 enslaved. She goes to see if her friend is there, she doesn’t see her. Genevieve goes into labour.
Genevieve
This is 3 years later and her husband has dies of kidney failure this time. She has 5 kids and lives alone. Petronelle married the towns doctor. Genevive is trying to get a business partner, but her 2nd husbands previous partner is conspiring with the other men in town to steal her business from her instead by forcing her to marry the person she is trying to make a deal with, or have her kids taken away.
Petronelle tells Charlotte of her troubles and she offers to come tutor Genevives kids while she does business. She accepts but this wont solve her problem completely, only buys some time. They talk about what happened at the convent and find that their feelings for each other are still there. Genevive starts experimenting with silk worms and a storm blows through the town. Not as bad as others, but enough that her indigo plantation is destroyed. This effectively gets the men off her back and she can focus on her family and the silk worms.
Final Thoughts
This is a really sad book. It’s also really realistic I feel. It’s not so sad that you’d cry reading it, but there are definitely moments that are very tense and most definitely moments that are uncomfortable. Being historical fiction, not everything is accurate, but it certainly feels accurate enough that It feels like reading a historical account of these girls – which is what the author wanted.
I think anything to to with Charlotte bothered me the most while reading this. She is an actual child through most of this, and as such most of her choices are really selfish – not in a ‘I have to take care of myself’ way, but in a ‘other people aren’t a real concept’ way. You know how kids don’t register that other people have lives where stuff is happening and as such can be careless. It’s not bad, but it does cause problems.
The parts about the natives were also uncomfortable to get through, as the way they were treated is just… so bad. Thinking of what happened to Utu’wv Ecoko’nesel and her family is depressing.
I borrowed this from the library, and I probably wont be getting a copy. Not because its bad – it’s actually really good – but the rating is a reflection of how much I personally enjoyed it along with the how objectively good it is. I don’t like sad books, and despite the hopeful ending, that’s the main feeling I came away with.
Amateur Amalgam 
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