Jeslyn Pool and Evan Sizemore

A Miserable Revenge follows a cast of characters associated with the Brookland estate in Winchester, Virginia. The story is told by an omniscient third-person narrator who frequently speaks directly to the reader but does not interact directly with the characters of the novel. Through this narrator, the hero is identified as twenty-four-year-old William G. Reed, who is leaving Brookland and heading west in hopes of making a fortune. However, rather than following William on his adventures, the novel’s focus remains on the Brookland estate and its associated characters, many of whom possess dark secrets and hidden identities.

The story comes to a dramatic climax as all of these secrets are revealed. The novel’s primary villains flee to the mill, but it collapses during a storm and they are killed. Curiously, the novel’s other villains are forgiven, and the remaining cast of characters decide to leave Virginia and move to Boston to begin better lives. The novel’s heroes are rewarded, lost families are restored, and the story ends with five new couples being happily married on Christmas day. Although the novel’s Black characters are placed in the background of this plot, they too have a happy ending. In the end, all of the enslaved characters are freed, and the novel’s Black characters join the white characters in leaving Virginia for the North, where they too anticipate a better future.

Notably, two Black characters, Dick and Ann, appear to have been named after Newman’s own brother and sister. George—the free Black character named after Newman himself—appears to return on the last page of the manuscript. Unfortunately, that page was damaged, and George’s final words remain unknown.