Study Questions

1. What was Moll’s view of Newgate Prison after she had been there for a while?

2. What finally inspired Moll to repent of her life of crime?

3. When Moll’s sentence of death was lifted, what alternative sentence did she receive?

4. What did Moll manage to take with her on her second voyage to Virginia?

5. What happened to Moll and Jemy when they first arrived in America?

6. Which of her relatives did Moll encounter upon her return to Virginia?

7. Where did Moll and Jemy buy land after they arrived in Virginia?

8. What did Moll receive from the governess after she and Jemy moved to their new home?

9. How long was Moll’s second stay in America?

10. Where do Moll and Jemy live out their old age?

Answers

1. At first, Moll was horrified by the dismal conditions in Newgate Prison, but, after a time, she began to find Newgate not only tolerable but almost agreeable.

2. Moll became a penitent after she heard a minister describe the benefits she would derive from repentance. Defoe leaves it up to the reader to decide whether or not she had truly been saved.

3. Like her mother had been, Moll was sentenced to several years of indentured servitude in America.

4. Moll somehow managed to take a trunk full of gold, silver, jewelry, and fine linen with her on the prison ship.

5. The captain of the prison ship arranged for a wealthy planter to buy Moll and Jemy’s contracts for indentured servitude (forced labor). Immediately after the couple met the planter, he proceeded to set them free.

6. Soon after she arrived in Virginia, Moll caught sight of her brother, who had once been her husband, and one of her sons, whom she had not seen since his early childhood. Moll did not make herself known to her relatives, but she became determined to introduce herself to her son when she learned that he could help her procure a legacy left to her by her mother.

7. Because Moll did not want to live in close proximity to her relations in Virginia, she and Jemy purchased a tobacco plantation in the colony of Maryland.

8. The governess sent Moll a cargo of finished goods, including guns, swords, wigs, linen, gowns, cloaks, and other trappings of aristocratic life. Thus Moll and Jemy managed to set themselves up as members of the highest social class.

9. Moll spent eight years in America after she arrived for the second time, the same amount of time she had spent there earlier in her life.

10. Because they were sure that they could no longer be prosecuted for any of their previous crimes, Moll and Jemy returned to England to live out the rest of their lives.