Moll Flanders: Moll and James in America Summary & Analysis

Meanwhile, the midwife tries to get Moll’s case pardoned, but the cost is way more than they can afford. Even the minister goes on Moll’s behalf to try and argue her case again, but the authorities tell the minister that he should be happy Moll’s life was spared. In February, Moll is taken with seven other convicts and placed on a Merchant’s ship headed to Virginia. The ship set sails and begins up the coast, but the Merchant first stops at a place called Bugby’s-Hole. Moll convinces an officer on the ship to mail a letter on her behalf, so she writes to the midwife and tells her to bring the goods she packed for Moll to the next port, and she also encloses a letter for James.

Two days later, the midwife delivers Moll’s goods to the ship at port. She brings a trunk full of things that will be useful and needed when Moll arrives in America, along with a portion of Moll’s “Bank of Money.” Once Moll is established in America, she will send for the rest of her money to be shipped to her. The midwife is heartbroken at the sight of Moll, and she hates the idea of being separated from her. The midwife also brings with her a response from James, in which he says he has voluntarily asked to be transported. Unfortunately, James says, it is impossible to get on the same ship, and he will have to meet Moll in Virginia.

Moll is concerned that James won’t be able to meet up with her at all, so she tells the midwife all about their relationship—except that they were married—and she tells her about their plans to start a new life in America. The midwife is so happy to hear Moll’s story that she promises to make sure James gets on the boat before it sails. She succeeds, and when the ship sails, both Moll and James are on board. Moll’s sentence will last for five years, but James is not allowed to return to England for the rest of his life, and he is quite upset. What’s worse, since James voluntarily transported, he is made to pay for his passage.

Moll and James pool their resources. James had a fair amount of money when he went to prison, but the cost has been considerable, and he is down to £108 in gold. Moll puts in the money she has on board—£246 and a few shillings—but she doesn’t tell him about the £300 bank she left safe with the midwife in London. Their main problem at present is that their stock is all in money, except for the clothes and linens Moll has in the trunk from the midwife, which is useless in the Colonies. Moll bribes a member of the crew, and for 15 Guineas, she and James are allowed a nice room and a seat at the captain’s table.

Before the ship sails, however, the midwife finds occasion to befriend the captain and inquires what kind of equipment one would need to become a planter in America. His lists off goods totaling around £100, and the midwife quickly secures them. She boards the goods on the ship in her own name and endorses them over to James to be collected when the ship gets to America. By the time the ship sails and all expenses are covered, Moll and James have £200 in money and the contents of two trunks secured by the midwife—more than enough to start a good life in America. 

It is in this happy state that Moll and James set sail from Bugby’s-Hole. Their journey begins easy enough, but they are delayed by bad weather later in the trip. When they arrive in Virginia, Moll and James are sold as servants to a planter, and he offers them their freedom for a large amount of tobacco. Moll and James immediately secure the tobacco, along with 20 Guineas for good measure, and settle in Virginia, near the Potomac River. Moll receives their goods from the ship and stores them in a warehouse, and they secure lodging in a small village.

The first thing Moll does is inquire about her mother and her brother—or husband, depending—and she learns that though her mother is dead, her brother lives on a nearby plantation with one of his sons. Moll asks around town about the man living on her brother’s plantation, and she learns that he lives with his son, Humphry. Humphry is the name of her own son, and she has not seen or spoken to him in over 20 years. Moll also learns that the whole town knows their incestuous secret. 

According to rumors, when Moll’s mother died, she left her estate to her Moll, to be collected if she ever made herself known. Moll is pleased to hear it but secretly laments her luck. Clearly, her secret is out, and if she makes herself known, she will be ruined. She debates her choices day and night for some time, until James notices her preoccupation. She tells James as much of the story as she must—that she has relations living nearby and that her mother has died and left her money—but she claims she is hesitant to reveal herself to them because she doesn’t want them to know she is a transported criminal.

James tells Moll that he is willing to go and do whatever she wants. He will relocate to another part of the country or go to a whole new country if she wants, but Moll is torn. She wants her mother’s estate, but she doesn’t want James to know about her past with her brother. And, Moll says, she wants to at least see her brother and Humphry before relocating. Moll again interrupts her story and reminds the reader that the publication of her story is meant “for Instruction, Caution, Warning and Improvement to every Reader,” so they should not look too harshly on her for keeping secrets from James. 

Moll and James decide to relocate to a new part of the country, where they will be just a couple looking to farm, not transported criminals. Moll selects Carolina, the southernmost colony, because she detests the cold, but she can’t decide whether she should send James on without her and visit her brother’s plantation first, or if she should settle in Carolina and then return to Virginia. She decides to first go to Carolina, and the trip is 200 miserable miles. Moll and James arrive at a place called Phillip’s Point and learn that the ship to Carolina sailed three days earlier. Exhausted and unwilling to travel further, they decide to settle right where they are.

James and Moll buy two servants and the required goods and lodgings, and within two months, they buy a sizable plantation with nearly 50 acres of cleared land. They plant tobacco, and it isn’t long before they have a thriving estate. Then, Moll tells James she must return to Virginia to see some friends, and she leaves for the east side of the Potomac River. When she arrives, Moll wants to walk up to her brother and tell him directly who she is, but she thinks better of it. She decides instead to write him a letter stating her case, in which she adds several warm remarks about Humphry, whom, Moll says, she knows to be her son.

Moll sends the letter to her brother, and when it arrives, Humphry intercepts it. Soon after, Humphry arrives at Moll’s lodgings in town. Moll is pleasantly surprised when she opens the door to Humphry, who is ready to receive her as his loving mother. He is overjoyed to know she still lives, and he goes on to say that he did not show his father Moll’s letter. His father is old, he says, and quite senile. He asks Moll how she has come to be in the Colonies, and she tells him that she is staying on a friend’s plantation across the bay. Humphry immediately insists that Moll live with him. His father won’t even notice her, Humphry says, but Moll can’t conceive of leaving James.

Humphry comes to visit Moll again, and he brings with him the will of Moll’s mother, which leaves Moll a plantation on the York River. The plantation has been kept in operation and maintained by Humphry, who visits a few times a year. There are a stock of cattle and several servants there, and Moll asks how much it is worth. Humphry says she would get £60 per year if she let the land out, but living on the plantation, she would likely garner upwards of £150. If she lives in England or across the bay and hires a steward to manage the land, she can expect somewhere around £100 per year. Moll is silently thankful for her good fortune, and she is never more ashamed of her wicked past.

Moll tells Humphry that he is her only child and sole heir, and she says the plantation will go directly back to him upon her own death. Moll then gives Humphry the only thing she has of value—a gold watch—but she doesn’t tell him how she got it. Moll signs the appropriate paperwork and takes possession of her land, and then she hires Humphry to live there and manage it. He draws up a contract promising Moll £100 profit per year, and since she has a right to the current year’s crops, Humphry gives her £100 in gold. Moll stays for over a month, settling her affairs and visiting with her son, and then she returns to James.