Summary
Adam grew up feeling like there was a line that split him in two, and it has taken great effort to hold himself together when it feels like the entire world is pulling him apart. He feels like an outsider among the Sunday people, even though he would like to sing with them. Ruth dislikes Adam, and has laid traps for him before, such as hiding silverware and claiming that he stole it. Adam has relegated himself to being the coach driver for the Halifaxes, as it is relatively peaceful.
Personally, Adam does not understand the general dislike towards Isaiah and Samuel, as he believes slaves need a reprieve. He sees Isaiah and Samuel for the young boys they still are, but envies and admires their bravery in forging a bond despite their circumstances. Due to his own mixed parentage, Adam has been mistaken for white, but his lips are a “dead giveaway.”
While waiting for Paul outside of the saloon, a drunk white man approaches Adam for directions, and there is a tense moment when the stranger looks at Adam’s features suspiciously. Paul returns, drunk, and puts his hands on Adam’s cheeks, saying “God has blessed us.” Adam is struck by Paul's physical closeness and usage of the plural "us," implying that they are related. Paul dozes on the trip back. Adam wakes him but does not follow him to the Big House, as he was not asked. Instead, Adam tends to the horses, but he hears loud movement and noise coming from the barn, louder than any two people can make.
Samuel
After Paul’s visit and dreading Timothy’s, Samuel and Isaiah are making plans to escape. Isaiah and Samuel embrace tightly, kissing before breaking apart. Isaiah gives the lantern to Samuel, and Samuel instructs Isaiah to cross the river, even if they can’t see each other in the water. Secretly, Samuel has stowed the ax against his back, but Isaiah seems to know anyway.
The plantation vexes Samuel, how nature can continue, indifferent to their suffering. There are still loose threads: whether they should have listened to Amos, or why Isaiah never told Samuel about his time with Essie. Samuel squeezes Isaiah’s hand, then tells him to run.
Samuel thinks about his earliest memory of lying on a blanket surrounded by cotton plants. The days ran together until Isaiah came and touched something inside his soul. They have had their differences — Samuel thinks that Isaiah’s flaw is wanting to live, when “to survive in this place, you had to want to die.” Isaiah gave him hope, foolish as Samuel believes it is.
When Samuel reaches the Big House, he is confronted by Maggie. She tells him to go towards the river, not the kitchen, but Samuel insists. Maggie tells him that he doesn’t belong here, but allows him to pass after a tight embrace. Samuel reaches Timothy’s room and enters. Timothy pulls Samuel close and kisses him, then invites him onto the bed. Samuel looks at the moon, then at himself in the mirror, and he sees his mother’s face in his own smile. He wonders who his mother and father might have been, inventing names for them as he imagines their strength and character.
Timothy tells Samuel to take his clothes off. He then tells Samuel that when he inherits the plantation, the first thing he will do is set several of the slaves free. Samuel imagines the overwhelmingly joyful prospect of freedom and manumission, but ultimately dismisses it as a trick. And even if the toubab will keep their word, Samuel is not willing to endure Timothy’s attentions for countless more times.
When Timothy suggests that Isaiah and Samuel visit him together tomorrow, Samuel snaps and knocks Timothy down, planting the ax into his head. Timothy dies. Samuel is astonished by how simple the deed turned out to be, and does not feel guilty, but rather that he has, in a very small way, righted a wrong. Samuel pulls the ax out of Timothy’s head and turns to leave, but he hears footsteps headed for Timothy’s room.
Lamentations
The voices of the prophets mourn what they have unleashed. They foretell that the reader will not be able to achieve liberation that will truly set them free, and prioritize reputation in history instead.
Song of Songs
Upon arriving at their destination, Kosii and two others are led onto the deck of the ship. Kosii sees Elewa for a moment in the crowd, then realizes that it is not Elewa but a pale, hardened young boy instead. Kosii grabs the boy’s neck and throws himself overboard, dragging the two other people down with him. They sink into the ocean and drown.
James patrols the perimeter of the Halifax plantation at night. James is ashamed of his shabby clothing and shack which mark his lack of wealth or status, and he is enraged by the similarities between himself and the slaves. One of his overseers reports that Ruth is wandering down by the river, and James goes to find her.
James is deeply obsessed with Ruth, and has yearned for her from afar for a long time. One night, he saw a female slave bathing down by the swamp and the light made it look like she had golden hair and blushing skin. She fought back when he raped her, and James punched her, holding her head under the water until he heard something in her hip snap. Then she rose from the water, and terrified, James lost control of his bowels. Afterward, he was only able to sleep fitfully and with his rifle beside him.
In the present, James walks Ruth back to the Big House. He returns to his cabin and sleeps, but he has a nightmare of the slaves revolting against him. James wakes up and thinks about how he made his way to Mississippi from London, where he grew up in an orphanage. Personally, James does not see Samuel and Isaiah’s intimate relationship as an issue, as they are still doing their work, but Paul disagrees.
The sound of dogs barking draws James out to the barn. All of the animals have been set free, and he runs to check on Ruth. He finds Paul dragging a bloody slave’s body toward the willow tree, and Ruth weeping on Timothy’s bed. James runs back outside, where a large crowd of slaves are being gathered around the willow tree. Paul calls for rope to hang the dying slave, and James complies. Paul collapses and, weeping, begins shoving grass into his mouth. Distracted by Maggie, Adam catches James by surprise.
Analysis
Adam symbolizes an important but overlooked facet of America’s slave history: the mixed children of slaves and slave masters. Mixed children were still considered slaves, though one of their parents (usually the father) was white, and often one of the slave-owners themselves. Ironically, Adam is unable to speak if he does not want to give away his parentage: he is literally silenced.
Samuel and Isaiah’s relationship culminates in this tense, action-filled chapter. Following Adam’s chapter, which ends on a suspenseful note as Adam discovers loud noise and movement coming from the barn, the novel takes a step back in time to reveal the full details of the night from Samuel’s perspective. The pace of the different timelines rapidly quickens, and the chapters ‘Samuel’ and ‘Song of Songs’ are short chapters full of fast-paced action. ‘Samuel’ ends on a cliffhanger, as Samuel is left standing over Timothy’s dead body while Paul runs towards them.
In the lead-up to the murder, Samuel and Isaiah part ways, as Samuel instructs Isaiah to run while he goes to the Big House. On his way to see Timothy, Samuel reflects on the hypocrisy and injustice of slavery. His anger and resolve are so strong that even Timothy’s promise of manumission, however trustworthy, cannot sway him. He also considers all the ways he and Isaiah could be hurt before Timothy inherits the plantation—slaves were liable to be sold or separated at any time.
Kosii and Elewa’s subplot is also resolved in this section, as ‘Song of Songs’ reveals the sad ending of their story: having seen Elewa’s dead body carried out of the ship, Kosii throws himself and two others overboard. The tragic ending is mirrored by Samuel and Isaiah’s relationship. Rather than pick up directly in Timothy’s bedroom, ‘James’ takes a step back from the action and explores James’s backstory. His background as an impoverished orphan from London has made him feel precarious in his position—he is above the slaves but below the other whites on the plantation. He takes his anger out on the slaves that he oversees. The rapid point-of-view changes and timeline shifts culminate in the dramatic climax of the novel: Samuel and Isaiah part ways as their circumstances under slavery pull them apart.
