Jubilee

Young Marster John, Miss Lillian, and Kevin MacDougall arrive for John Dutton’s funeral, which takes place over the course of a week. His coffin visits the legislature in Milledgeville, his church, and the Big House at Shady Oaks plantation before, finally, entering its grave. Missy Salina maintains stoic poise throughout the public proceedings, weeping only in private, and is annoyed with Lillian’s public display of grief. When her son asks what she’ll do now about managing the plantation, Salina laughs, insisting that she’s always managed the place herself with Grimes’ help.

John Morris Dutton is laid to rest in the Dutton family plot, alongside his parents and many of his slaves. The family erects a monument “chiseled of marble” (224) and large enough to be noticed from the main road. That April, shots are fired at Fort Sumter, marking the beginning of the Civil War. President Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to defend the Union and put down the Confederacy. John Jr. insists that he will fight for the Confederacy and asks Kevin what he’ll do. Kevin is ambivalent—he detests war, but he doesn’t want to be called a traitor either. John Jr. insists that the North won’t fight.

Meanwhile, Vyry wonders if Marse John had really emancipated her in his will. If he had, would Missy Salina free her? She doubted it. When she sees Miss Lillian weeping over the loss of her father, Vyry feels no empathy. On the day of the funeral, the house fills with guests. Vyry spends all day cooking and baking. Once again, she’s too tired to sleep, while her children rest peacefully beside her. She suddenly hears the call of the whip-poor-will. A tall young man, a stranger to her, hands her a note from Randall Ware. She gives it to Brother Ezekiel to read to her the next afternoon. The note contains no promise from Ware to free her. Instead, Brother Zeke reads that there will be “a war to set the black slaves free” (227). Ware promises to get her after the war ends. Vyry dismisses the letter as nonsense. 

News of the Civil War changes nothing at Shady Oaks. John Jr. returns home as a captain in the U.S. Army, announcing he’ll fight for Georgia in the Confederacy. His mother beams with pride. Lillian, on the other hand, is bewildered by Kevin’s opposition to the war. He tells her that “fratricidal war is the worst of all” (232). At Christmas, the Duttons gather at the plantation. Salina persuades Kevin to fight for the Confederacy. As a compromise, he insists on joining the infantry, not the cavalry. John Jr. is appalled by the decision, reminding him that the infantry is “the least protected unit of the army” (233). Kevin is equally appalled by Johnny’s cavalier talk of war.

On the morning of January 1862, John Jr. announces his departure for the war to all of the slaves on the plantation and promises that, if they do their duty by protecting “the lives and property of [their] master and [their] master’s family,” they will be freed when the war is over, and “every mother’s son” will get “a parcel of land” (236). Grimes and Missy Salina then order the slaves to sing “the new southern rallying song, ‘I wish I was in Dixie, hooray!’” (236). At the end of the song, John Jr. mounts “his father’s favorite chestnut bay horse” (235) and rides off the plantation, accompanied by Jim, who has become his body-servant. 

In 1862, the South is winning the war. General Robert E. Lee is clever and out-maneuvers the Union Army, which suffers from low morale. No battles have yet taken place in Georgia, but many young men from the state join the fight. To further the cause, Georgians buy war bonds and four munitions factories are constructed in Augusta, Atlanta, Columbus, and Macon. One spring morning, a visitor arrives, wearing “the gray uniform of a Confederate officer” (237). He announces himself as Colonel Smith. He asks Missy Salina if she can spare more than a dozen of her slaves, in exchange for their paying her and ensuring that the extra hands are well-fed while in the government’s employ. Missy Salina agrees and sends for Grimes, who was resting. Grimes wanted to fight for the Confederacy, but both his wife, Jane, and the mistress needed him: slaves were increasingly disappearing, and fleeing to the Union Army. Missy Salina had already lost five men, and advertised in the Georgia papers for their return in exchange for a monetary reward.

For the past six months, Grimes has been taking slaves to munitions factories to work, which requires them to be shackled carefully to prevent escape. The work is difficult and the men are stripped to the waist, due to the heat. It’s especially difficult, given that most slaves are unaccustomed and untrained for such work. If one of them were to lose a hand, he would be of no more use for the job. They all work “under the lash” (241).