Jubilee

Randall Ware stands looking at Shady Oaks, now deserted and surrounded by barbed wire. There’s a “For Sale” sign there, which he reads repeatedly, still not believing what is written. It’s been seven years since he last visited this place. He returns, too, to his old shop. His anvil is still in good shape.

He remains in Dawson for about a month and hears nothing about Vyry and his children. Meanwhile, his business at the blacksmith shop resumes. He also gets involved in politics. He attended the Freedman’s Convention in Augusta, Georgia and “became a charter member of the Georgia Equal Rights Association” (360). The problem now is that Georgia has passed new laws to restrict black people—forbidding firearm ownership and imposing curfews. Anyone not employed by a white man is at risk of harassment.

Two months after Ware reopens his shop, Old Doc stops by. He tells Ware that Vyry has remarried and left Georgia for Alabama. He then tells Ware that he doesn’t want Ware “making trouble for [Vyry]” (363). Ware tells Old Doc that he could care less about the man’s opinions and shakes off Old Doc’s accusation of impudence. Still, Ware is disturbed by the news. He goes to the courthouse and looks through the records. He finds that Elvira Dutton is married to Innis Brown.

Vyry and Innis Brown build a log cabin then plant “cotton seed and corn, sugar cane, rice, and potatoes” within “long rows” in a field (364). Brown goes to nearby Abbeville, “the county seat of Henry County,” to buy “a sow with a litter of pigs, and then a cow” (364). When Brown returns home, he tells Vyry that a white man got cross with him for buying the pigs, telling Brown that “niggers was made to work for white folks and all this free nonsense warn’t agoing to work” (364). Brown reports having told the man that he and his family live “in the woods and the river bottom” by themselves (366). This news pleases the white man.

One day, Brown tells Vyry that another white man offered him a job at a sawmill, but then got angry when Brown told him that he wouldn’t be available right away, due to needing to set up his farm. This man, too, got angry, talking about how “no-good niggers don’t want to work” (366). Meanwhile, Jim complains about toting water all day, while Vyry and Brown admonish him, telling him that he must learn to work. By the end of summer, Vyry has plenty of canned vegetables, preserves, jams, and jellies. The Browns have also dug up potatoes and stored them in the hills nearby. For meat, Brown sets traps to catch squirrels and rabbits. He gives Minna a squirrel cap that he’s made, and gives Jim a raccoon cap. He also intends to produce boots and shoes for the children from animal hides.

Vyry and Brown go into town where Vyry sells items from the farm to local merchants. Everyone she encounters is polite to her and buys her wares, leading Brown to believe that the merchants must think that she’s white and assume that Brown is her servant. In the winter, the Browns busy themselves with furnishing the cabin. Innis Brown also produces the new shoes that he promised Jim and Minna. He notes, however, that he would be able to make better shoes if he “had leather and tools” (370). He learned these skills while working on the plantation. To pass the time, Jim likes “to tell stories and jokes and sing songs” while eating “nuts and candy” (370). Minna, on the other hand, is industrious and is eager to sew, weave, and spin; though, Vyry says that she’s too young to perform the last task. Besides, Vyry wants her children to go to school, despite Brown’s insistence that it’ll cost too much to educate them.

When spring arrives, the days remain frosty and dark. Brown can protect the crops and livestock while it rains for a week; then, he reports that he sees the river rising. He realizes the danger this presents for the Browns, who live “in the river bottom” (372). He wonders if the white man he encountered was pleased to hear of their whereabouts because he knew the family would be flooded out. Brown spends the day trying to prepare for the oncoming flood. By daybreak, their cabin fills with six inches of water. Jim wonders if they’ll get washed away. Vyry thinks of the story of Noah and the flood in the Bible, recalling a story that Brother Zeke used to share. Late that afternoon, it rains heavily again during a violent thunderstorm and continues to rain until morning. In the end, “neither the house nor the barn were washed away” (375) and only the cow died. Still, there’s mud all over the house, “extra large mosquitos […] and all kinds of water bugs” (377). Brown also kills a cottonmouth curled up near their fireplace.

That night, Minna comes down with a fever. The next morning, Jim falls ill, too. Vyry insists that she can break their fevers herself, though she frets over them. When their fevers finally break, Vyry breaks down and cries, revealing just how worried she was. To help the children feel better, Innis Brown makes them toys—a baby doll for Minna and a puzzle for Jim. To help them sleep, Brown sings songs; then, both he and Vyry tell them stories, including “one about a silly cat and a wise spider” (379). The children, particularly Jim, listen eagerly until they fall asleep.

Vyry and Innis Brown wonder where they’ll go now. Brown wonders if they should have gone to Montgomery in the first place, but Vyry doubts that they can make the trip with nothing more than a mule to carry them. Brown makes trips into town and talks to “colored soldiers” who tell him that the government intends to “give every colored farmer forty acres and a mule” (380). Vyry doubts that this is true. On their own property, the fields are too saturated with water to turn a good crop. Vyry wonders if they’ll be anything to eat in winter. In the summer, the Browns plan to move but find that “poor white people [are] very much opposed to Negroes owning small farms” (382). Moreover, their section of Alabama is almost entirely composed of “poor white dirt farmers” and the “fight for land [is] increasing much hatred among the people” (382). Brown doesn’t want to work for another white farmer, knowing that the conditions wouldn’t be much different from those imposed during slavery.

One day in mid-July Brown hears about an available place. He finds a poor, white dirt farmer in the house with his wife and baby. He tells Brown that they’ll likely move in six weeks, after his wife, who has just given birth, recovers. Brown says that he’d like to have a place before then, but thinks that this offer might be the best he can get. To prepare for the move, they fill their wagon with their belongings and set off for the farm. When they arrive, they find that the white family is still in the house. The white family intends to leave the next day, when “a man with a team of horses” (386) can come help them.

While Vyry waits in the wagon, she sees that the couple have five more children, in addition to the one just born. She can also see that the children are hungry. Vyry asks the man if she can make a fire to prepare her children’s supper. The man obliges her. She boils water and scalds “two big fat chickens” (387). She cuts up the chickens and combines the meat with rabbit, pieces of salted pork, potatoes and onions, various vegetables, and salt and pepper. She offers to share the stew with the family. Though the father initially refuses, out of pride, Vyry insists that he partake. That night, the Browns sleep “in the barn among the hay and animals” (387). The next morning, Vyry prepares breakfast. When the white family departs, Vyry is displeased to see how dirty the house is, but is very pleased to see a well so close to the back door.

On their third morning, a man knocks loudly at the door and asks about the whereabouts of the Coopers—the white family who just left the property. The man says that the family left while still owing him money and that he’s the true owner of the house. He says that the Browns can stay on rent-free and “work the farm on shares” (390). He tells the Browns that he’ll “advance [them] any seed and food [they] need at the end of the year when [they] make the crop” (390) and will pay the man back when they produce their share of the crop. The man, whose name is Pippins, gives them an ultimatum: sign the contract or leave the property in 24 hours. Innis Brown makes his mark on a contract that neither he nor Vyry can read. They agree to stay for a year.