60 pages • 2 hours read
Jesmyn WardLet Us Descend
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Rivers Wend South”
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains vivid depictions of enslavement and outlines a brief moment of suicidal ideation.
Weeks pass, and Annis does not see Aza’s spirit again. She and the rest of the enslaved men and women who have been forced to march further and further south are now exhausted and injured and do not have any hope left. As the march progresses, they endure the first of many difficult river crossings, each helping the other make it across the dark, rapidly moving water. At the next crossing, Annis finds herself sinking below the surface of the water and briefly contemplates allowing herself to drown, but she thinks of her mother, of Aza, and of the women around her who would surely be pulled under by her dead weight. Therefore, she fights the water and makes it safely to the other bank. At the next crossing, one of the men is unable to swim and dies, and the Georgia men cut his body loose and allow him to float downriver. They come upon a vast swamp, and the woman walking ahead of Annis, who finally introduces herself as Phyllis, tells her of the “Great Dismal Swamp,” which is so large that it spans portions of North Carolina and Virginia. Although full of panthers, alligators, bears, and other predators, it is a common space of refuge for those who manage to escape enslavement, and Phyllis herself has family members who live on hidden islands by cypress and “fences of vine” (81).
At one water crossing in the swamp, the Georgia men are forced to untie the enslaved people so that they can be ferried across in small boats, one by one. Annis notices alligators floating silently in the water and looks up to see Aza’s spirit waiting for her on the far bank. They make it across without incident and are once again bound with ropes and locked into their chains. Later, when everyone has gone to sleep, Annis wakes to find Aza near her. Aza tells her that she “walked with” Annis’s mother, too, and that she is always present for the two and always will be. Aza talks of the perilous passage made by the newly-enslaved people from Africa to the United States, during which women were sexually assaulted and the bodies of the dead were thrown into the ocean. Although the spirit calls herself Aza, she speaks of having watched over Annis’s grandmother, Mama Aza, on her passage to the Americas. It is not clear to Annis exactly who Aza is, but she thinks that Aza must be the spiritual embodiment of one of her ancestors.
The next morning, as the convoy gets underway again, Annis recalls the tutor’s words again and cannot help but feel that she and the other enslaved people surrounding her have also embarked on a descent into hell. She silently speaks several lines from Dante to herself as they continue their march toward New Orleans.
Chapter 5 Summary: “City of Woe”
The group finally arrives in New Orleans. Although Annis sees groups of Black individuals who bear the physical scars and haunted eyes of enslavement, she also sees women, some of whom have light-skin like her, wearing bright headdresses and walking in twos and threes. These ladies, she soon realizes, are free. She and the other enslaved people are taken to a low building, untied, and locked in a windowless room. Aza appears in the darkness, and Annis asks her if she also followed her mother to this same spot. Aza replies in the affirmative and tells Annis that Sasha was sold “north and inland” (96). Aza had accompanied her daughter until her daughter stopped calling for her. Spirits, Aza explains, need to be summoned in order to appear.
One by one, the women are called out of the room and then returned. When it is Annis’s turn, she is taken before a group of men who comment on her appearance and general state of health. She is then led into a room where a doctor examines her, commenting on her slender waist and wide hips. He notices no scars from childbirth and remarks that she would probably sell best as a “fancy girl.” Back in the main room, she finds a marking that resembles a spear and wonders if her mother drew it as a hidden message left for Annis, should she ever find herself sold south. With Mama Aza’s ivory awl in hand, she carves her own drawing into the wall next to it: a bee.
Aza appears to her later and speaks in more detail about the difficulties that Mama Aza endured upon arriving in the United States. Aza tells Annis that she visited Mama Aza when she was giving birth to Annis’s mother. Now, Annis wonders if her mother or Mama Aza ever asked the spirit Aza to help them escape. Aza replies that they did not. Although this puzzles Annis, Aza claims that Mama Aza in particular always felt ill at ease and out of place in the United States. She tells Annis that Sasha stopped calling on her (the spirit Aza) on the night that her own Mama Aza died of illness. Aza claims that Sasha blamed the spirit Aza for not saving her descendent. Annis is not sure what to make of this information and wonders whether the spirit is telling the truth. The next day, Annis and the others are lined up in preparation for sale. The white man in charge reiterates what the doctor said: that Annis is to be a “fancy girl.” Aza appears, as does another apparition: a fearful, fiery spirit whom Aza identifies as the “witness” to all of their shared suffering.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Surrender”
Annis wakes to the crying of a woman and thinks of Aza, wondering why her mother never told her about this specific spirit. She also wonders whether Aza is trustworthy. The next morning, she and the rest of the women are dressed in clothes that bear the dirt and bloodstains of unknown people. They are fed and prepared for sale. Annis is instructed to speak only when spoken to. She gently probes her hair to make sure that Mama Aza’s ivory awl is still in its place. Men come and go all day, and when a “large-bellied” man stops in front of Annis and is told that she is to be a “fancy girl,” Annis contradicts the seller and identifies herself as a housemaid. She tells the man that she knows about plants, mushrooms, berries, and herbs. He leaves, and later, she is given no food. She assumes that this is a punishment for her refusal to accept the role of sexual servant and her willingness to speak out on her own behalf.
Finally, only Annis and Phyllis remain. Annis is lonely and recalls the time she spent with Safi. She remembers hunting for the mushrooms whose medicinal purposes her mother once taught her. Aza returns, and although Annis is glad to see her, she resents the spirit for being there in the place of her mother or Safi, both of whom she longs to see again. She is still not sure what to make of Aza and is not sure if she can be trusted. Aza speaks of other, mysterious spirits whose words are hard to decipher and whom she cannot entirely explain to Annis. She tells Annis that although she cannot reveal the reason why, Annis must allow herself to be sold to a particular woman who is small in stature and who will come to the market and inquire after Annis that day. Annis recoils and bristles at the thought of willingly allowing herself to be sold. She tells Aza that she does not trust her and asks if Aza also counseled her mother to surrender in this manner. Aza reveals that her mother did not follow her orders and has not called to her. When Annis asks if Aza left Sasha “to die,” Aza answers in the affirmative. Again remembering “The Italian’s” words, Annis tells Aza to leave.
As Aza promised, a small woman comes to the market and asks Annis if she is capable of doing housework. Although Annis initially refuses to answer, she is moved to do so when the seller speculates that what Annis is truly waiting for is a man. Contradicting him, she tells the woman that she can do housework. The woman then asks if she knows herbs, plants, and mushrooms. Annis answers in the affirmative, and the woman begins to haggle over her price.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
The narrative in this portion of the text focuses on Annis’s long march from North Carolina to the market for enslaved men and in women in New Orleans, where she is to be sold. Hellish imagery and references to Dante’s Inferno abound in these chapters, and they are meant to depict the extreme brutality of enslavement. They also engage with the history of the Great Dismal Swamp and the practice of Plaçage. These are two important pieces of African American history, and through their inclusion, Ward places her text within a distinct literary tradition even as she grounds her narrative within the pre-emancipation historical period. With Aza’s enigmatic appearances, the element of magical realism adds texture and nuance to what would otherwise be a straightforward narrative of enslavement, and accordingly, the presence and advice of spirits play an increasingly important role in Annis’s journey.
While on the forced march south, Annis and the other enslaved men and women with whom she travels come across a vast swamp, and Ward uses the minor character of Phyllis to provide essential information about the cultural and historical significance of the “Great Dismal Swamp,” the vast wetland that spans parts of North Carolina and Virgina and is known to be the home of numerous communities of formerly enslaved people who were able to make their way to freedom. This is a historically accurate detail that greatly enhances the veracity of Ward’s narrative, for such communities were well-known in the South during the years of its history of enslavement. Many of these groups provided refuge to recently escaped people, and their settlements often became stops on the Underground Railroad. The Great Dismal Swamp is thus a significant symbol not only of freedom, but also of the theme of Resilience and Agency Amidst Oppression and enslavement. Its presence within a text that is deeply invested in examining covert forms of agency reveals that as both a setting and a symbol the swamp itself will be vitally important to the resolution of the narrative. The role of the Great Dismal Swamp in this text also becomes an intertextual link to canonical narratives of enslavement such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, for the swamp was also the intended destination of both Sasha and Annis during their attempted escape, which took place in the years before they became separated.
Another important moment of engagement with African American history can be found in the novel’s representation of plaçage, the practice by which white men entered into common-law marriages with Black, Indigenous, or women of diverse racial backgrounds during the history of enslavement in French and Spanish colonies. Annis sees these women for herself during the days leading up to her sale, and their colorful clothes and easy freedom of movement hit her like a lightning bolt, for she understands that these women are truly free. The realization ignites a spark in her brain and introduces her to a new realm of possibility. Plaçage was a complex, fraught practice whose politics are still debated by historians today. Placées, as these women were known, were mostly free, had fewer social restrictions, and lived a life of greater agency than many of their Black peers. However, their relationships with white men (who were often enslavers) inevitably put them on an unequal footing, and there was certainly an element of coercive sex to some of these unions. They also were usually women with light skin, and contemporary analysts have come to interpret their relatively higher social standing as a subtler manifestation of white supremacy, for the relative freedom, stability, and financial security that placées experienced was only accessible because of the lightness of their skin. Their desirability had everything to do with their perceived proximity to a state of “whiteness.” Plaçage is thus a complex social phenomenon, but nonetheless, Ward does not shy away from engaging with it. Because these women signify a version of freedom to Annis, Ward creates a scenario in which the placées are meant to be seen as figures of agency. In spite of the fraught racial politics involved in this issue, Ward includes the placées as a significant element in her narrative in order to depict the myriad forms of agency that were available to Black women in the pre-emancipation South.
Annis’s time at the market for enslaved men and women and her eventual sale to the owners of a nearby sugar plantation are another key narrative focal point, and much of the action speaks to the theme of Sexual Assault as a Hazard of Enslavement. This issue becomes most noticeable when the traders have each of the enslaved women examined by a doctor who assesses the quality of their bodies in a dehumanizing manner reminiscent of the ways in which livestock would be evaluated. This connection is not lost on Annis, who has long since understood that enslavers always view Africans and African Americans in this way. Further suggestive language intensifies the underlying threat of imminent sexual assault when Annis is labeled “fancy” and the traders tell potential buyers that she is “ripe” (116) to bear her first child. In this moment, Annis understands that she is about to be sold into sexual slavery. Here, she once again shows Resilience and Agency Amidst Oppression when she speaks up on her own behalf and asserts that she is a housemaid. Her later decision to repeat this information to the woman who eventually purchases her reflects her determination to chart her own destiny amidst the realities of enslavement, and although Annis’s latest enslaver proves to be a cruel and inhumane individual, she does not purchase Annis expressly for the purpose of sex or forced childbearing. These scenes are designed to illustrate the brutality of slavery, and yet they also remain grounded in a focus on Annis’s strength of character, intelligence, and will. She is not passive, and she does not allow herself to be victimized. Instead, she is a fierce and instinctual advocate for her own well-being, and it is because of this set of qualities that she uses to keep herself relatively safe during her years of enslavement.
In order to create a quasi-mystical backdrop for the harsh realities of Annis’s situation, Ward uses the conventions of magical realism to unique effect, imbuing her realistic plot with magical, fantastical, and supernatural narrative elements. With the spirit Aza’s regular yet cryptic appearances, the author incorporates additional elements into the grounded, real-world narrative that forms the basis of the plot, utilizing mystical elements to emphasize Annis’s rich inner world and equally rich West African cultural heritage. While Aza’s appearances further the storyline in a way that would not be possible using only realistic elements, she and the other spirits who visit Annis are designed to serve as helpers who aid the enslaved woman in asserting her own agency and determining her best course of action for survival. In this section of the novel, Annis’s engagement with Aza takes on particular prominence, and the spirit’s tempestuous, hard-to-decipher guidance empowers Annis to learn how to make her own decisions.
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By Jesmyn Ward
