77 pages • 2 hours read
James McBrideSong Yet Sung
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A 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 7-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “everything in fives”
Using the flint that was in the bag left by the Woolman, Liz struggles to start a fire, then roasts the muskrats that were also in the bag. After eating, she bathes in the river and puts on the worn jacket and shoes from the bag. Liz walks to a road and hides herself, waiting for a ride.
Hours pass and Liz considers drowning herself in the river, but each time something in the woods distracts her: “She had the strangest feeling ever since leaving Patty Cannon’s attic, a kind of awareness that seemed to lay new discoveries at her feet at the oddest moments” (78). Her head hurts, but not with the pain of her injury. She finds that she can accurately predict the actions of animals, which distracts her from thoughts of suicide.
Liz realizes that these discoveries are diverting her attention away from the idea that had been foremost in her mind for years—that she hates white men. Before he died, she had once told Uncle Hewitt that white men were inherently evil. Uncle Hewitt had tried to convince her not to keep that hate in her heart but to leave everything in the hands of God since chance is “an instrument of God” (80). Remembering his words, Liz realizes that this was part of the same code that the old Woman with No Name had told her.
Liz moves to the road and sees a 17-year-old boy driving a wagon in an obvious hurry. She steps out and he stops. Thinking of the code, Liz draws a crooked line in the dirt. The boy eventually gives her directions to a spot with a hollow tree down the creek. He says that his uncle will come find her in the tree.
After walking for hours, Liz settles in tree hollow. Many hours later, a man arrives and questions Liz to determine whether she truly is the Dreamer. When he tells her that they are on Kathleen Sullivan’s land, in Dorchester County, Liz realizes with exasperation that after six weeks of running she is still in the same county where she started.
There is a way to escape, but Liz refuses to “get on the gospel train” (86). The man tells her that she must go to the north, to spread her word of the future. Liz responds that there is no freedom up north, and that her dreams have shown her that black people cannot be free even when they are not slaves. She also explains that something has happened to her—that she feels that all of her surroundings are trying to speak to her.
All of this is indecipherable to the man. Handing her food and clothing, he tells Liz to stay put until he or his nephew return with more provisions. He promises that no one else comes there because they are in an old Indian burial ground.
The man sees Liz’s rope with five knots tied in it that she says came from a man in the woods. Liz asks about other parts of the code that she does not understand. The man answers that if anyone comes by to look whether his left trouser leg is rolled up. Warning her not to turn in his nephew if she is caught, the man leaves.
Chapter 8 Summary: “the sign”
Patty Cannon is furious about having to shoot Big Linus and the financial bind she is in after having lost fourteen slaves. Joe Johnson regrets doing business with his mother-in-law; Patty took over his tavern was after his wife died, and now he is also helping her capture slaves and sell them down south.
Eb posts a sign outside the courthouse in Cambridge City, twenty-five miles from Johnson’s Crossing. The sign advertises a meeting at Patty’s tavern for slaves and freemen to join a “Free African Party,” which will organize emigration to Africa. It is a ruse to lure black people so Patty can sell them.
When the owner of the general store claims that the saddle and boots that Patty wants to buy on credit are spoken for, Patty explodes: “Anger swirled behind her pinched mouth. The pretty black eyes roared fury. She was a hurricane” (95). The merchant fearfully backs down and tells his assistant to put the items in Patty’s wagon. Joe is afraid that Patty will shoot the man.
After Patty storms out of the store, Joe smooths things over with the Jewish merchant. Outside, Joe warns Patty, “We got no friends here” (97)—they cannot cause trouble in the city. Patty replies that there is a lead there on the runaways—a boy caught in a muskrat trap saw a doctor there, saying that a pretty girl with a wound on her face helped him. Deputies chased the father of the boy, a huge filthy slave, towards Blackwater Creek after he brought the boy into town.
Patty will ride to Blackwater Creek with Odgin, while Joe stays in Cambridge with Stanton and Eb—Patty does not trust Stanton, who she fears may catch the runaway girl and take her to Spocott. Patty has heard that Spocott has hired the Gimp, which alarms Joe. Before leaving, Patty instructs Joe to ride to Big Linus’s owner Gables for information about where the runaway slaves might head.
As Joe and Stanton head to a bar, they pass Clarence, the deliveryman from the general store. He has his left pant leg rolled up.
Chapter 9 Summary: “eighty miles”
Kathleen Sullivan lives on Blackwater Creek, at the remote end of Joya’s Neck. Her husband and a slave named Nate went missing while oystering and have been gone for six months. Kathleen is trying to keep things together on her farm with her young sons and a few remaining slaves: Mary, Boyd’s wife; Wiley, Boyd’s teenage son; and Amber, Mary’s brother.
Amber has been acting suspiciously for a few days, which is uncommon. Kathleen feels that she and her slaves are like family: “She believed that they, like her, understood that their collective survival made them dependent on each other, and that made her feel safe” (103). Now, Amber seems distracted.
Kathleen has been troubled for some time regarding the issue of slavery. She believes that black people are naturally inferior to whites, but she has come to think that slavery is problematic. Slave uprisings seem to be more and more common and the slave owners she sees in Cambridge City are worried about safety. Kathleen’s father had urged her to sell her farm and slaves, saying that with Pennsylvania only eighty miles away, no slave could be content there. The increasing tension seems inevitable: “Reading the newspaper these past six months had given her the clear notion that the eastern shore was a sieve for runaway slaves, a sponge for freedom seekers […] And her slaves, she knew, could not be that oblivious” (105).
News of the escaped slaves, including a female murderer, further worries Kathleen. Escaped slaves fleeing north from the west would have to cross her land. Amber and Mary have sworn to protect her, but she has doubts.
Jeff Boy, Kathleen’s oldest son, asks her if Amber can help him with corn planting. Kathleen finds Amber working in the tobacco house and speaks to him privately, asking him questions she feels are a test to see if he is thinking about escape. Finally, she asks him point-blank if he is thinking of running off. After a moment, Amber replies that his sister and nephew need him. He says that he would prefer to buy his freedom.
After Amber catches up with Jeff Boy, Kathleen softens at the genuine affection between her son and Amber: “She decided that she had placed too much thought on nothing” (112) but she still cannot completely shake her worry.
Chapter 10 Summary: “the woolman declares war”
The Woolman is watching Kathleen’s farm from a hiding place in the woods. He is so well-practiced at remaining concealed that even an experienced hunter would not be able to see him. The Woolman learned to wait and watch patiently when he was a tiny boy living with his mother in the swamp. Patience means survival. He accepts life as it comes—for example, the death of the woman he found in the swamp, who later bore him a son.
Lately people have been encroaching on the swamp, upending the Woolman’s quiet life: “The Land that was always so silent, so giving, so free, so full of destiny, dignity, gaiety, and life for all living creatures who inhabited it, had come alive with a new kind of noise” (117). Worst of all, his son was taken from him by white men when the Woolman sought help for his son’s worsening leg wound, remembering that his woman had said that white men had medicine for sickness.
Everything had gone wrong when he laid his boy on the ground in the large village. The white men were afraid and chased him, blind hatred in their eyes. The Woolman managed to make it back to his swamp, but his son is a prisoner. Now he intends to take a white man’s son, with the hope of exchanging him for his own boy. At night, the Woolman digs a trench near the edge of the woods and conceals himself in it.
Amber is troubled by Miss Kathleen’s questioning, but even more so by his contact with the Dreamer. Her dreams indicate that she has some purpose, so Amber agrees to harbor her. This complicates Amber’s years-long plan to take the “gospel train,” the path to freedom run by a woman called Moses. Amber had been waiting until Wiley was old enough to run, then was further delayed when Wiley’s father disappeared with Massa Boyd. Now he and Wiley are ready. The allure of the Dreamer, however, has taken a powerful hold over Amber: “It was not her beauty that drew him; it was her thoughts, her convictions, her dreams, her sense of understanding about tomorrow, her curiosity. She was, in a word, magical” (126).
Jeff Boy breaks into Amber’s reverie by shouting that the dog has found something. Patty Cannon and her men ride up to the cabin, and Kathleen greets them. Patty says rudely that they are looking for escaped slaves and demands to speak to Amber, who fearfully realizes who she is. Kathleen goes into the cabin and returns with a shotgun. She tells Patty and her men to leave, which they do after Patty again speaks rudely to Kathleen.
Kathleen is worried that they will return and try to take her slaves, so Amber offers to go to town for help. The constable is worthless, but perhaps some of her husband’s watermen friends could get a message to Kathleen’s father.
Amber sees the dog barking at the woods again, where the huge form of the Woolman emerges from the ground. The Woolman pets the dog, quieting him, then turns and runs. Amber is unsure of what he saw, since he had thought the Woolman was a legend. Deciding not to say anything, Amber takes the bungy and heads down the river towards Cambridge City, though he intends to see Liz first.
Chapter 11 Summary: “the blacksmith”
Denwood arrives in Cambridge City and hears the sound of the blacksmith’s hammer ringing on his anvil in a deliberate pattern. Following the sound, Denwood finds the blacksmith in his shop, but the blacksmith nervously denies signaling anyone. Denwood snaps, “You working on the gospel train, ain’t ya” (139).
Closing the door, the blacksmith recognizes Denwood as the Gimp, and comments that black people had celebrated his retirement. Denwood is looking for the Dreamer, and the blacksmith tells him that Patty Cannon’s men are looking for Denwood.
Denwood realizes that this blacksmith is an influential freeman in the community. He questions the blacksmith about Liz’s whereabouts, but the blacksmith refuses to answer, instead saying that if Denwood threatens him, his wife and children will immediately be taken North by the village network—something the network will know by his hammering, which signals whether all is well or there is trouble. Denwood assures the blacksmith that there are reasons he should speak up.
The blacksmith remains reluctant about helping Denwood who is probably only concerned about money, but Denwood talks about the son he lost, the wife who left him, and how he wishes he could see his son one more time, even if it was on the auction block.
The blacksmith finally agrees to tell him that Liz is on Joya’s Neck, in an old Indian burial ground. He refuses to say who is helping her. Denwood says that he needs to know, in case Liz runs before he can get there. He promises he will not threaten the person helping her. After much reluctance, the blacksmith names Amber and explains the Sullivan family’s situation. Denwood promises again not to make trouble for Amber.
At the local bar, Denwood finds Joe Johnson with Stanton and Eb. After trading some veiled insults, Denwood says that he only wants the Spocott girl, promising to leave any other escaped slaves he finds alone.
When Denwood offers Joe a drink, Joe flatly refuses because of “Lloyd’s Landing.” Denwood is surprised Joe is still upset by something that happened five years ago. Joe cannot make a deal without Patty. After more verbal sparring, Joe goes too far by mentioning Denwood’s son and the six-legged dog. Joe apologizes repeatedly and Denwood leaves.
Stanton realizes how dangerous Denwood is by the look in his eyes. Stanton has heard of the Gimp and does not like that he is involved.
Chapters 7-11 Analysis
An overriding theme in these chapters is the idea of obligation, duty, and responsibility to others. Liz, who grew up isolated on the Spocott plantation with a hatred of white men, is initially driven to run by her master’s sexual violation. However, as she contemplates suicide, she is motivated to stay alive by seemingly external forces that prompt her to consider what she owes to the future and to her destiny. It is her duty to live so that she can fulfill her purpose.
For others, obligation trumps personal safety. When Wiley meets Liz on the road, the young man helps her despite the clear danger of abetting a runaway. Liz realizes that the code the Woman with No Name shared with her is the universal language of slaves. When she asks how she will know Wiley’s uncle when she sees him, Wiley replies, “He’ll be singing a song with no words. It ain’t the song, sister, it’s the singer of it” (83). Liz understands more fully how that the code isn’t just a set of instructions it’s also a method of prompting those who follow it to fulfill their obligation to others.
Despite his long-term plan to run, Amber’s sense of duty to his family has repeatedly delayed his leaving. Although it seems imperative that he go soon, as his owner suspects his intentions, meeting Liz has again triggered his sense of responsibility to others. His resolve to run melts and Liz’s mystical allure overwhelms him. Amber has rejected notions of love and marriage, as he has seen how painful the lives of married slaves can be, but Liz is unlike any woman he has ever met.
The Woolman is a highly atypical escaped slave. His mother escaped to the swamp with him when he was a very young child, so the Woolman has grown up completely separate from the world. He thus feels only a sense of obligation to his son, to memories of his woman, and to the swamp. It is interesting that despite this, he has come to live by tenets that are remarkably similar to parts of the slaves’ code: “All matters in life, he was certain, were already decided. There was nothing to do but accept” (117), which echoes the code fragment, “Chance is an instrument of God.”
Whites are not immune to the pull of obligation and duty. The weak-willed Joe Johnson did not intend to become a slave catcher and stealer, but he found himself overwhelmed by the strong personality of his mother-in-law, particularly after his wife’s death. Pulled between his ties to Patty and his sense of decency, Joe works behind the scenes to ameliorate Patty’s harsh behavior whenever he can—for example, convincing her to bring little Eb indoors rather than chaining the boy up in her backyard.
In her mind, Kathleen Sullivan is a different kind of slave owner than the large plantation owners. She likes to think of her slaves as part of her family. This belief allows Kathleen to depend on her slaves’ sense of obligation to her on top of the knowledge that she owns them—for example, she tries to guilt Amber into not running away. However, Kathleen’s beliefs are quickly exposed as shallow. For her, the problem with slavery is that owners aren’t safe, not that it’s immoral to own human beings. “Kathleen grew up with slavery. She saw it as a necessary evil. Yet, the older she got, the more troubling it seemed” (103-04). Still, Kathleen does feel a sense of duty towards her slaves, especially now that she needs them more than ever with her husband missing and presumed dead. This sense of obligation affects her ability to give them orders, which worries her and makes her question whether she should own slaves. When Patty Cannon comes around and threatens Amber, Kathleen defends them as people rather than just property, in a bold move that further highlights her ambivalent connection to them.
The blacksmith’s sense of obligation is to his community. He has rejected anything white people have ever given him, including his name. Instead, the blacksmith has fashioned his own truth about who and what he is—someone with the ability to keep one’s family and community safe. The blacksmith strives to free slaves through his work on the gospel train to counteract the disempowerment slavery instills. Still, as a black man, he is vulnerable to the whims and actions of white men. When Denwood threatens the blacksmith’s wife and children, the blacksmith realizes that the system he has set up to protect his family, to get them to the North should anything happen to him, would ultimately be useless if Denwood really wanted to hurt them. Even the most influential and well-connected free man is at the mercy of his slavery-dominated environment.
The conversation between Denwood and the blacksmith highlights that relationships between blacks and whites are not always straightforward. Even though Denwood threatens the blacksmith in order to gain information, he respectfully treats the blacksmith as an equal, rather than speaking down to him as an inferior. The blacksmith admits that the fearsome Denwood is also unusually ethical: “Whatever you do for a livin’, you an honest man with a good heart” (147). Even Mingo, the slave that Denwood famously chased all the way to Canada and brought back to his owner, says that he would work for Denwood, who is not motivated by personal animus like Patty Cannon is.
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