a system to abet runaways seems to have existed. Sam, the Underground Railroad station agent, calls this a “technicality,” but the fact of un-freedom signals something is amiss (92). Separated from her family and reduced to her value on the auction block, Ajarry ends up in the southern state of … The more sinister programs of the government are foreshadowed with an increasingly ominous tone. Cora runs to the men’s housing to alert Caesar, but he is still at the factory. After her rescue, Cora travels to another stop on the underground railroad and reaches Valentine farm in Indiana, a haven for free Blacks, runaway slaves, and members of the Black abolitionist movement. Free black people are supported by communities and have access to education, which would be unheard of in neighboring North Carolina and Georgia. Cora isn’t inherently a runner; she simply wants to find a place that can be home. There she works as an “actor” in three of the museum exhibits: one portraying life in “Darkest Africa” prior to captivity, one portraying life on a slave ship, and one portraying the life of a plantation slave. But is this “liberalism” really a good thing for people like Cora and Caesar? Meanwhile, Terrance Randall enlists the services of Ridgeway, a fearsome and notoriously brutal slave catcher whom Old Randall once dispatched to bring Mabel home. It is a small assertion of her power. Later in the novel, both Ajarry’s descendants, Mabel and Cora, become victims of rape. When they have recovered slightly from their journey, Sam then tells them about South Carolina society. Their time together ends before anything further develops, but readers and Cora both are left wondering what might have been. Mr. Anderson works on the eighth floor, so Bessie has been inside. First edition. Cora and Caesar walk through town to the Placement Office to get jobs, mulling over the news of this unfamiliar society and marveling at their newfound freedom. A young woman in hysterics attracts a crowd as she screams that her babies are getting taken away. When Caesar first asks Cora to flee to the north, she says no; this refusal is related to the experiences of Cora’s grandmother, Ajarry. Based on interviews with those directly … The farm belongs to John Valentine, a light-skinned black man who sometimes passes for white, and his … Finally, Cora has to get used to money. What drives a man to become a single-minded hunter of runaway slaves? Fletcher is a shopkeeper from Pennsylvania who works for the underground railroad in Georgia. After this attack, Ridgeway’s reputation is damaged. When Caesar convinces Cora to escape from Randall plantation in Georgia their lives are irrevocably changed. They reach no solution. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Whitehead, Colson. He eventually begins seeing another black woman in the town, and apologizes to Cora for doing so. The underground railroad brings Cora and Caesar to South Carolina, where a station agent named Sam meets them. Cora’s decision to start staring back at the museum’s white visitors empowers her because it means that she is no longer just an object to be stared at. She asks about women who had been moved out of the dormitory for treatment for mental disorders. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “Harriet Tubman” by Ann Petry. Sam hides Cora on the railroad platform underneath his house. At the museum, she meets Mr. Fields, the curator of Living History, who introduces her to her new work. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. This detailed study guide includes chapter summaries and analysis, important themes, significant quotes, and more - everything you need to ace your essay or test on Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad! Although to Cora and Caesar that they have escaped the plantation, the text constantly leaves reminders that they will be proven wrong. At the end of their conversation, Cora overhears Miss Lucy talking about a slave catcher who has come to the dormitories looking for a murderer. Cora and Caesar run away from the plantation, and Cora kills a white boy who tries to capture her. Bessie tells Miss Lucy she will stay in the dormitory that night, even though some of the girls were going out to the saloon. Sam is a station agent who owns a saloon in South Carolina. On her way out, she overhears another proctor ask Miss Lucy for records. On Whiteheadâs The Underground Railroad. The only event to mar the pleasant night happens after the social, as Cora walks back to her dormitories. Chapter 4: Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry. After twilight, it is safe to walk to Sam’s. On Friday, Bessie takes the children to the park, does the shopping for dinner, and when Ms. Anderson comes home, says goodbye to the family for the weekend. Removing #book# Cora and Caesar are horrified, and three debate how they can alert the town to these schemes. This chapter also provides a context in which Cora and Caesar navigate the terms of intimacy between them. Cora is reluctant to leave the Andersons, as she has grown fond of the children, but she accepts. The book is largely narrated from her perspective, as she escapes her life as a slave on a Georgia plantation and makes... Why do you think people were willing to risk their lives to work on the Underground Railroad? In the museum narrative, slaves are rescued from “Darkest Africa” to become co-laborers with white sailors aboard slave ships. He conveys Cora and Caesar on the first leg of their journey to freedom. Tap to unmute. Taking some food and a candle, she waits underground, contemplating a prayer until she falls asleep. First, the novel depicts how slavery is a particularly gendered experience for his characters, especially through the phenomenon of sexual violence. After waiting in the dark, Cora realizes that on the other side of the door Sam’s house is on fire. A few weeks later, Mr. Fields gives Cora and the other two museum workers a tour of the exhibits. She asks Miss Lucy, her dormitory proctor, about the incident, and Miss Lucy lies that the woman temporarily lost touch with reality. Sam sends word that he wants to meet with Cora and Caesar. The Underground Railroad. Before she heads to his home, Cora sneaks up to the roof of the Griffin Building, relishing the height and the chance to reflect. Miss Lucy responds, telling the other proctor that she’s looked through the records, but they don’t have to drop everything for a slave catcher, and they don’t harbor murderers. In the end, the most egregious aspects of the South Carolina system are the coercive program of birth control for black women, as well as a medical study of black men with syphilis that operates without their consent, simply letting them grow sicker and observing the effects of the disease. They also secretly collect blood samples to determine people’s origins in Africa, hoping to eradicate certain races of African descent so that the African Americans who remain will be more easily controlled by a white-dominated government. In this regard, she is like both her grandmother (who could never dream of escape once she settled in the Randall plantation) and her mother (whose homebound instincts become clear in Chapter 11). When they arrive in America, they live just like independent farmers live. Cora eventually begins staring back at the visitors, picking one person each hour to “evil-eye” until they become uncomfortable and stop watching her. The mood of Chapter 4 begins as peaceful and idyllic. When Cora sees a woman in the street yelling, “They’re taking my babies!”, she is confused at first because she can’t see the kind of violence the woman is describing. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Arnold Ridgeway, the slave catcher who dedicates himself to finding Cora, has been a slave catcher since age 14. This parallelism continues to foreshadow the violence lurking beneath the surface in South Carolina. He is captured and presumably killed, although his exact fate is … He examines her whipping scars and the effects of her sexual assault; finally, he draws blood from her arm. CliffsNotes study guides are written by real teachers and professors, so no matter what you're studying, CliffsNotes can ease your homework headaches and help you score high on exams. When a young woman is poisoned on a London subway They agree to hold on to the security of their life in South Carolina, and enjoy the music and dancing for the rest of the night. Sam provides forged papers that identify them as free people. bookmarked pages associated with this title. To protect their identities, their names are changed: Cora becomes Bessie Carpenter, and Caesar becomes Christian Markson. Ridgeway chose him as his role model, in part simply because his father despised him. She escaped from her owners in Maryland on the Underground To protect their identities, their names are changed: Cora becomes Bessie Carpenter, and Caesar becomes Christian Markson. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. This is just one of many experiments, Betram told Sam: the goal of these experiments, and of the forced sterilization program, is to keep the black population of the United States under control. This episode also harkens back to the plantation: just as the South Carolina social ends with this woman’s distress, so too the joyful dancing on Jockey’s birthday was overshadowed by a violent spectacle. Cora realizes the woman screaming about losing her babies after the social was not responding to the memories of the plantation, but to the current system. (Note, too, that no white people serve as actors in the museum: The white sailor in the slave ship exhibit is a dummy.) on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcherRidgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and Cora's fellow slave Caesar. Directed by Graham Evans. Copy link. The exhibits, as well as a new hospital for the government doctor, are both part of the town’s efforts towards progress. Readers get to know the dormitory through Bessie’s eyes as she says hello to other residents, eats the communal supper of roast chicken with carrots and potatoes, and greets Miss Lucy, the white proctor. This was her grandmother talking. Rothstein, Talia. I prefer the American spirit, the one that called us from the Old World to the New, to conquer and build and civilize. Harriet Tubman Summary. The Underground Railroad essays are academic essays for citation. Cora and Caesar reach Mr. Fletcher’s farmhouse. If playback … Born a slave, Harriet Tubman was determined not to remain one. Are you sure you want to remove #bookConfirmation# Certainly, it has its benefits, and Cora’s life in South Carolina is far better than her life in Georgia had been. They meet at the social and chastely discuss their lives, but Caesar also brings flowers for Cora. Next she runs to the saloon to find Sam. The chapter returns in time to the moment when Cora and Caesar emerge from the Underground Railroad to their new lives as Bessie Carpenter and Christian Markson. South Carolina brings many new experiences. It has a bank on the first floor and insurance agents, government offices, export firms, and law firms on the floors above. from your Reading List will also remove any Share. By the standards of the surrounding states, South Carolina is a very liberal state in its treatment of African Americans, which is why Sam tells Cora and Caesar that they may like South Carolina so much that they will want to stay. This makes Cora realize she has been angry at her mother ever since Mabel left her behind as a young girl. Cora is brought to North Carolina by a teenage engineer on the underground railroad. She walks more quickly, though, through the less well-off sections of white residents. The brutality of slavery is excluded from this narrative, easing the consciences of white people who want to think of themselves as moral people without the inconvenience of objecting to slavery. To lift up the lesser races. South Carolina liberalism improves the reputation of slavery nationwide, which means that it helps to perpetuate the system of slavery. During a medical exam, a doctor named Aloysius Stevens tries to persuade Cora to be sterilized. "The Underground Railroad Chapter 4: South Carolina Summary and Analysis". The small family settled into a quiet routine. The two trade gossip and discuss the possibility of taking the next train on the Underground Railroad out of South Carolina. The Underground Railroad is a network of actual locomotives that runs underground and conveys fugitive slaves to various destinations. And if not... How was Cora's identity portrayed throughout the book? Watch later. It will soon become clear, however, that the South Carolina government is taking away black women’s children through forced sterilization programs. Indeed, this first stop on the Underground Railroad for Cora illustrates an alternative but no less oppressive system of racial subjugation. She walks down the lively Main Street on the way to her dormitories, taking special note of the impressive Griffin Building. Set on revenge, he tracks Cora to Indiana … They capture Caesar in South Carolina and Cora in North Carolina. The Griffin Building is the tallest building in the South, and one of the tallest in the nation. Cora acts in three exhibits with two other young women: in “Scenes from Darkest Africa,” as a captured slave on “Life on the Slave Ship,” and in the familiar role of a plantation slave in “Typical Day on the Plantation.” The exhibits are fine work in general, except for rude museum visitors. Analysis. He helps to arrange Cora and Caesar’s new identities and placement in the dormitories. Once there, Sam tells her and Caesar there is another train coming. And destroy that what needs to be destroyed. Summary. At her job in the museum, Cora begins to give the evil eye to one patron a day, engaging a victim of her choice in a staring contest until they retreat. She goes to warn Sam, who tells Cora that Ridgeway is after her and hides her down on the underground railroad platform. 4. Whitehead places these programs in South Carolina in the nineteenth century to create a jarring effect, confronting readers with a chilling synthesis of some of the totality of American racist history. This system is an example of the fantastical or speculative qualities of The Underground Railroad, reminding readers that it is not a work of historical fiction. The underground railroad brings Cora and Caesar to South Carolina, where a station agent named Sam meets them. But her dislike of running puts her in danger here, as it will again in future chapters. She runs to Sam’s house through the woods to wait for him to find Caesar. Cora reflects on how the ghosts of the plantation haunt them all. These are two examples of institutionalized racism that did, in fact, occur in the United States. Cora is transferred from her job with the Andersons to a job at the Museum of Natural Wonders. Summary “Chapter 4: The Great Spirit” delves into one character’s backstory in a shorter, more singularly focused episode. First, liberalism turns out to be a way of disguising more subtle kinds of racial violence. On Friday, Bessie takes the children to the park, does the shopping for dinner, and when Ms. Anderson comes home, says goodbye to the family for the weekend. Once she has been given a place to belong—however imperfect that place may be—Cora’s instinct is to stay. He is kind and dedicated to his work for the underground railroad, although he possesses a faith in the racial progressiveness of South Carolina that turns out to be fatally naïve. Cora's grandmother had never seen the ocean before that bright afternoon in the port of Ouidah and the water dazzled after her time in the fort's dungeon. Cora reflects on the inaccuracies of the slave exhibits; the world is so much more brutal than they depict. These initial scenes are a departure from the previous chapters of the novel, and suggest Cora has found a good place to be. Caesar tries to kiss Cora, and she declines, but is uncertain about her feelings towards him. The state government is in the process of buying up slaves, he told them, who can live their lives as free men and women, working jobs and raising families. Cora starts asking her proctor questions about a group of women who have disappeared from the dormitories. That evening, Cora goes to visit Miss Lucy. Members of the slave ship crew rape Ajarry, only a young girl at that point. First, black people may live as if they are free in South Carolina, but their actions and ways of life are carefully controlled and monitored by a paternalistic state. GradeSaver, 14 April 2019 Web. When Ethel met Martin, she wasn’t very interested in him, or in any man, for that matter. Despite the problems with South Carolina, however, Cora has no desire to leave until she is finally chased out. Miss Lucy corrects Bessie’s grammar and asks to speak with her before work on Monday morning, assuring her nothing was wrong and bidding her good night. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. White people have stolen so much. Title: Ann Fights for Freedom Author: Nikki Shannon Smith Reading Level: Third, South Carolina “liberalism” makes slavery look kinder than it is. Although Caesar and Cora discuss leaving South Carolina and going farther north, they start to get comfortable and allow three underground railroad trains to come and go without boarding them. Ideas about eugenics and racially informed population control plans led to forced sterilization programs on Native American, Mexican American, and African American women, among others. Fletcher feeds them and then drives them to the underground railroad station in his cart, hiding them beneath a blanket. Lumbly, the station agent, takes them underground to an actual railroad, where he loads them into a boxcar and sends them to South Carolina. Cora and two other women take turns in each of the displays, mimicking daily tasks as a steady stream of white museum visitors watches them. Soon afterward, Sam warns Cora and Caesar that a drunk doctor at his saloon confessed to being part of a plot to sterilize large numbers of colored men and women so that their freedom will not pose a threat to white society. She suspects that they have been sterilized and then sent away; this, she realizes, is what the screaming woman had meant by “taking away my babies.” Miss Lucy tries to convince Cora that she should encourage other dormitory women to be sterilized. • Reprint of a significant primary source on the Underground Railroad• Colorful information and anecdotes from the participantsOriginally published in 1883 and long out of print, this remarkable volume examines the Underground Railroad as it operated in southeastern Pennsylvania. The day after she learns about the town’s sinister schemes, one of the Anderson children, Maisie, comes to visit the museum. The unrealistic exhibits in the museum create a false narrative about slave life. Guessing that the murderer in question might be her, Cora seeks out Sam, who confirms that Ridgeway has discovered Cora and Caesar’s location and is looking for them. The Underground Railroad study guide contains a biography of Colson Whitehead, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. There is also the fundamental reality that black people are still slaves, owned by the South Carolina state government.
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