Chapter Summaries, Discussion, Research, and Comprehension Question(s):
Part One
Chapter One:
pp. 13-15
During a rainstorm two people arrive at the City of Utica on foot via the Erie Canal towpath. Imari, a pregnant woman, decides to find the Galway house despite her son’s desire to follow the advice of their previous host and find a store with a candle burning in the window. Once inside a shed and safe from the storm, they relax only to be interrupted by a stranger.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What were the environmental conditions Imari and Joe encountered and what kind of dangers did they face?
What reason could Imari have for changing the plan, and why keep it from her son?
What is at stake for each of the characters in chapter one?
Chapter Two:
pp. 16-24
Newlywed Helen Galway starts her first day in the house where her husband had lived his whole life. She finds him convalescing with a freshly-broken leg. Augustin instructs her to change into a fancy dress to go shopping. She finds the cook, Maggie, unhappily fixing a room for a roguish interloper, Dr. McCooke, who is treating Mr. Galway’s injury. Helen notices a disturbance at the back-yard shed and goes out to check. She finds Imari and Joe.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What are the various choices Helen makes in this chapter, and what do they show about her position in the house?
What are your thoughts regarding Helen’s decision to leave the people in the shed alone?
How are the actions, the descriptions, and the responsibilities of Imari and Helen different?
Chapter Three:
pp. 25-33
Helen, following her husband’s instruction, goes shopping for food. She spots two men who appear to be slave catchers and wonders about the people in the shed. None of the merchants seem to know about her recent marriage to Augustin. She remembers how they met and how quickly the wedding was arranged.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Besides marriage, what kinds of options might a young woman have had for her adult life?
What rights did women have during this period?
What types of employment might she have pursued? (Possible research topic)
Chapter Four:
pp. 34-37
While lingering on a bridge over the Erie Canal, a young man flirts with her from atop a packet boat and ultimately falls into the water. Concerned that people will get the wrong impression of her, she runs towards home just as a new storm appears on the horizon.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
How did young people of European descent who were in high society meet each other and deal with courtship?
Were meetings and marriages the same for people in other cultures and income levels—including the cultures of the enslaved?
Vocabulary Connection:
scoundrel - a dishonest, unscrupulous person. What word would we use today to describe a scoundrel?
packet boat - Packet boats and ships were the backbone of water travel in the United States throughout the 18th century and well into the 19th century. Packets got their name from the boats used in Europe as far back as the 17th century to deliver mail (paquette) and to transport passengers. Resource.
Chapter Five:
pp. 38-41
Dr. McCooke and Augustin enjoy some brandy as the story of the broken leg is told. When Helen arrives at home, Dr. McCooke takes advantage of her.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why doesn’t Helen tell her husband about McCooke’s advance?
How does Dr. McCooke take advantage of Mr. Galway too?
Vocabulary Connection:
temperance - abstinence from alcohol. Where did the Temperance Movement come from? Who started it?
dullard - an uneducated or unintelligent person
Jeu d'amour means a love game, a game between lovers.
Chapter Six:
pp. 42-48
In the kitchen Maggie tries to instruct Helen about caring for Augustin’s needs. Augustin summons Maggie into the library and instructs her to help keep the horse ready for McCooke to use, she objects and convinces him to hire a young boy to help with chores. The two slave catchers arrive leaving behind a notice about a missing pregnant woman and her son. Helen sees the men and suspicious that Imari and Joe are on the run from slavery.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What legal rights, if any, do Imari and Joe have?
What rights do the slave catchers have?
What is similar and different about Maggie’s situation when compared to Imari and Joe’s situation?
Why doesn’t Helen confide in either Maggie or Augustin while she tries to make decisions about what to do with Imari and Joe?
As Helen learns about Maggie’s character, so do we as the reader. What can you tell about Maggie’s relationship to Augustin and the Galway family?
Vocabulary Connection:
pugilist- a professional boxer
Chapter Seven:
pp. 49-53
Pryce Anwell, the man who had fallen into the Erie Canal, tries and fails to find Helen. He consoles himself at a Victualing House, but quickly becomes an object of ridicule. Having lost his money in the canal, he finds himself under arrest for stealing. While being held in Utica’s Watch House, he writes to ask for help from the only person he knows in town, his father’s rival, Augustin Galway.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why do the patrons of the establishment make fun of Pryce?
Name a few differences between today’s criminal justice system and that of 1835’s.
Vocabulary Connection
victuals- food.
Chapter Eight:
pp. 54-68
Helen becomes uncomfortable with Dr. McCooke’s insistence on involving himself with her affairs. She waits in her room until dark to check and see if Imari and Joe are still in the shed and is upset when she finds them there. Helen relents and brings them some food. She finds her husband in pain and begging for opium. While with him, she discovers that the two are runaways and confronts them. Imari appeals to her, breaking through to her heart.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why did it take so long for Helen to figure out Imari and Joe’s real situation?
Why did Imari lie about it?
Chapter Nine:
pp. 69-76
Joe is angry at his mother for their situation, but finally falls asleep dreaming of the Potomac River and the plantation from which they ran. He wakes early and slips down to the center of town and has to make a daring escape from the slave catchers. He is taken in by a strange man.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
How does Joe’s semi-independent life at the plantation help him?
Why does he disobey his mother and leave the shed?
Chapter Ten:
pp. 77-83
Imari remembers the day that the plantation and its enslaved people were split up after the death of the patriarch and thinks about Sammy’s story. She remembers growing up with Elymas and the incident that led them to become a couple.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Contrast Imari’s and Elymas’s courtship from Helen’s and Augustin’s.
Both Imari and Helen have unwanted attention from men who are not their husbands. How does that compare to the #MeToo movement?
Chapter Eleven:
pp. 84-93
Horace Wilberforce, the fishmonger, comes to the Galway house and finds Maggie in the kitchen. Alarmed, Dr. McCooke drags Horace to Augustin expecting him to be disciplined. Instead Augustin talks to Horace about moving to Liberia. Maggie wonders if Helen might already be pregnant.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What is the purpose of the American Colonization Society? Did it succeed? How did African Americans feel about it?
Chapter Twelve:
pp. 94-96
Sheriff Osborn delivers a letter from Pryce to Augustin. The upcoming founding meeting of the New York Anti-slavery Society is discussed and Augustin, McCooke and Osborn oppose it.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why is organizing for the immediate end to slavery controversial?
How does the concept of abolition differ from the Colonization Society’s plan?
Chapter Thirteen:
pp. 97-101
The strange man who found Joe turns out to be a baker who follows Quaker teachings. He hides Joe from the slave catchers. Joe sneaks back to the Galway house only to be mistaken for a new helper that Maggie had requested from Horace. Joe is unable to return to the shed and his mother.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why did the Quaker hide Joe?
Were many Quakers involved in the Underground Railroad?
Did any Quakers ever enslave people?
Chapter Fourteen:
pp. 102-106
Dr. McCooke, flush with Augustin’s cash, heads to town. He sees Abolitionist Alvan Stewart in a confrontation with some rough men. The doctor pretends to not oppose abolition if it means gaining an influential friend.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why would Stewart be attacked?
What principle did the two rough men think they were defending?
Chapter Fifteen:
pp. 107-110
Helen, now helping Imari and Joe, tries to keep their existence secret from Maggie and Augustin. Unfortunately she sees Joe in the house helping with the chores. Worried that he will be recognized, she insists that Maggie shave his head. To distract Augustin, she indicates that she is pregnant, even though she is not certain.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What tools did doctors have to determine a woman’s pregnancy status?
Why might the news of the pregnancy have affected Augustin so strongly?
Was giving birth in the 1830’s more or less dangerous for women than doing so in our era? Why or why not?
Chapter Sixteen:
pp. 111-113
Horace is visited by the slave catchers and given two gold coins to keep an eye out for any runaways. He is threatened with harm if he doesn’t cooperate.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What were the consequences of getting caught helping people running from enslavement?
Would those consequences be different for Horace as compared with the baker, Sylvanus?
Chapter Seventeen:
pp. 114-121
Pryce Anwell is freed from the Watch House and goes to Augustin’s house to thank him. Instead he finds Helen and mistakes her for a worker in the house. McCooke arrives from town with a new supply of opium. The doctor announces an upcoming public viewing of Halley’s Comet and Augustin encourages Pryce to take Helen.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Aside from astronomers, what did comets signify to the public?
What was significant about Halley’s observations?
[Research note: the writer Mark Twain was born in 1835, the year Halley’s Comet appeared, and died 75 years later in 1910 when it was due to reappear.]
Chapter Eighteen:
pp. 122-131
Imari worries that Joe has not returned to the shed. She thinks about the brush with death they experienced when they first escaped the plantation. Helen goes in search of the man who Imari was told would help them. She finds the baker who had helped Joe and they make a plan.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
When did the term Underground Railroad come to be used?
What was this system for helping freedom-seekers like? Research and describe.
Chapter Nineteen:
pp. 132-135
Abolitionist Alvan Stewart comes to visit Augustin to see if he can reason with him about the upcoming Anti-Slavery Society meeting. They spar over the issues. Both refuse to change their views.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
The men discuss laws and who makes them. Is what they say about law-making still true today?
How can an unjust law be changed?
Chapter Twenty:
pp. 136-140
Helen returns to the house, happy with her accomplishment and is in giddy anticipation of the evening with Pryce viewing the comet. Pryce arrives and Augustin encourages Helen to take Maggie with them. Maggie, suspicious of the comet and of what has been going on in the shed refuses.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Without electricity, what kind of things did people of that era do for entertainment?
Chapter Twenty-One:
pp. 141-148
Helen and Pryce go to the park and get to know each other better. They meet Helen’s old teacher who looks disapprovingly at Pryce. Just as they seem to be getting romantic, Dr. McCooke arrives and pulls them apart.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Are Pryce and Helen betraying Augustin’s trust?
Just what would a man like McCooke do with this information?
Chapter Twenty-Two:
pp. 149-155
Joe, finally free from doing chores for Maggie, talks to his mother through the wall of the shed. He watches Maggie and is horrified when he sees her head towards the shed with a loaded musket. He intercepts her, but in doing so, he causes her to accidentally fire the weapon, shooting Imari with buckshot. They move the wounded woman inside. Their secret is out.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
How does a musket work?
How is it different from a modern weapon?
Why would Maggie have had access to a firearm?
Chapter Twenty-Three:
pp. 156-163
Pryce, despondent over compromising Helen’s reputation, sits on the porch at his hotel and strikes up a conversation with Alvan Stewart. Soon the slave catchers arrive and Stewart and Pryce narrowly avoid a confrontation. Stewart proposes that Pryce work for him. Horace, feeling guilty about the gold coins he got from the slave catchers, goes to Post Street. He discovers that the slave catchers are planning to go to Maggie’s house. He leaves to warn her.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What was the greatest objection to immediate abolition?
How did people think that the slaveholders in the South would react? Did their fear prove true?
Chapter Twenty-Four:
pp. 164-182
Helen returns home to discover that the shed has been disturbed, Imari and Joe are missing. She finds Maggie ministering medical aid to Imari. The slave catchers arrive and Helen diverts them from the back of the house. Maggie and others hide Imari and Joe. Augustin wakes up and the slave catchers get permission to look around. They find no one and leave. Back at their rooms, the slave catchers receive notice that Imari’s husband, Elymas, has escaped.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What would have happened to Imari and Joe if they were caught?
In the free state of New York, what rights did escaped slaves have at this time?
Part Two
Chapter Twenty-Five:
pp. 185-190
The Galway house is divided after the night with the slave catchers. Imari is healing from her wounds and talking to Maggie. Helen, who has been self-isolating, is summoned before Augustin. He appears ill, and as Helen goes to check on him, she collapses. The doctor attempts to look at her, but she fights him until he slaps her hard, knocking her senseless. He scoops her up to examine her alone.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Healthcare often differed between the rich and the poor, between Blacks and Whites.
What are the differences between the way Imari and Helen are treated? What is similar?
Chapter Twenty-Six:
pp. 191-197
The slave catchers harass and threaten Horace at his fish stand. Maggie arrives to see that his entire catch is ruined. Alvan Stewart is unable to write his speech for the upcoming Anti-Slavery meeting. When Pryce arrives at the office they decide to visit Augustin to discuss the Colonizationists’ plan. Sylvanus and Maggie confer on Imari and Joe’s situation.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
If there had been no anti-slavery organizations or free discussion about ending slavery, what would have changed?
Why would abolitionists, a tiny segment of Utica’s society, go forward if their message was so unpopular?
Chapter Twenty-Seven:
pp. 198-206
McCooke, suffering from hallucinations, examines Helen. Maggie, Alvan Stewart and Pryce converge on the house and find Augustin prone on the floor. Maggie tells Augustin how amiss the doctor’s methods were and he orders McCooke from the house.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What was the Gradual Emancipation act of 1799 and how did it free New York State’s enslaved population?
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
pp. 207-214
Stewart and Pryce discuss the upcoming convention and agree that Pryce will speak at a gathering of the opposition that night. The Colonization Society meeting is packed and despite his fear, Pryce speaks but without changing any opinions. The two are driven from the hall.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why did Stewart insist that they go to the meeting even though he knew that their views would not be accepted?
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
pp. 215-224
As Imari recovers from the birdshot, she and Maggie talk about life before the escape. Maggie thinks about the baby that was sold away from her heart. She continues to keep her secret.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
This revelation was the dream of a lifetime for Maggie, so why not inform Imari right there and then?
Chapter Thirty:
pp. 225-234
A carriage carrying abolitionists Louis Tappan, David Ruggles and James W. Higgins has an additional passenger, newly freed Elymas. He thinks about the last few months and the day he was captured.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Elymas and Imari trusted the man with the long face who had betrayed them. Why did that man deceive them?
What role did people like him play in the Underground Railroad?
How does his role compare with the character of FBI informant William O’Neal in the film Judas and the Black Messiah?
Chapter Thirty-One:
pp. 235-238
Imari tells Maggie that she was sexually abused on the plantation. It is revealed that Joe was also abused by the man who owned them.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Most of the people who ran from slavery were younger men. Why might women who were being abused, and who were in danger of having family members, friends, or themselves sold away, not leave at the same rate?
Chapter Thirty-Two:
pp. 239-247
Helen, still recovering from McCooke’s “treatment,” is alone in her bedroom. She discovers that Pryce is outside and allows him to climb up the tree and into her room. They kiss passionately. But Helen is troubled and sends him away. Too restless for sleep, Helen discovers that Imari is giving birth. She checks on Augustin and he confesses an old sin.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
In that era, what might have happened to a woman who cheated on her husband or ran away?
Chapter Thirty-Three:
pp. 248-252
Stewart, anxious about a lot of things, is waiting for Pryce to come to the office. Suddenly there is a hint of smoke in the air and Pryce sees that there is a rush toward Bagg’s Hotel. Horace’s shack burns down, leaving him with nothing. Pryce, who tried and failed to save some of Horace’s belongings, gets a chill thinking that violence might come to the next day’s abolition meeting.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
With so many buildings built of wood, what kind of fire-prevention would a city like Utica have had?
What subtextual message was behind the burning of Horace’s shack?
Chapter Thirty-Four:
pp. 253-259
Elymas leaves his rooming house to find the Galway home. He walks the quiet streets of Utica thinking of Imari and how much she means to him. After finding the house, he hears his wife’s pained calls and finds her at the moment of giving birth. Maggie shows the couple a fine baby girl, dark-skinned enough to be Elymas’s child. Dr. McCooke, who had been lurking around the property hoping to expose the runaways for the reward money, sees them all together, appears touched, but goes to find the slave catchers.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Who would you most trust to deliver a baby? Dr. McCooke with his 19th Century understanding of medicine, or Maggie with experience in previous births? Why?
Chapter Thirty-Five:
pp. 260-262
After the fire, Horace follows Sylvanus to his bakery and tries to sleep. He ruminates over the hopelessness of his situation and wonders what it would be like to have the reward money for himself.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
would the value of $150 dollars in 1835 be equivalent to, today?
If society and the law treat you unfairly, is it right to get ahead by any means necessary, even exposing friends to arrest and danger?
Chapter Thirty-Six:
pp. 263-271
Sunup on the day of the abolition meeting, and people are preparing. Pryce and Stewart open up the church. McCooke walks by and Stewart prevents Pryce from assaulting him. McCooke goes to the slave catcher’s hotel. Maggie spars with a pained Augustin, finally giving him some opium. Nervous, Horace approaches the house and does some chores for Maggie. Imari wakes and is momentarily happy, but still nervous about the slave catchers. Sylvanus goes about his morning, but sees the slave catchers heading to the Galway house.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Is Pryce right to want to do violence to Dr. McCooke? What are his other options?
Chapter Thirty-Seven:
pp. 272-277
Alvan Stewart looks over the assembled abolitionists and is pleased, but before the conference can really get started they are disrupted by a Committee of 25, composed of mostly the leaders of the city, followed by a mob who were excited by the controversy. A struggle occurs and the meeting is broken up with delegates facing violence in the streets for their beliefs.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Did the Committee of 25 have the right to break up the abolition meeting? Why or why not?
Chapter Thirty-Eight:
pp. 278- 287
Horace comes into the Galway house and is treated with loving kindness by Maggie. He abandons his plan to get the reward money. Before the two can enjoy their meal, the slave catchers and Dr. McCooke burst into the kitchen. Soon Elymas, Imari and the baby are in chains. Joe makes a narrow escape. The lead slaver gives McCooke the reward money as Horace watches. The family is brought before Augustin who is very ill, but after they are taken, he agrees to help them at court. Horace burning with anger, follows McCooke. He stabs the doctor and takes the reward.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
By what law did the slave catchers who were from Virginia have to arrest the family in New York State?
Chapter Thirty-Nine:
pp. 288- 297
Maggie gets Joe and Sylvanus to help her load Augustin into the cart and they proceed to the court. On the way, she sends Joe on a special mission. Helen catches up with the slavers as they force the family to march to court. She tries and fails to free them. Pryce leaves the Church after the riot and finds Helen. He goes in search of Alvan Stewart to help the family. Joe finds Horace meeting with a Black school master and gets Maggie’s plan put into action.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What can Augustin do to win back the family?
Do Maggie and Helen have any agency in this situation?
What does Helen do to try and gain sympathy for the family?
Chapter Forty:
pp. 298-308
Entering into the court are the slave catchers and their captives, Alvan Stewart with Maggie, Augustin, Helen, Pryce and Sylvanus. All are seated in front of Judge Chester Hayden, one of the leaders of the disruption at the abolition meeting. Hayden begins to hear both sides of the story and starts to make legally-binding decisions on the fate of the enslaved family. Augustin intervenes where he can to soften the blow. Maggie gets upset and is ordered out of the courtroom.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Why can’t Maggie testify as a white person would?
What provisions in the law does Hayden use to decide the baby’s fate?
Why is Imari singled out?
Chapter Forty-One:
pp. 309-312
Maggie comes out of the courtroom and finds Joe, Horace and the school master ready for action. They regroup and burst into the courtroom. Helen moves the baby towards the door as the fighting begins. During the shouting, Augustin collapses. The slaver tries to hang Imari, but is stopped by Elymas who pours decades of rage into the beating he delivers. Pryce helps Helen to a waiting wagon. Elymas and Joe load the limp body of Imari into the back. As they drive off a shot pierces the wagon cover and Elymas falls to the ground.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Black-organized rescues of accused runaways were occurring with frequency in Northern cities. What did those who tried to free people accused of being enslaved, risk?
Were those who the slave catchers accused always, actual enslaved people?
What would someone who was taken by slave catchers fear the most?
Chapter Forty-Two:
pp. 313-319
The next morning, Utica is abuzz with news of the abolition meeting, the rescue, and the deaths of both McCooke and Augustin. Maggie, exhausted by the previous day’s events, is asleep in her room. The abolition convention begins again in Peterboro, New York. Helen worries about Elymas and Imari, both alive, but terribly injured. She and Sylvanus drive back to Utica. She thinks deeply about her own prejudices. When she arrives back at the Galway house, she vows to tell the truth to her husband, but discovers that he is dead.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
What kind of preparations did a family do to the body of a deceased loved one?
How does that process differ today?
What impact might this abolitionist meeting have had on the people of Utica?
What prejudices does Helen uncover in herself?
How does her personal reflection influence her decision to confront her husband with the truth?
What value drives her decision?
Chapter Forty-Three:
pp. 320-325
Helen is dressed in formal mourning clothes and is subject to much speculation by the town. She retreats into Augustin’s library. Pryce confesses that he loves her. Stewart has been brought a copy of Augustin’s will and it is read. Augustin has been generous to both Helen and Maggie. She and Pryce agree that they would like to marry.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
How long would a young, childless widow be expected to mourn?
Could women own property in the United States in1835?
When did women get the right to own property? And, the right to vote?
Chapter Forty-Four:
pp. 326-329
A miniature painting of Augustin is dropped off at the house and Maggie and Helen agree that it should be hung next to the first Mrs. Galway. Hellen and Maggie finally get a letter from Imari. The family is recovering from the ordeal.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
How was Imari’s situation different from her family’s?
Does the murder charge change anything?
Chapter Forty-Five:
pp. 330-332
Maggie and Horace prepare to move with the family. Helen and Pryce plan to go west, but will leave the house unsold in case any of them want to come back. Alvan Stewart and Sylvanus come by to say good bye. Stewart will be in charge of distributing the estate to the three recipients, Helen, Maggie and Elymas.
Questions to consider in relation to this chapter:
Where are Imari, Joe, Elymas and the baby likely to settle? Why? Are they in any danger from slave catchers? How far did they have to travel for their freedom?