Copper Sun

“They stayed in the swamp until well after dark” (251). After they climb out of the muddy swamp, they walk in the rain to wash. At the edge of Savannah, they find an abandoned hunter’s shed to hide in and rest. A large woman in buckskin named Fiona O’Reilly finds them in the shed. Fiona agrees to help them, and so they follow her. They climb into the back of a wagon to hide, and Amari asks if Fiona keeps slaves as she sees slave quarters on the land. Her answer is “Of course, child. Everybody has slaves” (256). She leaves and sends her slave, “Buck,” to hitch the wagon up. Amari recognizes Buck’s face; it is Besa, from her village. Excitedly, she leaps to him, “but just as she reached him and was about to embrace him, he held his hand out and stopped her” (257). After looking closely at him, she sees that he is in bad shape, is missing an eye, and is badly scarred. He does not share her excitement in seeing her because his “spirit is dead…They beat it out of [him] with their whips, cut it out of [him] with their knives, shot it out of [him] with their guns” (258). Amari pleads with him to come with them towards freedom, but he “no longer [believes] in anything” (258). Once Fiona returns, Besa leaves and does not look back at Amari.

In order to hide her tears from Fiona, Amari says she is crying because her “kindness [makes her] much happy” (259). Fiona has brought them new clothes and some food. She asks where they’re headed and when she hears that they are heading south, she tells them she wouldn’t head there. Amari tries to explain to Fiona: “All we know be dead and gone…Only left be hopes and dreams” (261). Fiona agrees that “Hope and dreams are all any of us have” (261). She gives them the wagon and an old horse named Brownie to pull them. She gives Polly the advice to pretend to be a mistress and tell anyone who asks that Amari and Tidbit are her slaves. She blesses them with this wish: “May your feet bring you to where your heart is. Godspeed” (262).

“With the wagon they made remarkable time” (265). Polly and Amari share stories about their mothers, specifically what they miss the most about them. Amari is most impressed by her mother’s bravery and Polly reassures her that she is also brave. Tidbit chimes in about his own mother, and Polly and Amari agree that Amari is now Tidbit’s new mother. They also reflect on their relationships not just with each other, but with each other’s race. Amari says: “[she] never hate before [she] be a slave” (267).

The path they travel is relatively deserted until a Spanish soldier jumps out on the road and orders them to stop. While talking with him, they learn that he is alone and has been drinking. They ask him about what happens to runaways, and he says once they “cross El Rio del Santa Maria—the St. Mary’s River—[they] help them to St. Augustine [because] King Philip does not believe in slavery of any kind” (272). He lets them continue on and tells them to be careful.

Amari is excited by the news from the Spanish soldier, that Fort Mose is real.

“The next morning brought the sun” (277). Amari stumbles after a few steps because “she felt drained and shaky” (277). They find a pouch full of berries in their package from Fiona, and Amari gives it to Tidbit. They come across some wild apple trees, and they eat happily. They reach the river that evening. There are no visible alligators, but there are snapping turtles, and the river is too wide to swim across. Because they have “come too far to stop now,” they decide to try riding the horse (who will swim) across the river (278).

Much to their relief, the horse loves being in the water, and “Hushpuppy swam deftly beside them” (279). The three of them keep their eyes vigilantly on the water to look for gators. They make it to the other side of the river, and a gator comes up onto the beach. Thankfully, Polly runs up the shore fast enough and avoids getting attacked.