Jubilee

The Brown family’s wagon breaks down near Troy, Alabama—the county seat of Pike County. Innis Brown finds a blacksmith to fix it. A well-tailored white man comes along and asks the blacksmith if he knows of anyone who needs work. Brown steps forward. The man introduces himself as Jacobson and asks if Vyry would be willing to work as his wife’s cook. Jacobson offers $25 per month, a rent-free house, and no need to purchase food. He doesn’t make the Browns sign a contract. Mr. Jacobson owns a lot of land, several businesses in Troy, and a number of houses that he maintains for black people near the railroad tracks. Mrs. Jacobson is happy to have Vyry’s help and is nice to her.

After a week in Troy, Vyry decides that she doesn’t like the town, which she thinks is occupied by “low-class” black people who engage in “razor cutting and shooting and drinking” (405). On Saturday night, some white-sheeted men ride into town on horses and drag a black woman who lives alone out of her house. She’s wearing a night gown. They gallop away with her while she screams for help. They return the woman to her house in the morning after tarring and feathering her. Vyry goes to visit the woman and finds her skin blistered and burned black. There’s no way to get the tar off without tearing her flesh.

Vyry decides that she wants to leave. Innis Brown eventually agrees, until Mr. Jacobson offers Brown a job in his sawmill. Brown takes the job for two weeks. When Jacobson moves the mill deeper into the pine woods, Vyry refuses to agree to her husband leaving the family alone and going into an area where men engage in heavy drinking and whoremongering. Jacobson manages to find a tract of land on 40 acres nearby the Jacobson’s house. It’s high on a hill and offers 15 acres for farming. Jacobson also offers them some lumber and glass from his mill. They spend the fall building the house. By midsummer, Vyry is pregnant again. Innis Brown talks about rumors of a new preacher coming to town and offering to build a church and school. Jacobson has offered the preacher “a little ramshackle shanty” (412) that he says the local black people can fix up on their own time and at their own expense.

In the spring of 1869, local whites and Northern whites begin to clash in Troy. There are also scuffles between whites and blacks over a new 50-cent tax to create a school for black children. Whites insist that black children don’t need to read books when the fields, sawmills, and turpentine camps need to be worked. Brown claims that he can’t pay the tax, but Vyry insists that they can. In April, the Browns announce that they’re leaving the Jacobsons’ place. Mrs. Jacobson is initially disappointed then resentfully claims that black people like the Browns no longer want to work now that slavery has ended but merely “want everything at [their] convenience” (416). Vyry leaves her presence, feeling guilty.

One morning that month, Minna is alone in the house with Harry when three adolescent white boys walk into the house. Harry begins screaming and one of the white boys threatens to cut the baby’s throat. The boy takes out a razor, which prompts Minna to cover Harry’s mouth. They demand a drink of water from the well. The third boy points his finger from Minna to Harry and recites rhyme “Eeny, meeny, minie moe” (417). Just then, the rest of the Browns reenter the house and frighten the boys away with their presences alone. Vyry realizes that she can’t go out into the fields, leaving Minna and Harry alone.

On Sunday, they have the new preacher over for dinner. They also plan to go to town for an evening service. While heading to the meeting, they climb a hill. From their vantage point, they see six “white-sheeted and hooded figures, some on horseback” erecting “a huge rough cross-like structure as tall as a tree and flaming with fire” (418). They are putting the make-shift cross against the Brown’s house, causing the cabin to burst into flames. Vyry and her husband run toward the house and try to fight the flames. All they can manage to save are “Vyry’s new churn, her chest, and her spinning wheel” (419).

Vyry roots around in the rubble, trying to see what she can salvage. She knows that she ought to be grateful that she and her family are still alive. She also thinks about the livestock that they still have, the crops that are still planted, and all the food that they’ve saved. However, her heart is broken over losing her house. She’s also puzzled about why the Browns are unable to settle and be left alone. She tries to remain optimistic, but she refuses to build another house near Troy. She knows that the Ku Klux Klan will not allow the family to live peacefully in the area.

The preacher, Reverend Whittaker, comes around with others to offer help. He tells the Browns that they must report the arson to the government. Later that morning, two black soldiers on horseback come to inquire about the fire. He also tells them that the government will help them relocate, but Innis Brown doesn’t believe it. One of the soldiers says that General Ulysses S. Grant is now the President and that black voters helped to elect him.

Vyry gathers her cookware for the next move. Mr. Jacobson visits in the afternoon and expresses his condolences. He tells Vyry that Mrs. Jacobson says that, if Vyry wishes to return, the family would be happy to have them. Vyry insists that they must leave. He delivers a package of items that Mrs. Jacobson put together, including bedding. He also gives the Browns some money. At dusk, Reverend Whittaker returns with some clothing for the children, bedding, and a sum of money that he collected from his congregation. The two black soldiers return in the evening and help the Browns pack up and move on. They will go to Crenshaw County. The soldiers will remain with the Browns until they are settled.

Randall Ware is among the black people who are expelled from the Georgia Legislature. He goes back to work in his job and receives a visit from Grimes, who asks to buy a piece of land on Ware’s property. Ware refuses to sell it, but Grimes promises to find a way to change Ware’s mind.

It’s late October. Political tensions are high and the next presidential election is approaching. Ware learns from his friend and fellow former legislator, Henry Turner, that black people intend to ask Congress to remove Georgia from the Union. The day before the election, a group of Klansmen throw the body of Jasper, Ware’s journeyman, at his feet with a note pinned across his chest that reads, “Dead, damned, and delivered” (435). No one in the local community helps him with Jasper’s body, so Ware walks three-quarters of a mile into the black community and returns with two men. When he arrives back at his shop, he finds that Jasper’s body is gone and his shop has been vandalized.

The night-riders return at four o’clock in the morning. They grab Ware and beat him up. When Old Doc comes to check on him, Ware figures that his attackers sent to old man to deliver a message. Old Doc asks if Ware is now willing to sell, given that it’s such a small piece of land, for which he would get a fair price. Ware contends that, if he sells this bit, the night-riders will keep returning, wanting more. Old Doc insists that most people aren’t that greedy. He then offers to deliver Ware’s message. Ware, in a rare moment of defeat, delivers his message: he’ll sell; he’ll stop with politics; and he’ll stop “resisting and desisting” (439).