Jubilee

On Monday morning, Innis Brown gathers the materials that he stored to build a house, which will be at the edge of a hill that looks out onto the major road. On Thursday morning, as promised, the townspeople arrive to help build the house. Every man comes with tools and each family has “a quilt ready for the frames” (487). Vyry prepares breakfast. The women sew quilts until dinnertime, but everyone pauses at noon for a lunch of fried chicken, biscuits, corn, blackberry pie, and more coffee. At the end of the day, when the house is built, everyone is satisfied with their efforts.  

By the summer of 1870, Innis Brown feels that his dreams have been fulfilled. He has a farm and his family has a house. In the first weeks of the season, the townspeople call upon Vyry often to deliver babies. Every morning, Innis Brown and Jim go the fields, which the boy hates. Brown complains to Vyry about Jim’s laziness. She knows how anxious her husband is to produce a good crop, but also wants Brown to see her son’s side. Meanwhile, she’s saving all her money from midwifery to send Jim and Minna to school. August is a dry month with occasional showers. Innis Brown looks after his livestock day and night, sometimes with Jim’s help. Jim becomes increasingly hostile toward his stepfather, who criticizes his table manners and hounds him about chores. Brown, meanwhile, has difficulty sleeping.

Late one morning, Jim enters the house sobbing and says that he’s leaving. Vyry looks at the back of her son’s shirt and sees that it’s been torn into shreds. Brown beat Jim with a stick. Minna and Harry stare at Jim and cry. Innis Brown comes into the house, threatening Jim further, but Vyry steps between them and threatens to “brain [Innis] with [a] skillet” (497). Brown tells Vyry that Jim killed the sow, while Jim insists that it wasn’t his fault. He tried to keep the animal out of the mud, but the more he tried the deeper she sank. Minna begs Brown not to hit Jim, then Innis Brown turns on her, too. Vyry has had enough and threatens to leave her husband, too. Brown is offended and tells Vyry that he knows that she’s always looked down on field hands like him and doesn’t want her son to be one. He also knows that she makes her own money now and will likely do as she pleases.

The day wears on and everyone is in a bad mood. Vyry and Brown sleep separately. Brown does the farm chores without Jim. Vyry is tired of all the violence and her inability to escape it, even after having been freed. She drops to her knees at a rock and prays for peace. When she goes back to the house, she bids Jim good morning and asks how he’s feeling. She also explains how overworked his stepfather is. Jim insists, however, that he can’t stay at the house and is now old enough to work for himself. He also refuses to acknowledge Innis Brown as his father, despite the man being the only father he’s ever known. Vyry tells him that he can’t carry hatred in his heart. He must learn to forgive because only love will help him grow.

When Innis Brown comes home from the fields, he finds his favorite dishes on the table. Vyry smiles at him. The next morning, Jim comes to breakfast. Around noon, Mr. Porter visits and announces that Bob’s going off to military school. Mr. Porter sees the welts on Jim’s back and asks Vyry about them, but she doesn’t tell him much. He then says that he’s going to Dawson, Georgia to settle some business with Grimes over the Dutton property, which the former overseer is trying to take over. He then hands Vyry her property deed and tells her that, as long as the Browns pay their taxes, the land will be theirs within five years.

On the first Monday of September Vyry is sitting on her porch when she sees a black man approaching the house. She sees that it’s Randall Ware. He greets Vyry and asks where Jim is. Jim, Vyry says, is in the field. Ware announces that he’s come to get his son. He then takes Minna up in his arms and asks her if she’d also like to go with him and attend school. The prospect excites the little girl. After Jim arrives, carrying a hoe over his shoulder, Ware asks Vyry to set a bath for him and to get him clean clothes so that he’ll be prepared for departure. He plans on taking the afternoon train to Montgomery, then a second train to Selma, where Jim will attend a black Baptist school that trains future teachers and preachers.

When the boy undresses for his bath, Ware sees the welts on Jim’s back. Ware threatens to have Innis Brown arrested for beating Jim. Vyry says that the white people of the town wouldn’t stand for it, which makes Ware think that maybe Vyry is as loyal to white people as Old Doc once suggested. Still, Ware insists that Jim is his son, then asks Vyry why she didn’t wait for him at the plantation. Vyry insists that she did, but could only wait for so long.

Innis Brown arrives back home for lunch and meets Ware. He’s shocked both by how dark-skinned Ware is and how refined he is. Vyry brings out her finest things and feeds Ware well. She does this to show off how well the Browns are doing. Harry awakens and emerges. Ware greets the little boy and then takes him on his knee. Harry plays with Ware’s gold watch. Ware then admits to Brown that he was mad about Jim’s back, but he’s calmed after hearing Vyry explain how difficult Jim has been. Still, he’s taking Jim away. Brown is irritated to hear Ware describe Vyry as his wife. Ware insists that she still is, given that they’ve never divorced.

While they eat, Ware talks about matters in Dawson and Vyry tells him how the Browns “[have] been from pillar to post” (519). They swap their own stories about the Ku Klux Klan. Ware talks about how he’s been forced to sell half of his land. Innis Brown then offers that Ware spend the night and take the morning train. Ware accepts the offer, saying that he’d like to look at the Brown family’s land.