145 pages • 4 hours read
Colson WhiteheadA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 2 Summary
This chapter opens with a runaway slave bulletin by a W.M. Dixon. Dated July 18, 1820, it states that a negro girl by the name of Lizzie ran away and may possibly be hiding near the plantation of someone named Mrs. Steel. It offers a $30 reward for Lizzie’s return and threatens the penalty of the law for anyone found to be harboring her.
The chapter begins on Jockey’s birthday, which “only [comes] once or twice a year” (11), and is always on a Sunday, the slaves’ half day. Birthday feasts are a priority for the slaves, unless they have obtained a pass to sell wares in town or hired themselves out for day labor: “Impossible was the slave impudent enough to tell a white man he couldn’t work because it was a slave’s birthday. Everybody knew niggers didn’t have birthdays” (11).
Cora takes a seat on the hunk of sugar maple in her garden. This is her customary Sunday spot. Cora’s garden tending is not only maintenance, but “also a message that she had not lost her resolve since the day of the hatchet” (12). Cora’s friend Lovey asks her when her birthday would be if she could choose it.
By Colson Whitehead