Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself guide

Summary

Characters

• BenjaminOtherFrom Chapter 1
• WilliamHelperFrom Chapter 1
• FlintVillainFrom Chapter 2
• LindaLeadFrom Chapter 2
• Mrs. FlintVillainFrom Chapter 2
• NancyHelperFrom Chapter 2
• FannyOtherFrom Chapter 4
• PhillipHelperFrom Chapter 4
• Young Mr. FlintGatekeeperFrom Chapter 7
• SandsSuitorFrom Chapter 10
• BennyChildFrom Chapter 15
• EllenChildFrom Chapter 16
• BettyHelperFrom Chapter 18
• PeterHelperFrom Chapter 20
• HobbsVillainFrom Chapter 32
• BruceHelperFrom Chapter 33
• Daniel DodgeGatekeeperFrom Chapter 41

Chapter by chapter

Storylines

• Her mother's death brings Linda knowledge of her enslavement and anxiety about who will care for her and William; her mistress's subsequent death renews uncertainty about her future.

  • Placement in the Flint household settles where the children will live but brings cold treatment; their father's death removes another protector, and Grandmother's care remains subject to enslavers' permission.

• Linda's father repeatedly seeks to purchase his children's freedom while working under conditional permission to manage his own affairs.

  • The father's death ends his ability to pursue purchasing his children's freedom; neither child is freed.
  • The retrospective account recalls her father's intention to purchase Linda without establishing that he accomplished it.

• The family's legal emancipation is overturned by capture and sale, establishing the insecurity of freedom against enslavers' power.

• Grandmother undertakes nighttime baking and saves its profits to purchase her children.

  • Flint refuses repayment of the loan drawn from Grandmother's savings, obstructing the funds available for purchasing her children.
  • Grandmother renews her purchase efforts, raises money against her house, and secures Phillip's legal freedom; freeing her remaining children remains unfinished.
  • Martha's accumulated earnings fund the purchase of Phillip's right to his earnings, securing a specific economic right without establishing legal emancipation.

• Inheritance divisions and sales separate grandmother's children despite her labor and efforts to buy them; Benjamin's sale intensifies her distress and determination.

  • Benjamin's sale and removal deepen the family's separation. His escape brings relief but ends in permanent loss of contact; Phillip's purchase partially counters the family's dispossession.

• Grandmother lends her mistress 300 dollars from her savings and depends on the mistress's promise of prompt repayment.

  • The mistress dies without repaying the loan, and Flint, as executor, claims insolvency and law prohibit repayment.

• Grandmother sustains Linda and William through repeated gifts and provides Linda a place to stay after her mistress dies.

  • Grandmother encourages both children, supports Linda through her father's death, promises maternal care and supplies food and clothing despite threats against Linda's visits.
  • Grandmother continues to comfort Linda and supplies her with new shoes.
  • Linda regards grandmother as a potential protector, while grandmother's suspicion and anxiety lead her to attempt to purchase Linda.
  • Grandmother temporarily repudiates Linda and withdraws family keepsakes, then returns and offers affection and pity after hearing her account.
  • Linda returns to grandmother's house and remains there.
  • Grandmother intervenes against Flint's violence and offers payment to spare Linda plantation work, though his refusal leaves her deeply discouraged.
  • Grandmother's home shelters both children and continues to provide Linda refuge and intimate family support during her plantation assignment.
  • Grandmother continues seeking Linda's purchase and willingly assumes responsibility for Benny and Ellen when Flint threatens to take them.
  • Grandmother provides Linda a concealed refuge, food, visits, medicines and protection against the cold.
  • Grandmother supplies materials so Linda can make garments and playthings for her children while concealed.
  • Grandmother responds with alarm to Linda's exposure and enters the locked storeroom, where Linda explains her action and asks for Phillip's help.
  • Grandmother offers her property for Linda's freedom, insists she take money for escape, and sustains her through a farewell prayer.
  • Grandmother continues materially supporting Linda by sending food and clothing comforts.

• Linda's first mistress promises her dying mother to provide for the children, then gives Linda a happy home and instruction, fostering an attachment expressed in Linda's prayers and lasting grief.

• Linda hopes her mistress has freed her by will, an expectation shared more confidently by her friends; the bequest to a five-year-old niece defeats this hoped-for route to freedom.

  • Linda's ownership by the Flint daughter and entry into the household confirm that her mistress's will has left her enslaved.

• Linda struggles to reconcile her mistress's affection and Christian teaching with the decision to bequeath her as property, trying to temper bitterness by remembering the good she received.

• William's obligation to obey his enslavers competes with his father's demand for filial obedience.

• Linda's dependence on the Flint household subjects her grief, family contact and daily needs to its control.

  • The Flints intensify Linda's humiliation through degrading demands, forced barefoot exposure to snow, accusations and interference with her attachments. Flint also reacts angrily when she declines his offer to bring Benjamin back.
  • Flint extends his control into sexual coercion and uses a death threat to prevent Linda from seeking her grandmother's help.
  • The household controls Linda's errands, nursing duties, sleeping quarters, and exposure to punishment. Moving her near Mrs. Flint prevents one danger but subjects her to surveillance; Flint's refusal to sell her obstructs grandmother's intervention.
  • The Flints continue to control Linda's residence and summon her through messages even while she stays with grandmother.
  • Plantation service separates Linda from her children, subjects access to Ellen to permission, and extends household control through humiliating orders and a planned transfer of the children.

• Repeated bereavements provoke Linda's rebellion against God and deepen her isolation.

  • Linda feels abandoned by God and humanity and later prays for death.
  • Illness and fear for grandmother renew Linda's doubts about divine justice and mercy; grandmother's survival restores her conviction that God is merciful.
  • Nancy's death brings another overwhelming bereavement; Linda faints on hearing it, although Phillip reassures her that Nancy died happy.

• Grandmother seeks the freedom promised upon her mistress's death, despite Flint's intention to sell her.

  • The retrospective account identifies Miss Fanny's purchase of grandmother for emancipation, establishing intervention toward the freedom grandmother sought.

• Grandmother resolves to expose her sale publicly rather than accept Flint's proposed private sale.

• The Flint household controls enslaved people's food and subjects the cook to recurrent physical punishment and separation from her nursing baby.

• Flint subjects the plantation man to extreme violence and sells the couple; the wife's appeal to his promise of good treatment meets his accusation that she spoke too freely.

• A quarrel over a child's paternity fractures the plantation man's marriage.

• The suffering young enslaved mother prays for death, and her mother hopes death will bring her daughter heavenly relief.

• The dying young woman attempts to comfort her grieving mother through assurance of divine mercy.

• Separate sales deprive an enslaved mother of all seven children, who are taken far away, leaving her in despair.

• The mother seeks to learn where her children will be taken, but the trader refuses to tell her.

• An elderly enslaved woman, rendered almost helpless by labor and disease, is left behind for sale when her owners move to Alabama.

• Grandmother urges religious trust and submission as protection, while Benjamin insists on resistance; she nevertheless acknowledges his desire for freedom.

• William resists Nicholas's attempted flogging amid false accusations and repeated abuses of younger enslaved boys.

• Linda advises William to expose Nicholas's fraudulent payments to the fruit seller.

• Linda resolves to preserve William's moral nature and resist being conquered herself.

  • Linda puts her resolve to resist domination into practice by meeting Flint's harassment with apparent indifference or contempt and resisting his effort to undermine her grandmother's principles.
  • Linda's resistance becomes explicit defiance and concrete planning: she rejects removal with Flint and intends to secure William's freedom and follow him north.
  • Linda renews her hope of freedom, refuses Flint's terms and privately commits to thwarting him for her children's sake.

• Linda falls in love with an unnamed beloved.

  • Their attachment is mutual and Linda openly affirms it, but Flint forbids their marriage and contact. Linda urges her lover away for his protection, and his departure defeats her hope of their shared future.

• Linda concludes that her young mistress's affection is sincere despite Mrs. Flint's attempt to make her doubt it.

• Benjamin refuses his master's violence and demands for submission, accepting imprisonment and sale rather than asking pardon.

• Benjamin secretly flees north by ship; capture and imprisonment defeat the first attempt, but a second escape brings him safely to New York.

• Benjamin seeks freedom through escape and refuses a purchased return to his former community.

• Grandmother seeks relief for Benjamin in prison through intercession, visits, food and clothing, despite renewed punishment and a ban on visits.

• Benjamin struggles with suicidal despair under captivity; thoughts of his mother and possibly religious fear restrain him, and freedom renews his desire to live.

• Grandmother arranges to purchase Benjamin through an intermediary in New Orleans and pledges her house, but Benjamin delays an offer, escapes and refuses purchase.

• Benjamin proposes that Phillip remain in the North and work with him to purchase their relatives' freedom; Phillip instead returns home.

• Linda and Phillip materially support Benjamin's onward journey, after which his family loses all further contact with him.

• Phillip withholds Benjamin's sick and pale appearance when reassuring grandmother about his freedom.

• Grandmother and Phillip resolve to demonstrate their ability to support themselves independently.

  • Martha earns the purchase money for Phillip's control of his earnings, and Phillip pays Nancy's funeral expenses.

• Linda resolves to repay the household's kindness through faithful service.

• Flint seeks to compel Linda's sexual submission through harassment, threats and assertions of ownership; Linda resists with apparent indifference or contempt and increasingly hates his domination.

  • Flint escalates from signals and notes to forced encounters, lethal threats, and a bedroom arrangement. Linda continues resisting and identifies his self-interest. His wife's intervention defeats the bedroom plan, but his coercion continues through assertions of power and promises.
  • Flint extends his domination to Linda's marriage and correspondence, threatens both lovers, and strikes her twice. Linda openly expresses contempt, while his jealousy renews his attempts to control her.
  • Flint advances his coercion through a completed secluded cottage and threats of confinement; Linda refuses and discloses her pregnancy, after which he leaves without answering.
  • Flint combines physical intimidation, conditional support, refusal of sale and humiliating abuse; Linda answers him, rejects his conditions and hides to avoid him.
  • Flint's persecution intensifies after his church membership. Linda resists his religious justification of compliance, and he responds with rage and a demand for obedience grounded in ownership.
  • Flint's coercion escalates into threats against Linda's son, forced cutting of her hair, severe assault and postpartum abuse. His promise never to strike her again does not end his physical persecution.
  • Flint escalates physical violence, surveillance and coercive bargaining; Linda continues resisting and chooses the threatened plantation assignment.
  • Flint publicly asserts Linda's subordination, and she recognizes the proposed removal of her children as another means of compelling submission.
  • Flint's death ends his personal persecution; the later settlement defeats his declared intention that his heirs keep Linda enslaved.

• Linda conceals Flint's harassment from her grandmother after he threatens to kill her if she speaks, although household slaves recognize the cause of her distress.

  • Flint renews the threat against telling grandmother. Linda discloses his conduct to Mrs. Flint, who identifies her as the source during confrontation, increasing Linda's fear of retaliation. Grandmother suspects mistreatment, but no disclosure to her is recorded.
  • Linda tells her grandmother some of her fears but continues to withhold the worst of her situation.
  • Grandmother's condemnation and neighborhood gossip show that Flint's persecution is no longer concealed; Linda ultimately gives grandmother her own account.

• The enslaved sister's childhood happiness gives way to shame and misery as she grows up, fulfilling Linda's expectation that enslavement will destroy it.

• Linda resolves to seek her grandmother's protection against Flint, but his renewed threats obstruct disclosure.

  • Linda takes a partial step toward seeking her grandmother's protection by disclosing some fears, although she does not fully reveal the abuse.
  • After grandmother initially prevents an explanation, Linda succeeds in disclosing her persecution and receives pity and renewed affection, though concrete protection is not established.
  • Grandmother witnesses the abuse, but her intervention fails to protect Linda and worsens her treatment.

• Mrs. Flint suspects Linda of intimacy with her husband, subjects her to frightening nighttime surveillance, and seeks to have her flogged despite her sworn innocence.

  • Mrs. Flint's jealousy becomes public gossip, and her accusation persuades grandmother that Linda is implicated with Flint.
  • Mrs. Flint's hostility escalates to a vow to kill Linda if she returns.
  • Mrs. Flint's jealousy extends to hostility toward grandmother and a wish to keep Linda confined to plantation service.

• Flint uses Linda's nursing duties as a pretext to bring her into his bedroom; Mrs. Flint's intervention forces him to abandon the arrangement.

• Mrs. Flint attempts to expose and constrain her husband's conduct through surveillance and confrontation, but he thwarts her confrontation and forbids the punishment she demands.

• Linda discloses Flint's conduct to Mrs. Flint and receives a promise of protection, but discovers that this protection is limited and driven by jealousy.

  • Mrs. Flint's accusation contributes to grandmother's rejection of Linda, further defeating Linda's reliance on her promised protection.

• Grandmother seeks to buy Linda after suspecting mistreatment, but Flint repeatedly refuses.

  • The renewed purchase attempt fails when Flint refuses the intermediary's offer and excludes purchase of the children.
  • Grandmother renews the purchase proposal and offers everything she owns, but Linda privately rejects any further expenditure; no agreement with Flint is obtained.
  • Grandmother's purchase attempts remained frustrated, but Linda's freedom is finally secured by Mrs. Bruce, and grandmother receives the news.

• Linda seeks release from her present household through sale, declaring that she would prefer any other purchaser.

  • A concrete purchase proposal and a neighbor's intervention offer a route out of Flint's household, but his refusal to permit marriage to the free carpenter obstructs it.
  • Linda adopts and acts on a new strategy intended to provoke Flint into selling her; no sale is recorded.
  • Flint declares that he will never sell Linda, defeating her immediate hope of purchase by her child's father, though she still expects anger might induce a sale to a trader.

• Flint offers reconciliation with Mrs. Flint, affection, and elevated standing as inducements for Linda to let him have his way; Linda considers his promises without a recorded acceptance.

  • Flint renews conditional promises through a letter and demands an answer. Linda returns the letter without answering, suspects his accompanying Louisiana claim is intimidation, and resolves not to go with him; no acceptance of his inducements is established.
  • Flint renews promises of elevated standing through the cottage scheme, but Linda rejects it and deliberately chooses Sands.

• Two southern wives secure their husbands' agreement to free the children the men have fathered in slavery, and the children are emancipated.

• The two wives' successful intervention earns their husbands' respect and replaces distrust with renewed marital confidence.

• The carpenter seeks to marry Linda and purchase her freedom. Linda enlists a neighboring lady to obtain Flint's consent, but Flint forbids marriage to the free carpenter.

• Linda seeks to protect her lover from humiliation and violence, ultimately urging him to stay away and settle in the Free States despite the loss of their hoped-for future.

  • The former lover leaves Linda's vicinity, advancing the separation she urged; his destination is not established.

• Flint claims he will take Linda to Louisiana and treats her acknowledgment of his power as willingness to accompany him. Linda suspects intimidation, while his son's exploratory journey gives the proposed move some practical substance.

• Linda resolves never to go to Louisiana with Flint.

• William's affection comforts Linda after her lover's departure, but the possibility of forced separation threatens that comfort and helps turn their attachment toward a shared escape.

  • Linda reassures William that she does not blame him for carrying Flint's messages, and he weeps at her humiliation.
  • Despite his imprisonment, William sends advice that strengthens Linda's resolve to remain concealed and protect her children and helpers.
  • William tends Linda through her apparent approach to death, weeps over her and obtains remedies while protecting her concealment.
  • William's absence and silence deepen Linda's isolation, but his eventual explanation reassures her, and his hope of family reunion gives their attachment a renewed prospect.
  • The siblings' joyful reunion renews their mutual support, and William helps care for Ellen when Linda is confined by illness.

• Linda and William intend to escape north together; Linda develops a sequence in which she first secures William's freedom and passage north, then follows him.

  • Linda doubts that escape is possible, and William's imprisonment further obstructs their intended escape north.
  • William independently escapes and finances northern passage, accomplishing his own practical freedom, although Linda remains concealed and their joint escape is not completed.

• Slaveholders discourage escape by spreading false accounts of fugitives' misery; Linda later discovers her fugitive friend living comfortably in New York, disproving one such account, while many enslaved people accept similar stories.

• Slaveholders use brutal whipping to break enslaved people's resistance to their sexual access to enslaved wives and daughters.

• Enslaved people seek information from Linda about northern efforts toward emancipation; one woman asks her to obtain and read a newspaper after believing her husband's story of an American queen demanding freedom for enslaved people.

• Litch maintains control through torture and lethal punishment for detected theft; his violence intimidates neighbors and leaves him afraid to be alone.

  • Litch extends his coercion into the search of grandmother's household, preventing departure, destroying Linda's verses and threatening her for letters while seeking incriminating evidence.

• Litch's brother uses hounds against runaways; after his death, rumors of buried wealth provoke repeated disturbance of his grave.

• Conant leaves his whipped servant bound outdoors in freezing weather and refuses a relative's plea for release; the servant nearly dies before being cut free.

• Conant's severely wounded fugitive seeks to see his wife before his expected death, returning to the gate where others discover and treat him.

• An elderly woman enslaved by Wade continually prays for death as release from suffering, but Wade dies before her.

• Wade's nurse secretly defies the exclusion of enslaved people from the corpse's room and strikes the corpse; disclosure and confession lead to her sale to Georgia.

• James escapes into the woods to avoid further whipping, but capture returns him to punishment and fatal confinement.

• James's master enforces submission through torture, confinement, shootings and hounds; James dies under punishment while an attendant is forbidden to speak to him.

• The young mistress marries the man she loves after acquiring the wealth he seeks, loses control of her fortune, and discovers his sexual violation of Harry's eldest daughter; she ultimately welcomes death as release from the marriage.

• Harry's family trusts its mistress enough to refuse her offer of freedom, but her marriage transfers power to a husband against whom she cannot protect the children.

• Harry vows to prevent the removal of his children and hides them in the woods, but their discovery, his imprisonment and their forced dispersal defeat his protection.

• Harry's daughters endure coercion after removal to the plantation: the eldest is sexually violated and repeatedly sold, while the second is driven into mental illness.

• A slaveholder seeks a second marriage to restore his squandered fortune, but dies before carrying it out.

• A household daughter chooses an enslaved man to father her child because she expects her authority over him to reduce exposure, but neighbors learn of the choice.

• The household master seeks revenge on his grandchild's black father after public disgrace, but his daughter has already freed the man and sent him out of the state.

• Flint builds a secluded cottage for Linda and orders her to live there, threatening forced confinement when she refuses.

• Linda resolves never to enter Flint's cottage and to defeat his design by any means.

• Sands's sympathetic attention develops into Linda's affection and trust, and she deliberately enters a sexual relationship with him.

  • Sands encourages grandmother and promises care for the child and purchase of Linda.

• Linda chooses a relationship with Sands to thwart Flint, provoke her sale, and seek freedom and protection for future children.

  • Sands offers the hoped-for purchase, but Flint refuses ever to sell Linda; her expectation of provoking a trader sale remains unfulfilled.

• Linda's desperate choice brings pregnancy, shame and diminished self-respect rather than the triumph she anticipated.

  • Linda's diminished self-respect and remorse persist, and her mental and physical illness worsens.
  • Linda's sense of degradation persists, her second pregnancy provokes further persecution, and her children's enslaved status and naming bring renewed sorrow and mortification.

• Linda cannot disclose her relationship and pregnancy to grandmother despite wanting to confess; she eventually explains her persecution and desperate choice.

• Grandmother accepts Mrs. Flint's accusation implicating Linda with Flint, condemns Linda and expels her before hearing her explanation.

  • Linda's return to grandmother's house ends her exclusion from that home.

• Sick and despairing after leaving grandmother's home, Linda prays to die but survives.

  • Despite a prediction of imminent death, Linda survives and recovers; her child's birth leads her to relinquish her former wish to die unless he dies too.

• Linda's mother's friend shelters and comforts her after grandmother's rejection and helps her seek reconciliation.

• Linda seeks reconciliation and grandmother's forgiveness; her explanation elicits renewed affection and pity without explicit forgiveness.

  • Linda returns to grandmother's home, and Sands's words encourage grandmother, although explicit forgiveness is still unrecorded.

• Sands promises to care for Linda's child and purchase Linda at any price, but Flint declares that he will never sell her.

  • Sands offers his surname to his children, extending his acknowledgment of them; these events establish no purchase or emancipation.
  • Flint's refusal again obstructs purchase as a route to Linda's freedom, and he expressly forbids purchase of her children.
  • Sands renews practical support for purchasing Linda and her children by promising to help grandmother buy them; no agreement from Flint is established.
  • Sands purchases both children and William through an intermediary, fulfilling part of his protective undertaking; Linda herself remains enslaved to the Flint family.
  • Sands renews his willingness to arrange Linda's purchase and promises to emancipate their children, though neither action is recorded as completed.

• Flint offers forgiveness and support on condition that Linda sever all communication with and assistance from her child's father; Linda refuses.

  • Flint renews the demand to sever contact with the children's father, adding promised freedom, a cottage and light work; Linda rejects it despite the plantation ultimatum.

• Phillip seeks out Linda despite knowing what has happened and receives her affectionately, intensifying her remorse.

• Linda refuses Flint's medical attendance, but her carers summon him as her illness worsens; his presence causes acute distress and he withdraws.

  • Flint causes another physical crisis and attempts to revive Linda. She subsequently begs friends to let her die rather than summon him, but survives.

• Linda's attachment to her newborn son deepens, and his smiles provide solace under oppression.

  • Fear for her son's survival reveals Linda's attachment, she resolves to name him after Benjamin, and survival becomes welcome for her children's sake.
  • Believing Benny killed after Flint hurls him across the room, Linda struggles to reach him and then discovers that he is alive.
  • Reunion reveals Benny's fear that Linda has been killed; comforting him and sacrificing for her children deepen her attachment.

• Flint makes William carry messages to Linda, exposes him to her humiliation, and imprisons him for arriving late before compelling him to resume office work.

• William develops his knowledge through medical work and teaches himself reading and spelling.

• William seeks sale away from Flint through a trader, but Flint resents the request and returns him to duties after failing to find an adequate replacement.

  • William rejects a return to Flint's service and is sold, ultimately passing into Sands's ownership.

• Linda sometimes wishes her son would die in infancy, but his apparent approach to death makes her abandon that wish and pray for his survival.

• Nat Turner seeks to launch an insurrection; his eventual capture brings some abatement of slaveholders' wrath.

• Linda seeks to warn enslaved people of the muster’s actual purpose, warning trusted slaves but withholding a general warning for fear of informers and punishment.

• Linda prepares an especially neat and comfortable house to confront the searchers' resentment and intervenes to protect household possessions during the raid, but the searchers consume preserves and steal clothing.

• Searchers use the response to the insurrection to persecute colored people through planted evidence, torture, robbery and intimidation; women hide, and relatives who report outrages are punished and discredited.

• A white protector enters grandmother's house during the search, obtains Linda's agreement to remain inside, and gives grandmother courage to answer the searchers.

• Litch and the searchers seek evidence condemning grandmother's household, restricting its movement and treating writing as suspect; the supposed incriminating letter proves to be verses, Linda resists demands for letters, and the searchers eventually leave.

• The mob threatens prisoners with death and proposes shooting a minister over shot used as scale weights; influential residents protect some prisoners by keeping them in jail until the excitement subsides.

• White citizens drive the summoned mob out when they recognize the danger to their own property and establish town patrols, which are then commissioned to search colored people outside the city and continue the violence.

• A coerced informant fabricates a conspiracy account to escape scourging, but the story brings further punishment upon him and additional persecution of colored people.

• Turner's capture reduces slaveholders' wrath and prisoners are released or returned to their masters, but restrictions on enslaved people's movement and assembly persist.

  • Alarm over the insurrection subsides further, while slaveholders turn toward religious instruction as another means of preventing resistance.
  • Linda and her guide must hide from an approaching patrol, demonstrating the continuing danger imposed by restrictions on movement.

• Enslaved people seek to resume meetings at their woodland church; permission is refused and the church demolished, leaving limited access to segregated galleries in white churches and communion after the white congregation.

  • Separate household services and Methodist meetings provide worship opportunities, and the successor clergyman secures Sunday evening services in the church gallery that attract many Black worshippers. His departure removes a trusted advocate without restoring the demolished woodland church.

• Slaveholders favor religious instruction as a means of preventing enslaved people from rising against them.

• Pike organizes separate worship for enslaved people, but Linda abandons attendance after his repeated discourse and other attendees leave his delayed kitchen service for a Methodist gathering.

• A mother's separation from all her children culminates in the sale of her last daughter to an unknown purchaser; some congregants share her grief, while the class leader conceals amusement.

• Deprived of all her children, the bereaved mother seeks death as release from a life she feels has no remaining purpose.

• The successor clergyman earns local Black people's affection and trust through accessible worship and recognition of their humanity; they mourn his departure, and he later returns to preach.

• The clergyman's wife teaches the five people enslaved in her household, receives their grief at her dying bed, and frees them with funds to establish independent lives.

• White parishioners contest the successor clergyman's ministry to Black worshippers, and slaveholders deride his rejection of racial distinctions in divine judgment and his household's treatment of enslaved people.

• The successor clergyman seeks to establish a ministry for Black people in his new parish but reports having accomplished nothing and preached no sermon to them.

• Fred seeks literacy to read the Bible and serve God; instruction from Linda enables him to read the entire New Testament and locate any text in it.

• Linda and Fred arrange three unsuspected visits each week and secluded lessons despite legal penalties for enslaved people teaching one another to read.

• Linda and Fred develop a mutually sustaining teaching relationship: his progress brings him happiness and gratitude, and his happiness rewards her.

• Flint uses church membership to suppress criticism and invokes religious virtue to demand Linda's compliance; she rejects his claim through the Bible, provoking his renewed assertion of ownership.

• Flint threatens to sell Linda's son to compel her submission, making her fear that the child will die neglected.

  • Flint's threat to Benny becomes direct bodily violence and an explicit intention to work and sell him; Linda resolves to prevent Flint from obtaining her children.
  • Flint again uses threatened removal of Linda's children as leverage, requiring their great-grandmother to assume responsibility for them.
  • The children's sale to Sands removes Flint's direct power to sell Linda's son as leverage, and his subsequent threats trouble Linda much less.

• Linda tries to conceal the extent of Flint's abuse from grandmother, but grandmother witnesses his violence and curses.

  • Grandmother again witnesses Flint's assault, orders him from her house, and afterward suffers sorrow and exhaustion from the continuing conflict.

• Ellen's birth intensifies Linda's sorrow over hereditary slavery and her wish that her daughter never suffer its oppression.

  • Flint frightens Ellen and declares his intention to raise her for sale, strengthening Linda's determination to save her children and secure a better future for them.
  • Ellen's suffering renews Linda's wish to spare her slavery, first through removal to grandmother and then through a resolve to secure freedom or die trying.
  • Ellen is removed from Flint's ownership and returned to grandmother. Linda interprets Sands's purchase as freedom for her children, although the recorded legal change is ownership by Sands, not emancipation.
  • A renewed threat to Ellen intensifies Linda's protective determination; the settlement then removes the Dodges' claims and secures Ellen's freedom.

• Linda begs to be allowed to die rather than have Flint summoned, but survives and welcomes life for her children's sake.

• Grandmother proposes christening the children during Flint's absence, overcoming Linda's fear of his prohibition; the family carries out the church visit and naming.

• Linda's father's former mistress extends recognition and kindness to Ellen by offering her Christian name and giving her a gold chain.

• Linda's friends renew the attempt to purchase her through a Texas slaveholder, but Flint refuses and forbids purchasing her children.

  • Linda's friends again intend to purchase her and her children, although no completed purchase or new consent from Flint is recorded.
  • Flint's refusal to permit purchase of the children is overcome through a trader, though the effort to purchase Linda remains unfulfilled.

• Rose welcomes sale away from Flint despite separation from her entire family; friends undertake to protect her before collection, but Flint still orders her from grandmother's house.

• Flint gives Linda one week to accept his conditional offer or go with her children to his son's plantation; she chooses the plantation despite anticipating greater vulnerability there.

  • Linda undergoes the plantation assignment she chose and remains subject to its household service after returning from town.

• Linda privately resolves to thwart Flint and save her children or die trying.

  • Her private determination becomes a concrete concealment and escape project. Grandmother detects her intention to leave and temporarily weakens it, but confirmation of the children's imminent removal restores her resolve to act immediately.
  • Linda acts on her private resolve to save her children by escaping and entering concealment, expecting her absence to make their sale possible.
  • Linda renews her preference for death over enslavement and accepts continued concealment as necessary to protect her children.
  • The children are removed from Flint's power and restored to grandmother, substantially advancing Linda's determination to save them and reducing the force of his intimidation.
  • Linda asks grandmother to restrain the children's defiance toward Flint to protect them from retaliation.

• Flint declares that he will work and sell Benny and raise Ellen for profitable sale.

  • Flint transfers ownership of Benny and Ellen and subsequently learns that Sands owns them, obstructing his plans to exploit and sell them himself.

• Grandmother seeks to prevent Linda's plantation assignment by appealing to Flint and offering payment for her time, but he refuses.

• Young Flint seeks to break Linda's independence; she answers with diligent work and apparent contentment while planning freedom.

  • Young Flint increases household control by moving Linda into the main house, but she escapes; he responds with threats against accomplices and a conditional promise that she may live with her children if returned.

• Linda sends the distressed and sick Ellen to grandmother and secures young Flint's acceptance of her removal.

• Linda arranges a secret nighttime visit home with a guide, evades a patrol on her return, and promises Benny another visit.

• Miss Fanny maintains an affectionate exchange with grandmother and visits Linda to investigate her treatment and offer help, although Linda believes she cannot remedy their situation.

• Mrs. Flint turns against grandmother for sheltering Linda's family, withdrawing former social recognition and hurting grandmother.

  • Mrs. Flint denies Nancy permission to nurse grandmother, then makes a visit motivated by competition in Christian charity and summons Flint; neither returns.

• Linda plans to hide at a friend's house until pursuit subsides, hoping her disappearance will induce Flint to sell her and her children; grandmother's distress initially delays her departure.

  • Linda executes her escape and reaches the friend's house where she intends to hide, maintaining that her disappearance is necessary to induce the sale of her children.
  • Linda transfers to a new refuge, commits to remaining hidden and continues to hope that Flint will abandon the search and sell her children.
  • Linda's continued disappearance and Flint's unsuccessful pursuit are followed by his sale of the children, achieving part of the outcome she sought through concealment.

• Linda tries to win the new plantation mistress's approval despite fearing prior prejudice; the mistress assigns her unrestricted household service.

• The Flint household plans to bring Linda's children to the plantation to bind her there and compel submission; a visitor confirms the imminent transfer, prompting her to act immediately.

  • Certainty of the children's imminent transfer prompts Linda to escape before they can bind her to the plantation; they remain with their great-grandmother, who assumes responsibility under Flint's threat.

• Linda conceals herself at a friend's house and withholds its location from Sally, refusing to summon her uncle to protect others from implication.

  • Linda leaves and returns to the original refuge, communicates with relatives and then moves secretly to the benefactress's house, extending concealment to a new location.

• Linda asks Sally to hide her clothes before the search; searchers subsequently find her trunk empty and infer that she took her clothes with her.

• The Flints pursue Linda through searches, surveillance, threats against accomplices and public rewards, while young Flint treats her children's presence as evidence that she remains nearby.

  • Pursuit escalates through threats to relatives, family imprisonment, a claimed imminent capture and financing for a proposed search in New York; Linda remains uncaptured.
  • Flint's New York pursuit fails, but he renews his determination to recover Linda and threatens Phillip and William; Linda learns the threats and finds them less intimidating.
  • Flint has Phillip arrested and demands security against his helping Linda; searchers enter her actual refuge, and continued vigilance obstructs escape arrangements.
  • Flint continues pursuit through a rewarded New York inquiry, another journey and attempts to question the children; widespread belief that Linda is north helps preserve her local concealment.
  • The colored guest repeatedly hunts for Linda at night, extending the pursuit that threatens her concealment.
  • Flint conducts a third search for Linda in New York and returns home without capturing her.
  • Flint continues pursuing Linda through promises of eventual purchase, a forged account of her wishes, an attempted retrieval through Phillip, and an address inquiry to Boston's mayor.
  • Flint watches the children to locate Linda, and Ellen's departure provokes the family's displeasure and Mrs. Flint's investigation.
  • Flint continues searching in New York and attempts to locate Linda and induce her return, but goes home without her.
  • Flint learns Linda's workplace and prepares her capture with identifying information supplied by northern informants. Warnings enable her flight, after which pursuit is only provisionally believed suspended.
  • Pursuit continues through Flint's heirs after his death, but the paid relinquishment of their claims ends this ownership-based pursuit and Linda's fear of capture.

• Linda wants to reassure her grandmother after escaping, but close surveillance prevents her from sending a message.

  • Messages now pass between Linda's refuge and her relatives, overcoming the earlier communication barrier, although grandmother's anxiety persists.
  • Linda reaches grandmother's house and receives her visits, ending the obstacle to direct communication with her.

• Linda's concealment endangers her helpers and exposes her to physical injury; fear for her sheltering friend drives her into a thicket, where a reptile bites her and forces her return for care.

  • Concealment causes illness, and the swamp exposes Linda to mosquitoes, snakes, fever and the adverse effects of tobacco smoke.
  • Concealment prevents Linda from visiting the gravely ill Nancy and intensifies the suffering of losing her.

• Threatened relatives urge Linda to return and accept punishment, but she refuses to turn back; learning of her painful condition ends their efforts to persuade her.

• The benefactress arranges Linda's secret transfer to her house and maintains her in an upstairs storeroom with Betty controlling access and providing food.

  • The benefactress and Betty arrange Linda's safe departure, ending her stay in the upstairs refuge.

• Linda's refuge in the benefactress's house depends on concealed arrangements, restricted visits and secrecy about those protecting her.

  • Linda struggles to remain silent despite distress, explicitly trying to prevent discovery of her hiding place.
  • A search and an attempted entry threaten discovery; her helpers control Jenny's movements and extend knowledge of the escape to Nancy's husband.

• The benefactress and Betty sustain Linda through shelter, food, reassurance and news of her children, earning her gratitude while her dependence intensifies her fear of exposing them.

  • Betty comforts Linda, assures her that the children are well and reveals Sands's purchase despite instructions to leave that disclosure to her mistress.
  • Betty and the benefactress continue protecting Linda and provide practical help and an affectionate farewell as she leaves.

• Flint imprisons William, Nancy and Linda's children and conditions Martha's access on Linda's return, using family captivity to pressure her out of hiding.

  • William and the children leave jail, pass out of Flint's ownership and return to town, defeating this part of his coercive captivity. Nancy's release is not established.

• Linda's impulse to join her imprisoned children conflicts with protecting their future and her helpers; William's note persuades her to remain concealed despite continuing grief.

  • Uncertainty about her children's fate brings renewed anguish, but Linda preserves concealment until Betty's disclosure replaces suspense with joy.
  • Linda tries to accept concealment as the cost of her children's redemption, although witnessing Benny's suffering intensifies the pain of remaining inaccessible.
  • Nancy reinforces Linda's determination to persist in escape rather than surrender.

• Ellen develops measles and eye trouble in captivity; her transfer to the Flints' house for treatment ends when Mrs. Flint orders her returned to jail because of her crying.

• Mrs. Flint wishes to have Linda's children sold far away and Linda imprisoned in irons, sold and subdued.

  • Mrs. Flint initially believes the children have been sent far away, but their return to grandmother under Sands's ownership defeats that intended separation.
  • Mrs. Flint welcomes Sands's loss of William and renews her wish that Linda's children be sold to a speculator.

• Betty responds to Flint's capture threat by hiding Linda beneath the kitchen floor and questioning the housemaids to assess whether her refuge is known; she concludes the threat was a bluff and lets Linda emerge.

  • Betty again hides Linda beneath the floor, this time during an actual search; Linda escapes discovery but becomes ill.

• Flint borrows five hundred dollars from the benefactress's sister to finance a pursuit of Linda in New York and intends to travel there that night.

  • Flint returns from his unsuccessful New York pursuit after spending considerable money.

• Sands uses a trader to purchase William and the children from Flint; a staged departure conceals their local resale, after which Phillip brings them home.

• The apparent departure hides Sands's acquisition and the family's intended return from the Flints, who initially believe the children have been sent away; Flint subsequently learns who owns them.

• Although informed that the children will return, grandmother sees the apparent removal of her family, doubts the assurance and collapses before their return brings joyful reunion.

• The trader grows fond of William and, after learning the children's story, helps remove them from Flint's power without his customary fee.

• Linda's friends seek another refuge because continued concealment in the benefactress's house has become untenable, but surveillance prevents their initial plans.

  • The search for a replacement refuge succeeds when Linda enters the concealed garret.

• Linda and her helpers arrange her departure in sailor's disguise, removing Jenny from the house and transferring Linda through the lower gate to a vessel.

• Peter commits himself to Linda's protection, escorts her through successive hiding places, and shares the dangers of the swamp.

  • Peter undertakes another dangerous service, supplies access to a trusted sailor and a northern newspaper, collects the letters, and pledges lifelong friendship to Linda's father's children.
  • Peter arranges passage, helps Fanny when Linda withdraws, then pursues the departing vessel and resolves the captain's suspicion to recover Linda's opportunity before escorting her from home.
  • Peter again risks himself for Linda, finds a safe means of escape and helps her depart from the wharf.

• Linda's escorts alternate concealment aboard a vessel with daytime refuge in Snaky Swamp while Phillip prepares another hiding place.

  • The temporary sequence of vessel and swamp concealments ends with Linda's installation in the prepared hiding place.

• A hiding place is prepared at grandmother's house, and Peter undertakes to bring Linda there despite the patrols; she approaches the house in a strengthened disguise.

  • The concealed entrance is prepared and Linda is successfully conveyed into the garret at grandmother's house.

• Linda hides in the concealed garret at grandmother's house while Flint and others believe she is in the Free States; her children remain unaware of her proximity.

  • Guests admitted throughout the house, including upstairs, force Linda to maintain extreme quiet. Their proximity terrifies her, but they leave without discovering her.
  • Delirium threatens to expose Linda and her helpers, prompting sedation and disguised medical consultation; Flint visits the house and leaves without discovering her.
  • Linda reveals her presence at the storeroom window to Sands but withholds her actual hiding-place. His warning alerts grandmother to the encounter; Phillip helps restore Linda to her concealed bed.
  • The letters reinforce Flint's belief that Linda is in the North. Linda concludes that he does not suspect her nearby hiding place, reducing anxiety and encouraging continued misdirection.
  • Linda disguises her handwriting and uses indirect references when writing to William; grandmother brings the children within her hearing while her concealment continues.
  • Linda briefly leaves the garret for a guarded reunion, making Ellen a keeper of her secret, then returns to concealment while gaining more opportunities to move in the storeroom.
  • Linda remains confined in her concealed refuge, supported by Nancy's secret visits and later visited more frequently by Martha.
  • Nearby patrols and Jenny's entrance threaten concealment, though Linda later believes Jenny saw nothing. Benny reveals that he already knew and protected her location; Linda finally leaves the refuge.
  • Linda leaves her local concealment and sails away, ending her residence in the hidden garret.

• Concealment near her children comforts Linda but requires her to suppress the desire to speak to them and reveal her presence.

  • Linda makes gifts and enjoys seeing her children in their new clothes. Benny's discovery that mothers supply Christmas stockings intensifies her longing to tell him that she made his clothes, but she continues to withhold her presence.
  • Linda sees Benny bloodied by a dog and hears his wounds being treated but cannot reach him without compromising concealment; he eventually recovers.
  • Linda prays to be reunited with her children and able to mother them; hearing them nearby provides comfort without ending their separation.
  • A secret night with Ellen briefly permits direct affection, but departure renews Linda's overwhelming grief and her anguish over her children's vulnerability.
  • Linda's reluctance to leave Benny nearly prevents escape. A private meeting permits open acknowledgment of their proximity, reveals his protective vigilance, and prepares him for their separation.

• Linda secretly bores an opening in the garret to obtain light, air and a view of her children, subsequently using it to observe the street and relieve confinement through reading and sewing.

• The garret protects Linda from capture while exposing her to insect bites, severe cold and frostbite despite grandmother's care.

  • Confinement brings severe illness, prolonged unconsciousness and delirium; attempts to warm and treat Linda nearly kill her through unventilated charcoal fumes before a slow recovery.
  • Linda's weakened ankles and exhaustion make movement dangerous and require assistance and medicine; her friends fear permanent disability, while she accepts continued confinement for her children's sake.
  • Linda obtains brief morning relief from confinement and restores warmth and sensation to her limbs through movement and applications, while remaining concealed.
  • Prolonged confinement causes lasting bodily injury, and rain-soaked clothes and bedding aggravate Linda's limb pain.
  • Departure ends Linda's exposure to the garret's confinement and conditions; she experiences air and sunlight without fear.

• Flint threatens Benny and the Flint family tries to extract Linda's whereabouts from both children through inducements; Ellen refuses to speak and Benny denies knowing while defending his mother's flight.

• Linda's relatives seek a practicable and reasonably safe means of securing her escape from concealment.

  • The northern-letter scheme supplies a protective deception that Linda expects to aid eventual escape, although no actual departure is secured.
  • Ellen's northern placement gives Linda's eventual escape a specific destination and purpose: reaching and protecting her daughter.
  • Peter secures passage and Phillip obtains grandmother's consent. Delay and grandmother's fear interrupt the plan, but possible discovery revives it; the captain agrees to wait, and Linda leaves home with Peter.
  • Her helpers secure and execute a practicable escape, bringing Linda beyond her enslavers' immediate physical control.

• An enslaved mother seeks help from her master after his wife expels her and her baby upon recognizing the baby's resemblance to him; his promise to remedy matters is followed by their sale to a Georgia trader.

• A wet nurse flees an ordered stripping and whipping and dies after jumping into the river.

• William obtains medical advice and remedies for Linda by presenting her symptoms as his own, enabling treatment without identifying the concealed patient.

• Linda prays for grandmother's recovery while concealment prevents her from nursing her; news that grandmother has survived the crisis relieves her fear and anticipated guilt.

• Nancy seeks permission to nurse her sick mother, but Mrs. Flint refuses, then visits grandmother herself after learning that other neighborhood ladies are attending her.

• Flint attempts to defeat Sands politically, abandoning his prior party allegiance and supplying liquor at partisan dinners, but Sands wins election to Congress.

• Linda seeks legal emancipation for her children before Sands leaves for Congress; her direct appeal obtains his promise to emancipate them or authorize a friend to do so.

  • William's escape renews Linda's urgency to secure the children's emancipation because she fears Sands's financial loss may endanger it; no emancipation is recorded.
  • Linda renews her demand for legal emancipation, but the recorded response concerns northern placement rather than completed emancipation; the claimed gift of Ellen increases uncertainty, and Benny's freedom remains unsecured.
  • Ellen is claimed as another person's property rather than emancipated, and Linda recognizes that she also lacks security concerning Benjamin.
  • A bill of sale places legal title to both children in grandmother's name, securing a change of ownership but not establishing legal emancipation.
  • The children's freedom is finally secured through Mrs. Bruce's settlement rather than through the earlier promise from Sands.

• Linda doubts Sands's concern when he initially leaves without acknowledging her; he returns and makes promises for the family, but his fear of being overheard constrains his acknowledgment of her.

  • Sands's protective assurances win Linda's complete trust, but missing news and the cousin's claim of receiving Ellen as property subsequently undermine her confidence.
  • The disclosure that Sands gave Ellen away confirms that Linda was deceived about her daughter's position and further undermines reliance on his promises.

• Linda arranges for a trusted sailor to post forward-dated letters in New York, using northern addresses to misdirect Flint, and resolves to repeat the deception periodically.

  • Linda continues the false northern trail through letters from different purported locations, including Canada, which reach Flint.

• Martha fears that Linda's deceptive letters will expose the family and endanger Phillip; Linda maintains that the deception will protect her concealment and help her eventual escape.

• Flint substitutes a forged letter representing Linda as ashamed, suffering and willing to return conditionally, then seeks Phillip's help in retrieving her and writes to Boston's mayor to verify her supposed address.

• Flint leads Ellen to expect her mother's return and promises that they will be allowed to see each other freely.

• Linda's longing for William and fear that his escape will jeopardize her children's emancipation initially inhibit her joy; Aggie's response leads her to recognize his right to freedom and feel gratitude.

• William seeks immediate freedom rather than relying on Sands's undated promise of emancipation, and gains practical freedom by leaving him in the North.

• Sands marries a new wife.

• Grandmother experiences William's remaining in the North as a permanent family separation, while Aggie celebrates his escape despite having lost access to her own children through sale.

• William commits to working toward a northern home for grandmother and a reunion of the family.

  • William materially supports Ellen's education and brings Linda into a proposed shared livelihood in Rochester.

• William leaves Sands under the pretext of changing his trunk, explains his departure in a note, and sells his best clothes to finance passage to Boston.

• Mrs. Flint intends to tell Mrs. Sands that Sands fathered Linda's children and accuse Linda of manipulation and helping William escape.

• Mrs. Sands takes an interest in the children after Sands acknowledges his paternity while representing their mother as dead.

• Proposals that Mrs. Sands and her sister take the children distress Linda and force her to weigh their prospects against separation and her maternal claims.

• Linda consents to Ellen's temporary placement with Sands's Brooklyn relatives under promises of care and schooling, with travel through Washington.

  • Signs of neglect and the disclosure of Ellen's transfer as property undermine the promised care and temporary placement. Schooling is agreed to, but Linda learns that intended enslavement explains its previous absence.
  • Ellen remains separated from her family and wishes to accompany Benny; his revised estimate of her knowledge further undermines the expected educational benefit of her placement.
  • Ellen's distress and exposure to drunkenness and abusive language further undermine the promised care; Linda insists on keeping and educating her herself.

• Linda and Ellen reunite secretly before Ellen's departure, renewing their attachment and expressing hopes of living together with Benny.

  • Mother and daughter reunite again, and Ellen urgently expresses her wish to live with Linda.
  • Linda and Ellen meet again; Ellen protects her mother by warning her away from Thorne, and Linda promises to try to see Ellen after returning.
  • Linda comforts Ellen with plans for a family home, takes her to Boston and reunites her joyfully with Benny.
  • Ellen's concern and undiminished love deepen their attachment; Linda loves her more for her considerate silence and feels their separation intensely.

• Ellen learns that Linda is nearby and that enslavement makes their meeting dangerous; she promises to conceal Linda's presence and keeps that promise.

• Linda resolves to reach New York to watch over Ellen and eventually reunite with both children.

  • Linda renews her determination to reach the North for her children. Concern about leaving Benny delays acceptance until assurances of his later passage enable her to commit and depart.
  • Linda travels north toward Philadelphia and believes she has reached free soil, advancing her intended journey to Ellen without yet reaching New York or reuniting with either child.
  • Linda reaches Philadelphia, reiterates her expectation of meeting her daughter, and boards a train toward New York after securing an escort.
  • Linda reaches New York, reunites with Ellen and returns to seek employment nearby; a shared home with both children remains unsecured.
  • Linda maintains direct contact with Ellen and receives an offer of a home for her, but fear of offending the Hobbs family prevents her from accepting it.
  • Linda reunites with Benny and subsequently resumes visits with Ellen, though Benny remains with William in Boston.
  • After watching over Ellen through repeated visits, Linda reaches Boston with her and achieves reunion with both children.

• Linda seeks reliable news of Ellen after her departure; unanswered inquiries produce fears of death or sale before a Brooklyn letter confirms her arrival.

• The cousin's claim that Sands gave her Ellen as a waiting maid leaves Linda uncertain whether the promised temporary placement has become a transfer of ownership exposing Ellen to return south.

  • Hobbs confirms the claim that Sands gave Ellen to his daughter, turning Linda's uncertainty into knowledge of the deception while leaving Ellen's security unresolved.
  • The reported ownership claim by Mrs. Hobbs's daughter and the refusal to let Ellen receive treatment in New York deepen Linda's suspicion that the household intends to retain control of her.
  • Grandmother's acquisition of legal title to Ellen counters the earlier uncertainty about ownership arising from the cousin's claim, although Ellen remains in Brooklyn.
  • Mrs. Hobbs permits Ellen's departure only on a promise of return, while Linda subsequently insists that Ellen remain with her for schooling; control over Ellen remains contested.

• Nancy and her husband establish a ceremonially recognized but legally unenforceable marriage; compulsory night service prevents her from sharing their furnished room.

• The Flint household's incessant work and deprivation of sleep destroy Nancy's health and repeatedly interrupt her childbearing; belated permission to sleep in her room does not prevent the deaths of her two live-born infants.

• After losing her babies, Nancy commits herself to becoming fit to join their spirits in heaven.

• Nancy encourages Linda to escape and persevere, then sustains her concealment through secret visits, news and consolation; Nancy's death deprives Linda of this support.

• Martha attends her dying daughter, and Nancy promises a hand signal to reassure her if speech fails; Nancy's death leaves Martha grieving her last surviving daughter.

  • Mention of Nancy overwhelms grandmother, while the impending departure leaves her unable to eat.

• Flint exploits Nancy's death and Martha's loneliness to propose erasing past grievances and having Linda return to replace Nancy.

• Mrs. Flint proposes claiming Nancy's burial for the Flint family burial-place, but Martha obtains consent to bury her with her own family, and Phillip bears the expense.

• Linda tries to comfort Martha through more frequent visits as they mourn Nancy together.

• Phillip promises to bring or send Benny north after Linda reaches safety; Linda prepares Benny for separation and asks grandmother to retain money for his journey.

  • Benny promises to come to Linda, and their separation begins as she escapes north; his own journey remains pending.
  • Benny is sent north and reaches Linda's Boston lodging, completing the promised reunion.

• Fanny is sold apart from her four daughters and escapes her purchaser, becoming a hunted fugitive.

  • Fanny's account confirms her separation from her children; the voyage takes her beyond immediate physical control, although she fears capture during departure and her family separation remains unresolved.

• Aggie shelters Fanny in her hut; Benny accidentally discovers her and undertakes to keep her hiding place secret after grandmother explains the danger.

• Sheltering fugitives deepens Aggie and grandmother's sympathy with one another.

• Linda privately resolves that grandmother will spend no more money purchasing her freedom, despite grandmother's offer to sacrifice all her property.

  • Mrs. Bruce pays for Linda's freedom, so grandmother does not have to spend further money purchasing her.

• Grandmother's fear that Linda will be murdered like James induces Linda to abandon escape, but a possible exposure to Jenny makes grandmother urge immediate departure.

  • The departure urged after possible exposure is carried out successfully despite the danger.

• After relinquishing her berth, Linda directs Peter to Fanny; he arranges Fanny's concealed passage, and she boards under the alias Linda Johnson.

  • Fanny's arranged passage carries her north beyond her enslavers' immediate physical control, with Linda joining her aboard.

• Benny has inferred Linda's hiding place and quietly protected it by distracting Ellen and warning grandmother about Flint's contact with officers; he finally reveals this knowledge to Linda.

• The captain conceals the women's fugitive status with a story about joining their husbands, restricts their visibility during passage and proposes a daylight landing to avoid suspicion; both women agree to follow his directions.

  • The women complete the landing in Philadelphia, and the captain connects them with assistance for their onward journey.

• Linda and Fanny develop mutual understanding through their reunion and accounts of concealment and separation from their children.

  • Linda visits Fanny in her temporary lodging, learns that she is content there, and continues toward New York with her.

• The captain earns Linda's growing but incomplete trust through precautions, kindness and promises of protection; her continuing suspicion troubles him.

  • Linda expresses lasting gratitude, entrusts the captain with a message home, and receives his help arranging her onward journey and meeting Durham.

• The captain promises to deliver Linda's message to her friends at home.

• Linda waits in Philadelphia for a suitable escort to New York; an escort is secured, Durham obtains railway tickets, and the women board.

  • The women complete their journey to New York and reach the boarding-house.

• Jeremiah and Mrs. Durham shelter Linda and help her continue north; their considerate treatment builds her trust and gratitude despite her fear of judgment.

• Linda seeks former residents of her native town in Philadelphia, with Durham's assistance, but finds them away from home.

• Linda fears that disclosure of her children and painful past will cost her friendship and expose her to contempt; she chooses honesty, and Durham affirms her while warning that others may exploit her disclosures.

  • Linda discloses her full history and present danger to Mrs. Bruce and receives an assurance of protection.
  • Linda confronts her fear of disclosing her past to Ellen and learns that Ellen's existing knowledge has not diminished her love.

• Linda resolves to be a good mother and live beyond others' contempt if she can reunite with her children.

  • Ellen's wish to live with her turns Linda's maternal resolve toward obtaining earnings and employment nearby, though she cannot yet provide a home.
  • Despite continuing insecurity, Linda uses her earnings to clothe Ellen and seeks access to medical care for her.
  • Linda resumes direct care of Benny, obtains clothing for him, exchanges accounts of their experiences, and arranges his care with William while maintaining contact with Ellen.
  • Savings, sacrifices for Ellen, reunion with both children and practical arrangements for housing and schooling give substance to Linda's commitment to motherhood.
  • Linda provides for her children's development by placing Benny in a trade and arranging Ellen's schooling and care during her absence.
  • Linda supports Ellen's education and attempts an honest account of her past as part of caring for her daughter.

• Antislavery supporters offer practical assistance to both fugitives, arranging Fanny's support and offering Linda travel money, which she declines because grandmother has provided enough.

  • The antislavery society provides Fanny a home, and Linda learns that she is prospering.

• Northern racial discrimination excludes Linda and Fanny from first-class railway cars, diminishing Linda's enthusiasm about the Free States and exposing her to a sickening and degrading journey.

  • Northern racial exclusion recurs in steamboat and hotel dining, enforced by attendants and fellow servants as well as management. Linda ultimately obtains good treatment at the Pavilion, without resolving the wider discrimination.

• Linda conceals her recent arrival from the South from Ellen's household, presenting herself to Hobbs as having arrived from Canada.

• Linda seeks paid employment near Ellen so she can provide a home and secure her children's position.

  • Linda obtains nursing employment with Mrs. Bruce, who accommodates the illness that interferes with her duties; this establishes paid work but does not yet secure a home for her children.
  • Linda has saved one hundred dollars and begins arranging a shared Boston household and Ellen's education, although danger has interrupted her New York employment.
  • Linda accepts nursing employment and resumes work in the Bruce household despite insecurity about her safety.

• Linda requests the lowest price for her freedom from Flint and his daughter, but Flint offers no encouraging terms and demands her return.

  • Linda's renewed request for consent to sale produces a deceptive invitation to return, with only an offer to seek Flint's consent to a local purchaser; she rejects the trap.
  • Emily now offers self-purchase as an alternative to Linda's return, reopening a possible route to legal freedom without a recorded agreement.
  • The earlier effort to obtain freedom by negotiation reaches a legal settlement through Mrs. Bruce, although Linda now opposes paying for her rightful liberty.

• Linda seeks William in Massachusetts, but learns that his whaling voyage will prevent a reunion for months.

  • Linda recognizes William outside her employer's house and reunites with him; they exchange accounts of their experiences.

• Mrs. Bruce's considerate employment, care during illness and intellectual companionship gradually earn Linda's trust and affection; the baby's affection comforts her maternal grief.

  • Linda returns to Mrs. Bruce and finds considerable happiness in her kindness and Mary's affection.
  • Mrs. Bruce supports Linda's inclusion at meals and shares her tea when service is denied; Mr. Bruce arranges meals in Linda's room after the Rockaway confrontation, extending the household's practical support.
  • Mrs. Bruce answers Linda's disclosure with protection, legal consultation, refuge, clothing for Ellen and instructions shielding Linda's departure.
  • Mrs. Bruce's death ends the sustaining friendship and care Linda received from her.

• Mrs. Hobbs asks Linda to purchase Ellen's clothing with promises of reimbursement but leaves Linda to bear the expense from her earnings.

• Mrs. Bruce proposes bringing Ellen to New York for specialist treatment of her eyes, but Mrs. Hobbs refuses permission; Linda suspects that the refusal is intended to prevent Ellen's permanent removal.

• Flint impersonates Emily's brother in a letter promising reconciliation and possible local sale to lure Linda south; Linda recognizes his handwriting and rejects the invitation as a trap.

• Warned of Flint's northern journey, Linda temporarily retreats to Boston, directs Benny there, and returns to New York after learning Flint has gone home.

• Linda's happiness with the Bruce household and access to Ellen remains vulnerable to recognition and capture when Southerners visit New York.

  • Southerners at Saratoga renew Linda's fear of recognition. Thorne's arrival at Mrs. Hobbs's creates a specific risk of disclosure, leading Linda to avoid the house and postpone another visit to Ellen.
  • The risk of recognition becomes a concrete betrayal and probable disclosure to Flint, forcing Linda from the Bruce household; flight brings immediate safety in Boston.
  • Emily reports prospective buyers seeking Linda's purchase and recapture, and Linda infers that the Flints know her movements; her retrospective assessment also qualifies her confidence in Massachusetts.
  • The new law heightens Linda's vulnerability, necessary outings sustain her anxiety, and Flint's discovery of her employment turns the continuing risk into an immediate capture threat.
  • The Dodges' arrival produces another flight, but legal freedom removes the capture threat and permits Linda's return to the Bruce household.

• Linda insists on equal treatment in public dining, resisting removal aboard the steamboat and refusing segregated service at Rockaway; her persistence secures good treatment at the hotel.

  • Faced with tickets excluding cabin sleeping under a racial rule, Linda appeals to the captain and secures berths and assistance obtaining railway accommodation.
  • Treatment without racial discrimination in England gives Linda sustained relief and a sense of freedom, while approaching return to America renews her awareness of racial prejudice.

• Thorne offers Flint help capturing Linda and supplies her address despite professing gratitude and promising not to betray her; discovery of his letter forces her to seek protection and flee.

• Ellen's placement exposes her to household drunkenness, shameful liquor errands and Thorne's vile language, increasing Linda's determination to provide another home.

• With Mrs. Bruce's protection and legal advice to leave immediately, Linda shelters temporarily, obtains Ellen's release for ten days and travels with Ellen and William to safety in Boston.

• Linda decides to share housekeeping and expenses with a friend in Boston and insists that Ellen remain with her for schooling despite the promised ten-day return.

  • Linda continues securing Ellen's education through an arrangement with a friend while she travels to England.
  • Linda returns to look after her children and learns that Ellen is well and progressing at school.
  • Linda's commitment to Ellen's schooling progresses to boarding school, requiring separation from their Boston home.

• Mr. Bruce entrusts Mary to Linda's care for a visit to her maternal relatives in England; Linda accepts and accompanies them.

  • Linda has returned from the English journey to New York and then Boston.

• Linda seeks guidance from English nurses to improve her care of Mary.

• The Steventon clergyman's example restores Linda's confidence in sincere Christianity after the Episcopal church's racism and complicity in slavery have alienated her; she resumes communion.

• Learning of Benny's mistreatment and departure brings Linda grief and self-reproach for having left him so long.

• Discovery that Benny is colored turns his fellow apprentices' liking into contempt and abuse; he reciprocates their contempt and abandons his apprenticeship.

• Benny enlists on a whaling voyage to support himself after leaving his apprenticeship.

• Emily Dodge attempts to induce Linda to return, offering self-purchase as an alternative; Linda regards her professions as a predatory lure.

  • The Dodges pursue Linda in New York and offer purchase terms, but their relinquishment of ownership claims ends their leverage to induce her return.

• William offers to send Ellen to boarding school; Linda consents, prepares her departure, and William accompanies Ellen to school in a New York village.

  • Ellen's school responds to learning her mother's fugitive status by improving her educational opportunities and lowering expenses.

• Linda seeks to explain her sexual history and Ellen's parentage before Ellen can learn them from an unsympathetic source; Ellen interrupts the explanation and reveals that she already knows.

• Ellen's departure for school leaves Linda intensely lonely, and a temporary sewing engagement provides welcome occupation.

• Ellen has concealed her knowledge that Sands is her father under a nurse's injunction; she now discloses that knowledge to Linda.

• Ellen's wish for paternal affection gives way to relinquishing that hope after feeling neglected by Sands.

• William proposes an anti-slavery reading room and book and stationery shop in Rochester with Linda as his partner; she joins him in attempting to sustain it.

  • William's decision to leave for California and Linda's departure from Rochester interrupt their shared Rochester undertaking; its continued operation is not established.

• Linda and William find warm anti-slavery friends in Rochester.

• William decides to go to California, with Benjamin to accompany him.

• Learning that Ellen's mother is a fugitive, her school community increases her educational advantages and reduces her expenses.

• Linda forms a lasting friendship with the new Mrs. Bruce, whose protection extends to accepting legal penalties rather than surrendering her.

  • Mrs. Bruce shelters Linda, persuades her to flee, finances her freedom and expressly disclaims any right to her services, deepening their protective friendship.

• Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law exposes fugitives and their families to capture, disrupts established northern homes and drives families toward Canada.

• Linda resolves to monitor hotel arrivals to detect threats to herself and warn others, while restricting her movements to reduce exposure.

  • Hotel notices reveal the Dodges' arrival and enable protective action; Linda's legal freedom subsequently ends her need for this surveillance for her own protection.

• Vigilance committees organize to protect persecuted Black New Yorkers.

• Henry subjects Luke to repeated whipping and enforced exposure, using the constable to intensify punishment when Luke resists and to continue it as Henry weakens.

• Linda joyfully reunites with Luke, warns him about northern capture risks and learns how he escaped.

• Luke obtains escape funds by concealing Henry's bills in discarded trousers, escapes a speculator and takes precautions against recapture before proceeding to Canada.

• Mrs. Bruce arranges Linda's temporary flight with her infant, whose presence may enable intervention against pursuers; successive refuges shelter them until Linda returns to New York believing pursuit has temporarily subsided.

  • Mrs. Bruce again arranges refuge and flight with her infant; Linda initially refuses departure but yields to renewed persuasion and receives correspondence under an assumed name.

• Mrs. Bruce's relative invokes legal penalties to discourage her from sheltering Linda, but Mrs. Bruce explicitly accepts those risks and reaffirms her protection of fugitives.

• Grandmother's letters sustain Linda's attachment across separation; grandmother lives to learn of Linda's freedom, then dies, leaving Linda grief and sustaining memories.

• Linda sends a trusted friend to visit the Dodges under a social pretext and learn their intentions; his report confirms the danger of pursuit.

• Linda regards liberty as her existing right and resists purchase; the transaction that secures her legal freedom also humiliates her and makes her feel deprived of her own victory.

• Dodge threatens to seize Linda's children if he cannot capture her, provoking her protective fury.

• Mrs. Bruce engages a negotiator to purchase Linda's freedom and obtain permanent relinquishment of claims to her children; Dodge accepts the $300 settlement after initially rejecting it.

• William introduces Linda to the Post family, and Amy Post develops a sympathetic, confidential relationship with her while respecting her control over painful disclosures.

• Amy Post urges Linda to publish her experiences against slavery; Linda undertakes the work and writes her life secretly at night despite the pain of recollection.

Places

St. Augustine, Alabama, New York, New Orleans, Baltimore, The plantation, Louisiana, Savannah, Free States, Washington city, Georgia, Court House Green, Texas, Philadelphia, Snaky Swamp, United States, Boston, Massachusetts, Canada, Northern States, Astor House, Illinois, Long Island, England, Chesapeake Bay, Sullivan Street, New Bedford, Albany, Troy, Saratoga, United States Hotel, Rockaway, Stonington, Liverpool, Adelaide Hotel, London, Oxford Crescent, Europe, Virginia, Rochester, California, Metropolitan Hall, New England, Hotel in Courtland Street