Contending Forces by Pauline Hopkins (1900)
CHAPTER I: A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE PAST
characters:
Charles Montfort – Bermuda planter, exporter of tobacco, sugar, cotton, onions, etc., owner of 700 slaves
Thomas Clarkson – (historical figure) student at Cambridge, wrote award-winning essay against slavery
Mr. Pitt – (historical figure)
Mr. Fox – (historical figure)
Mr. Wilberforce – (historical figure)
Graneville Sharpe – (historical figure) chairman of London committee
Lord Stanley – (historical figure) minister of the colonies, introduced bill for gradual emancipation to Parliament
clergyman – tries to convince Montfort to stay in Bermuda
Bermuda man – says that luckily he is not wealthy enough to be affected by the change in slave laws
Mrs. Montfort (Grace) – tall, slender, creamy complexion
Charles Montfort, Jr – Montfort son, looks like mother
Jesse Montfort – Montfort son, looks like mother
setting:
Bermuda – 15 square miles, 600 miles from nearest American coast, British colony
Newbern, NC
plot:
Hopkins describes increasing agitation by the people of Great Britain against the slave trade in the West Indian territory of the empire. Bermuda planter Charles Montfort decides to move to the United States (Newbern, N.C.) with his slaves, and there gradually emancipate and provide them with land before retiring wealthy to England. A local clergyman tries to dissuade him, pointing out the differences between local and U.S. government and social laws, reminding Montfort of the beauty of Bermuda (represented here in the music and dancing of varicolored slaves) and citing the inconveniences that the new home will represent for Mrs. Montfort. The clergyman fails to convince but hopes that the bishop will have more success. As friends hear of Montfort’s decision they also try to dissuade him, but he remains firm and argues that they put their fortunes in danger by staying. The chapter ends with Monefort and his family approaching Pamlico Sound on the coast of Newbern, N.C. by ship.
CHAPTER II: THE DAYS "BEFORE THE WAR."
characters:
Bill Sampson – Pollock’s overseer, won the Mulatto girl Sal in a raffle and plans to sell her
Hank Davis - recently in trouble for killing Brady’s dog Pete when he was trying to shoot a free black
Dan Powers – tarred and feathered for selling good whiskey to blacks
Jed Powers – seen walking with Jimison’s slave Violy, planned to marry her and suspected of planning to go to Cananda with her
Violy – slave of Jimison
Sal – a Mulatto girl being offered at auction along with a bay horse and a harness and light buggy
Brady –
Anson Pollock – Montforts buy his place, a lady’s man, jealous of Grace, chairman of the committee on public safety
setting:
Pamlico Sound, Newbern, N.C.
plot:
Blacks labor around the port while their overseer, Bill, talks to Hank about the ship “Island Queen” coming in from Bermuda. There has been some talk of uprising among the blacks, and Hank tells Bill of a recent cautionary lynching. Hank also tells Bill of Jew Powers, who was sentenced to fifty lashes and hanging for planning to run off with and marry Violy, another man’s slave. Throughout the conversation the two men spit tobacco, which forms a river between them. The Montforts land with Mr. Pollock, whose place they have bought, are much admired by the crowd, and leave in a carriage. Hank plans to apply for a position as overseer, and Bill thinks Grace Montfort is part black.
CHAPTER III: "COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOW BEFORE"
characters:
Lucy – Mrs. Montfort’s beloved maid
setting:
three years later
the old Pollock estate
plot:
The Pollock estate is picturesque, and lavishly furnished for Grace Montfort. One year into their residence Montfort prospers, but is troubled by a vague worry. Grace Montfort is educated and refined, and the people enjoy her company until rumors begin to go about that Montfort intends to free his slaves, and it is also whispered that Grace has black blood. Jesse is playing with gold eagles when Mr. Montfort comes in with Mr. Pollock. The latter, already covetous of Montfort’s wife, is surprised to see that the child has been given golden eagles as toys. Montfort warns Jesse not to lose the money, which he’ll need for his education abroad. Anson Pollock had declared love for Grace Montfort once, but she spurned him and warned that she would tell her husband if he insulted her again, and now Monetfort and Pollock are close friends. Montfort and Pollock retreat to Montfort’s study, where Montfort confesses that he is nervous because of the rumors about his wife and threats against his life because of his desire to free his slaves. Pollock assures Montfort that he is among a chivalrous people who will protect him and that there is no need for worry, but Montfort asks Pollock to see that his family gets back to Bermuda and save the property from the safe for them should anything happen. Anson Pollock meets with his overseer Bill that night and they make plans for Bill and some other men to kill Montfort. Anson says the men can take what they want of the property, but the family is to be reserved for him. A couple days later, Hank Davis applies to be Montfort’s overseer, implying that Montfort needs him to keep the community friendly in light of recent rumors. Montfort beats Hank with a whip and angrily orders the man off his property. He then resolves to send his family away for a visit to Bermuda. Hank is sulking after the beating when Bill calls to him and proposes that Hank join in executing Pollock’s plan.
CHAPTER IV: THE TRAGEDY
characters:
Aunt Cindy – Montfort slave
Mr. Whitfield – a black in Exeter who helps Jesse
the English minerologist – buys Charles, promises to help Jesse
Lizzie – Elizabeth Whitfield, daughter of Mr. Whitfield, and later Jesse’s wife
setting:
8 am a few days later – the Montfort house
New York
Boston
Exeter, N.H.
plot:
If Montfort had accepted the ruling of the English Parliament, he would have lost some money but could have avoided the horrors that his move to the United States would bring on him and his family. In the morning a few days after Bill’s conversation with Hank, Montfort is reading the paper when he hears hoofbeats approaching. He goes to the door and Grace hears excited voices followed by a shot and the sound of Montfort’s body falling. Mrs. Montfort is dragged out to the veranda where she realizes that she is in the power of Anson Pollock and looses consciousness. Hank wants his revenge for the beating he recieves from Montfort, and has Bill help him tie Grace to the whipping post. They rouse Grace to consciousness and Hank and then Bill whip her. Lucy hides in the smokehouse with Jesse and Charles to spare them sight of their mother’s suffering. Anson Pollock takes Montfort’s family and Grace soon disappears, drowning herself in the waters of Pamlico sound. Pollock soon takes Grace’s black servant Lucy in the place he had imagined for her mistress. When a year has gone by, a stranger asks Bill Sampson to find a boy to help him collect minerals in the hills and Bill gets Pollock’s permission to send Charles. The mineralogist, an Englishman, is impressed by Charles’ education and, hearing his tragic story, proposes to buy Charles and Jesse. Pollock will not sell Jesse so the mineralogist buys Charles and promises the boy that he will appeal to the English government to help Jesse. Jesse is sometimes comforted in sleep by visions of his dead mother, but does not hear from Charles and decides at sixteen that Charles must be dead or lost to him forever. When Pollock sends Jesse to New York in charge of a vessel filled with produce, Jesse decides to run away to Boston. When Pollock follows him to Boston, Jesse escapes to Exeter, N.H. where he is directed to seek the assistance of Mr. Whitfield. Arriving at Mr. Whitfield’s house Jesse is invited to wait, and offers to rock a crying baby. The baby, Lizzie, will later become his wife.
CHAPTER V: MA SMITH'S LODGING HOUSE
characters:
Ma Smith – lodging house owner, from New Hampshire
Henry Smith – free-born southern black, dead
Father Andrew
William Jesse Montfort – Ma & Henry Smith’s son, works as a waiter, almond complextion
Dora Grace Montfort – Ma and Henry Smith’s daughter
John Pollock Langley – Dora’s beau, Will’s fellow waiter at the hotel, mix of slave and cracker blood, fair complexioned, hair like a white man’s, carefully concealed strain of sensuality in his nature, revengeful, political acumen, good in debate
Sappho Clark – typist; tall, fair aquiline nose
Franny – Ma Smith’s sister
Lottie – Ma Smith’s sister
setting:
Ma Smith’s lodging house, No. 500 D Street, South End of Boston, Mass.
1896
plot:
Dora prepares a room for a new guest – her mother has aged and since finishing school Dora has taken over the bulk of the work of running a lodging house. Hopkins observes the level of success blacks have achieved even with so many avenues of opportunity closed to them, and attributes that ambiguously to hard work and to the infusion of the best white blood. Will and John Langley come over, and Ma tells about how her mother used to help her daughters entertain male suitors while their father slept, and one night the father woke up and kicked the young man out. Will asks Dora about the new tenant, and Dora predicts that Will will fall in love with her. John takes Dora out to see “Old Homestead” at the Boston Theatre.
CHAPTER VI: MA SMITH'S LODGING HOUSE - CONCLUDED
characters:
Mrs. Ophelia Davisn – run “The First Class New Orleans Laundry” from their basement rooms in Ma Smith’s house
Mrs. Sarah Ann White - run “The First Class New Orleans Laundry” from their basement rooms in Ma Smith’s house
Rev. Tommy James – young student preacher, fond of widow Davis
setting:
late February
plot:
Sappho doesn’t go out much – she goes in and out each morning with a package of work in her hands and then works at typing sometimes late into the night. Sappho decorates her room beautifully with hand-embroidered denim coverings. Dora admires the work and they become fast friends. Dora comes up one day to invite Sappho to dine with the family and other lodgers on Sunday evening. Ma Smith has filled her house with respectable but unlettered people – better than in most lodging houses – and so endeavors to keep them happy. She has had Dora institute musical evenings or reception nights so that the lodgers can get better acquainted with one another. There is a musical and literary programme for the night. They also discuss current debates and their effect on blacks. They have tea, and then sing some more. John and Will smoke a cigar in John’s attic room, and Will thinks of Sappho Clark.
CHAPTER VII: FRIENDSHIP
characters:
Dr. Arthur Lewis – childhood friend of Dora, believer in industrial education as an avenue for blacks’ advancement
Dr. Abraham Peters – well-read, janitor, has boot-blacking stand, magnetic physician
Susie Peterss – Dr. Abraham Peters’ wife
Brother Jones
Possum Tooit – grew up with Dr. Abraham Peters, his rival for Susie
setting:
Sappho’s room in Ma Smith’s boarding house
a prominent colored church in West End Boston
plot:
Sappho and Dora spend lots of time together, and Dora’s Yankee energy is good for Sappho. Dora helps Sappho become accustomed to entering establishments frequented by whites without fear of insult. On a stormy day, Dora and Sappho sit in Sappho’s comfortable room talking and eating their lunch. Dora mentions her childhood friend Dr. Arthur Lewis, who believes that industrial education and exclusion of politics will solve the race problems in the U.S. Sappho disagrees with Mr. Lewis’s ideas, arguing that they could provide some temporary relief in the South but are not a permanent solution, and that blacks deprived of franchise become aliens in their own home. Although Dora has told Sappho of every important event in her childhood, Sappho has not been forthcoming about her history, a reserve which Dora does not resent. Sappho is playing the organ in a church where she ahs made friends with Dr. Abraham Peters, and he tells her the story of how he came to be known as a healer. Dora, John, Will and Sappho walk home.
CHAPTER VII: THE SEWING-CIRCLE
characters:
Mrs. Willis – widow of a black politician, goes into public speaking on the “Woman Question” in order to make her living and gain social standing
Anna Stevens – schoolteacher
Sam Washington – young man, life of social functions
Brother Silas Hamm – had his eye on widow Davis to marry him and care for his ten kids after his wife died, but married another women
Jinny -
setting:
Ma Smith’s chamber, where the older women collect, and the main parlor where the younger ladies wait to put garments together
plot:
Ma Smith is holding a fair to raise money for the church’s mortgage, and a sewing circle to defray costs of food, etc. for the fair. Once the women are all set up at the sewing circle, they discuss events of interest to their race. Mrs. Willis speaks, and argues to Sappho’s interest that women “are virtuous or non-virtuous only when we have a choice under temptation” (149). After the sewing circle, the older people go home and Sam Washington and Will convince Ma Smith to allow a dance. The dance is needed to heat up the girls and facilitate ice-cream sales.
CHAPTER IX: "LOVE TOOK UP THE HARP OF LIFE"
characters:
the Wilsons – connected to John Langley
setting:
Ma Smith’s boarding house
plot:
Will is working on a philosophical essay but is distracted, thinking of his love for Sappho. In the morning, Sappho catches him making her fire, which he does every day. She had assumed that this must have been included in the lodging fee, but he has been doing it because of his love for her. Sappho at first objects to his doing the work for her, but he jokingly proposes that they should be sweethearts, and he continues to do the work subsequently, while she takes to helping Dora darn his socks. Ma Smith sits up one night and grieves the possibility of losing her son, but recognizes that he must go and make a life of his own. When Dora comes home, Ma has been reminiscing about her young life with her husband. Dora is put out because she feels slighted by the Wilsons and suspects that they would be happier if she had chosen a Southern girl, and because he had said something about Southern girls being prettier. Ma reminds her that whites have fostered sectional prejudice among blacks to divide them, and warns her daughter not to be jealous. Upstairs, Sappho realizes that she loves Will and is loved by him, but mourns that she cannot have him and will never be happy.
CHAPTER X: THE FAIR
characters:
Sister Mary Jane Robinson – resentful of the ‘colored 400’
the colored 400 – outsiders who have joined in fair preparations
Sister Scott – a peacemaker church member
Mandy – Aunt Hannah Jackson’s daughter
William Vanderbilt – Aunt Hannah Jackson’s son
Charles Sumner Astor Gould – Aunt Hannah Jackson’s son
Aunt Hannah Jackson
Mrs. Mason – white woman Mrs. Davis worked for
Molly Mason – Mrs. Mason’s daughter, who had a fabulous wedding
setting:
5 AM Monday morning thru Monday afternoon
plot:
Sister Mary Jane Robinson and her friends are jealous of the prizes to be won for those who bring the most money in to the fair. The fair opens on a Monday, and the women arrive to the church at 5 AM to set up. The section directed by Mrs. Davis and Mrs. White is gorgeously decorated, and the other sections soon follow suit to keep up. Everything is in place by late afternoon.
CHAPTER XI: THE FAIR - CONCLUDED
characters:
Madam Frances – fortune teller at the fair, comes with Alphonese (her great nephew)
Alphonse – Sappho’s son, dressed as Mercury at the fair
setting:
7 PM Monday evening through Friday evening
the church
plot:
The fair opens, and the fortune teller Madam Frances is a hit, as is her little helper Mercury. Sappho and Will have a moment together in the refreshment room, waited on by Mrs. Davis, but are interrupted by Dora and Arthur Lewis who tell them that Dora has received a fortune, “All that glistens is not gold / Often have your heard this told. / Despise the false; welcome the true, So shall you receive your due” (206). John Langley, meanwhile, has had the fortune, “He who expects gain shall lose. Be faithful to the object of your choice, or merit the fate reserved for fickleness and deceit” (207). Lewis jokes that it would be lucky for men if Langley would be unfaithful to the object of his choice, and after Dora and Lewis leaves Will confesses to Sappho that he wishes Dora had eyes for Lewis instead of John. John comes by next, in bad spirits about his fortune, and when Alphonse comes with a letter to Will from his mother and will has to get up, John flirts with Sappho. When she reprimands him, he insinuates that she is the mother of Alphonse. The fair is popular and the rivalry between Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Robinson continues, Mrs. Robinson bringing in a group of white people to eat possum on Friday night. Five minutes before the voting closes at nine, a messenger arrives with money from Mrs. Mason that throws the competition to Mrs. Davis. Prizes are given out the next night, and Mrs. Davis sends her $10 prize to Mrs. Robinson. The women have bought the pastor a new suit.
CHAPTER XII: A COLORED POLITICIAN
characters:
Hon. Herbert Clapp
white office boy
setting:
Langley’s office, in early March after news of a lynching in the South
plot:
John Langley’s attraction to Dora is based largely on her family’s relative prosperity, and he contemplates finding a way to make the family’s Montfort connection pay if it will. He wants Sappho, and thinks that he will eventually be able to get her to agree to an illicit affair, which he does not anticipate will interfere with his plans for marriage with Dora. There has been a lynching (of Jim Jones, a black man accused of raping a white woman) in the South. The lynching is the topic of much discussion, and an indignation meeting is to be held in Boston. John is a member of the executive committee of the American Colored League. Hon. Herbert Clapp comes to see him in his office, and the two argue over whether blacks should continue to support the party since it seems intent on pacifying the South before doing anything to help blacks. The argument ends in Judge Clapp mentioning that Langley is up for a new position as City Solicitor and Langley agreeing to work to suppress any passion to rebel that might come out of the indignation meeting.
CHAPTER XIII: THE AMERICAN COLORED LEAGUE
characters:
Judge Watson – president of the American Colored League
setting:
indignation meeting the next Tuesday at a church on X street in Boston
plot:
Judge Watson, the president of the American Colored League, recieves messages from all over the country asking the League to speak out against the lynching. The League decides to agitate, and sends out notices about an indignation meeting, while the press largely sides against the blacks. In view of the negative publicity, the League decides to include a conservative white man among the speakers to ensure that all views are represented. When Judge Watson speaks, he calls for “agitation and eternal vigilance in the formation of public opinion” which he says are what broke slavery. Hon. Herbert Clapp is the next to speak, and he appeals to the audience as rational people to rectify their own mistakes. He argues that equality can be achieved only by miscegenation, and that since miscegenation will never be permitted in the South, blacks must be dominated by whites. Dr. Lewis speaks next and agrees with Clapp, arguing against political agitation in favor of self-improvement and industrial education. He says that political agitation in the North only makes things worse for blacks in the South. John Langley agrees with both speakers.
CHAPTER XIV: LUKE SAWYER SPEAKS TO THE LEAGUE
characters:
Lycurgus (Luke) Sawyer – from Louisiana, educated black man
Beaubean – rescues Luke when the boy’s family is killed, Sappho’s father. son of a black mother and white father who left him land along with his white half-siblings
Mabelle - Sappho
setting:
League meeting – the story Luke tells takes place in Louisiana
plot:
Luke Sawyer speaks to the League and tells them his story. Born to free blacks, he saw his father lynched and family killed after his father was not fast enough to yield way to a white man who saw the success of his store and opened up a competing store on the same street. Luke crawls into the woods to die and is saved by Beaubean, and grows to love Beaubean and his family, especially the daughter Mabelle. Beaubean has a white half brother who kidnaps Mabelle, and she is finally found after three weeks half crazed in a whorehouse. The half brother offers Beaubean $1000 for the girl, and Beaubean throws the money in his face. That night, a mob burns the house and shoots those who try to escape, but Luke steals away with Mabelle wrapped in a blanket. He brings her to a colored convent in New Orleans where he says she dies in childbirth. The speaker reminds his audience that the colonists rebel against a tax on tea, and compares that to the oppression blacks suffer. He calls for “peace if possible; justice at any rate.” Sappho Clarke has fainted away during this talk, and Langley sees her being removed from the hall.
CHAPTER XV: WILL SMITH'S DEFENSE OF HIS RACE
characters:
setting:
League meeting, Boston.
plot:
Will gets up to speak after Luke. He rejects the choice between miscegination and permanent servitude, rejects also the idea that blacks are unfit to higher education, and points out that while the slightest suspicion of the rape of a white woman is used to justify lynching, attacks on black women by white men are frequent, longstanding, and unpunished. Will advocates agitation and the formation of public opinion over the use of brute force. The audience leaves the meeting moved.
CHAPTER XVI: JOHN LANGLEY CONSULTS MADAM FRANCES
characters:
setting:
Madam Frances’ home “The Hill” or “Negro quarter” of West End
plot:
John Langley goes to see Madam Frances and, while he waits, hears Sappho call her “Aunt Sally” and sees Sappho leave. Madame Frances tells John that he will lose the one he has and the other too, and that he will not gain wealth. He looks into her screen and sees an ice field that fills him with despair. He curses his folly in going to Madame Frances, but can’t help feeling that there is something to the images he has seen.
CHAPTER XIV: THE CANTERBURY CLUB DINNER
characters:
Mr. Withington – English Parliament member
setting:
The Cantebury Club Dinner in Massachusetts
plot:
John Langley, Will Smith and Dr. Lewis are all at the Canterbury Club Dinner. Will sits next to Mr. Withington, a part of whose mission in the U.S. is to gain a clearer understanding of the race conflict. Langley tells Withington that he cannot get a clear view of race relations in the U.S. from England because he can access it only through the biased reporting by Southern whites. Will calls constitutional equality a political fiction. When Withington asks about the crime of rape, Lewis argues that the charge is usually false and offers as an example the case of John Thomas. The Alabama Senator objects to Lewis’s charge that white men rape black women, and Lewis counters by pointing to complexions of the black men present. When Withington asks whether the Government should help blacks to leave the country, Will says that blacks should stay and agitate for their rights. Will has to leave, and Withington spends the rest of the evening speaking to Langley. As they are saying goodnight, Withington promises to do what he can to influence sentiment for the blacks in England, and offers future monetary support. When Withington gives Langley his card, the name is familiar: Charles Montfort-Withington, MP.
CHAPTER XVIII: WHAT EASTER SUNDAY BROUGHT
characters:
setting:
a dinner
Easter Sunday
the Public Garden
Sappho’s room in the Smith house
plot:
At a dinner party, Dora says something to Langley and he does not respond. She looks and sees that he is staring at Sappho. Dr. Lewis takes Dora home. On Easter Sunday, Will is in the Public Garden when Sappho happens by, and after some initial embarrassment on her part the two declare their mutual love and are engaged. They decide to save that day for themselves and wait until the next morning to tell Will’s family. That night while the Smiths are out, Langley enters Sappho’s room without knocking and says that he knows she is Mabelle Beaubean, and that Will is too proud of his family to be happy married to her. He suggests that she should turn to him instead and when Sappho says that she could never marry anyone but Will, Langley clarifies that a man of his aspirations could not think of marrying her and that he meant to have her as a mistress instead. Sappho kicks him out of her room. She leaves late that night.
CHAPTER XIX: THE BITTER ARROW
characters:
setting:
Smith House
Langley’s office
plot:
Will rises early to share the news of his engagement with Dora and Ma Smith, but when Dora goes up to Sappho’s room to find her, she is gone. A letter comes in which Sappho tells Will of her true identity and John Langley’s perfidy. She says she has realized that she would only bring disgrace on him in marrying. Will leaves to confront John Langley, and Dora gives her brother her engagement ring to return. John Langley was poor as a child and worked to gain knowledge and position but without giving any thought to the development of his moral faculties. He had thought that night of going to Sappho and telling her that he would keep her secret, but those thoughts had faded in the daylight. Will finds Langley at the latter’s office. Langley pretends not to know what Will is talking about at first, and then suggests that Sappho is promiscuous. The two are in a physical fight when Lewis enters and separates them. Will gives John until that night to remove his things from the Smith house
CHAPTER XX: MOTHER-LOVE
characters:
setting:
Aunt Sally’s House in Boston
Sisters of the Holy Family Convent in New Orleans
home of Monsieur Louis in New Orleans
plot:
Sappho goes to the home of her Aunt Sally (Madame Frances of the church fair) and announces her intention to care for the child as her own and to go with him to New Orleans. Aunt Sally says that she won’t be around much longer, but plans to join the two in New Orleans. Sappho goes to where Alphonse is sleeping and tells him that she is his mother. He recognizes her as the pretty woman from the fair and falls asleep beside her. Sappho leaves for New Orleans the next day, and is moved by the porter from the sleeping car to the Jim Crow car en route. By the time she gets there, she is so exhausted that she faints away into the arms of one of the Sisters of the Holy Family, and the convent (although populated now by different nuns) takes her in for the second time. Alphonse is in the orphanage while she recovers from her illness. She takes the Mother into her confidence and, after some meditation, the Mother counsels her to keep her identity as Sappho Clark and to work, as a young widow, in the home of Monsieur Louis, a widower who seeks a governess for his two grandchildren. Alphonse stays at the orphanage but sees his mother frequently and plays with the children of Monsieur Louis. When Sappho has worked there for two years, Monsieur Louis proposes marriage as a way to ensure his own happiness and Sappho’s security. She needs to think it over, and he asks her to take two weeks to decide and to let him know on Easter Sunday.
CHAPTER XXI: AFTER MANY DAYS
characters:
Anson Pollock, Jr – grandnephew of Anson Pollock, father of John Pollock Langley
Lucy’s granddaughter – former slave, mother of Anson Pollock Langley
English lawyer – sent for by Mr. Withington
American detective – hired by Mr. Withington
setting:
Ma Smith’s House – Boston
Bermuda
plot:
Will graduates from Harvard, Langley begins seeing the daughter of a well-to-do man in the city, and Dora enters into a lively correspondence with Dr. Lewis and then, when he visits in July, agrees to marry him in October. Toward the end of July, Ma Smith is speaking with Ophelia Davis when the latter asks Ma Smith to rent the house to her, and announces her engagement to the much younger minister in training Mr. James. Sara Ann thinks that Mr. James is just after her money, but Mrs. Davis declares that Sarah Ann is only jealous because they will have to part after the marriage. Mrs. Davis tells Ma Smith about Mr. James’ courtship of her, which culminated in a bad fall from their bikes. In the carriage ride home, Mr. James asks Ophelia to marry him and she says, “Mr. Jeems, ef you want yer rib, I’m her” (368).
After hearing this story Ma Smith is reflecting on her own love and life when the doorbell rings, and Mrs. Davis ushers in Chales Montfort-Withington, who has come to see Will. A conversation about Will leads Ma Smith into the history of her father’s family, and Withington listens with growing attention as he begins to suspect that he has found a lost family connection and that Ma Smith is his cousin. Will has come in during the story, and Withington tells them both his own side of the story: Charles had married his rescuer’s daughter and Withington had sued the U.S. government winning a hundred thousand dollars in damages for Charles but had been unable to find Jesse. Jesse had later been found and a correspondence begun, but that had ended at some point, to the grief of both parties. Jesse (Will’s father) had destroyed Charles’s letters when they ceased to come. Charles had been set to leave for America to find Jesse, but was struck with paralysis on the eve of his departure. Withington’s lawyer comes from England, and they hire one of the best detectives in the country to find evidence of Jesse’s identity. That detective calls Withington to Bermuda, and he brings Will and the lawyer. There they interview Lucy, Grace Montfort’s foster sister and maid, now a hundred years old, and discover that Lucy’s granddaughter had a child while in slavery that was fathered by Anson Pollock Jr, the grand nephew of old Anson Pollock. This man is John Pollock Langley. Will relates all this information to his mother by letter, and tells her that when Langley’s mother had asked about him he had given an evasive answer, but that he would inform Langley of the discovery and leave it up to him whether he would claim the relatives.
Dora and Lewis are married in October, and Langley attends unhappy and despairing. He gives her a gold and pearl bracelet anonymously, engraved with her name and the date of her wedding.
A trial before the Supreme Court establishes the identity of Ma Smith and her right as heir to her father Jesse’s $150,000.
CHAPTER XXII: SO HE BRINGETH THEM INTO THEIR DESIRED HEAVEN
characters:
setting:
three years later
plot:
Will Smith finishes courses at Heidelberg, and goes to visit his sister in New Orleans. All the work at Dr. Lewis’s school is done by the students themselves, which keeps tuition low and ensures that they value their education. In conversation, Will tells Lewis that he thinks to foster self-respect students should be removed far from prejudice. While he is there, Dora encourages him to attend the Easter Sunday services at Sisters of the Holy Family. He does, and is surprised to recognize Alphonse in the uniform of the orphanage. He rushes to the convent house on St. Peter St., and has just been admitted to see the Mother Superior when he hears a voice and turns to see Sappho. They reunite, and the family is glad to have her back. Will asks why she did not trust him to understand, but forgives her. That evening Will accompanies Sappho to Monsieur Louis’s, and the older man knows his loss the moment they see him. They tell him their story and he insists that he must supply the wedding dress and be the one to give Sappho away.
Soon after Dora’s wedding and the family’s sudden acquisition of wealthy, Langley leaves on an expedition to the new Eldorado in the Klondike gold-fields. In his will, he leaves his savings to his mother’s family in Bermuda. Striking out for the gold fields with thirty hardy English men, Langley is optimistic, but they find hunger and cold instead of gold and die off one by one. Langley learns to pray during this time and then, when he is the last man left alive from an expedition of thirty, he leaves the bunks to die out on the frozen ice fields and sees Madame France’s prophesy made good.
A few months later, Doctor Lewis, Dora, Will Smith, Sapho, Alphonse, and Ma Smith make their long-promised trip to see Mr. Withington