Roll of Thunder,

Hear My Cry
by
Mildred D. Taylor

First published: 1976

Mildred D. Taylor - BIOGRAPHY

Mildred Taylor was born in Jackson, Mississippi on September 13, 1943 but
grew up in Toledo, Ohio where her father had gone to find work. She attended
the University of Toledo and spent two years in Ethiopia working with the Peace
Corp. She then attended the University of Colorado where she received a
Masters degree in journalism and was active in the Black Student Alliance.
In addition to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (first published in 1976), Taylor has
written Song of the Trees which was named a New York Times Outstanding
Book of the year 1975, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, The Road to Memphis and
The Well. All five books continue the story of the Logan family. Roll of Thunder
was produced as a three part television mini series in 1978. Let the Circle Be
Unbroken, received a 1981 American Library Association Best Book for Young
Adults award as well as a 1982 American Book Award nominee in the
hardcover fiction category, and the winner of a Coretta Scott King Award in
1982. The Road to Memphis and her book The Gold Cadillac both received
Christopher Awards.
Taylor derives much of her inspiration from stories told in her own family,
stories often recited on trips to the South to visit her grandparents who had
remained in Mississippi. The stories contradicted the information presented in
the history books. Taylor says, Those stories about the small and often
dangerous triumphs of black people . . . about human pride and survival in a
cruelly racist society were like nothing I read in the history books.
. . . There were no black heroes or heroines in those books; no beautiful black
ladies, no handsome black men; no people filled with pride, strength, or
endurance. . . [The books told] a history of a docile, subservient people happy
with their fate who did little or nothing to shatter the chains that bound them,
both before and after slavery. There was obviously a terrible contradiction
between what the books said and what I had learned from my family."

These contradictions create the themes for Taylors books.

Her novels include:
Song of the Trees (1975)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976)
Let the Circle be Unbroken (1981)
The Gold Cadillac (1987)
The Friendship (1987)
Mississippi Bridge (1990)
The Road to Memphis (1990)
The Well: David's Story (1995)

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry has received the following awards:

Notable Book Citation, American Library Association, 1976
National Book Award (finalist) Honor Book Citation
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, 1977
Jane Addams Honor Citation, 1977
Newberry Medal, 1977
Buxtehuder Bulle Award, 1985

LITERARY / HISTORICAL INFORMATION

The story takes place in Mississippi in the early part of the Great Depression. It
is long after the Civil War, but long before integration. The southern states had
been permitted to practice a separate but equal policy which really had
nothing equal about it. Whites and blacks were separated in every way-
separate schools, separate churches, designated water fountains, specific
places to stand or sit in a market place, and so forth. Blacks had been freed by
the Civil War but many had no place to go accept back to the plantations they
had left where they worked as tenant farmers. There they were at the mercy
of the landlord who could take whatever percentage he wanted along with
other fees.
The night riders of the story seem like echoes of the Ku Klux Klan in that
they attacked without warning and with little or no provocation. Furthermore,
Blacks had very few who would take up their cause, and those who did-like Mr.
Jamison-were ridiculed and threatened by others in the community. White men
could attack and kill Blacks and were never so much as questioned on it while
a Black man could expect severe sentences for even being accused of
something a white person did not like.
The Logan family is unusual in this context, for they own their land and thus
are not dependent on the white landowners in the area. The land itself,
however, is not sufficient to provide their living and the price of their primary
crop, cotton, is controlled by those to whom they have to sell it. Thus Mr.
Logan stays away from home for weeks at a time in order to work on the
railroad.

LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING
The story is set in Mississippi during the Great Depression around 1933-1934.
It is an area where former plantation owners and their descendants have been
forced to resort to sharecropping their land in order to continue some
semblance of their pre-Civil War way of life. The Black families who had been
freed by the war have had no where to go and no means of survival off the
plantations. Thus they became the tenant farmers or sharecroppers, planting
acres of cotton or other crops. The landowner took a percentage of the crop as
his share, and the tenant farmer tried to survive on what remained. A major
problem with the system was that there was no standard for what was a fair
share of the farmers work.
In this type of environment, a Black family who owned their own land was
unique and would have been seen as a threat to the whites. There were also
no banking regulations. If a bank owner wanted to recall a loan and demand
that it be paid immediately, there was nothing to prevent him from doing so.
In Mississippi, not even the American legal system worked for the blacks. A
white person could even go so far as to kill a Black without fear of prosecution,
but a Black person could be executed for very minor offenses-or even on
entirely false charges, which frequently happened. It is in this environment of
fear and subjugation that we find the Logan family.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

Major Characters
Cassie Logan
The protagonist. Nine year old daughter of David and Mary Logan. First person
narrator. Faces problems of racism. She is the second oldest child in her family.
T.J. Avery
The son of a black sharecropper family who is farming on the Granger land.
Obnoxious know-it-all who commits serious errors in judgment in choosing his
friends. Cheats on tests, makes fun of his friends, tries to get the Logan
children to disobey their parents.
Stacey Logan
Cassies older brother. Reasonably mature 13 year old. Cassie looks up to him
for explanations on things she doesnt know yet. The oldest child in the Logan
family.
Mr. Morrison
A guest who moves into a little shack on the Logan land. David brings him
under the pretense of giving Mr. Morrison a job, but he really is there to
protect the family when David is away on his railroad job. Very large man with
a gentle nature who knows how to take a stand when its needed.

Minor Characters
Mama
Mary Logan, school teacher and mother to the Logan children. Soft spoken but
not afraid to stand up for what is right. Starts the business of boycotting the
Wallace store.
Big Ma
Grandmother of the Logan children on the fathers side. She actually owns the
land but has it transferred into her sons names to protect it. Tells stories at
Christmas time about her own background.
Papa (David Logan)
Father to the Logan children. Usually is away from home to work on the
railroad. Metes out advice and punishment when he is home. Takes action
against Wallace store and burns his own cotton to stop a hanging.
Uncle Hammer
Davids brother. A generous hothead who will do anything for the family but
has too much of a temper to be able to spend much time with the Logans.
Sells his car to save the land.
Christopher John
Cassies next youngest sibling. Chubby tag-a-long. Has no significant action.
Little Man
Cassies baby brother. Just entering first grade at the start of the story. Has a
fetish for cleanliness, but doesnt like to be left out of anything.
Mr. Avery
A sharecropper on Granger land that adjoins the Logan land. Easily
intimidated, unable to control his son, T.J.
Miss Crocker
Cassies school teacher. Comes across as rather pompous. Paddles Cassie and
Little Man for refusing the books.
Jim Lee Barnett
The owner of a mercantile in Strawberry. Dies of injuries received during the
robbery of his store.
Mr. Jamison
A white lawyer and friend to the Logans. Signs for credit so the sharecroppers
can shop in Vicksburg
R.W. and Melvin Simms
White teenage boys. Have no respect for blacks, including T.J. but will take
advantage of his ignorance in order to commit crimes and transfer the blame
to him. Break in to Barnetts Mercantile, but blame T.J.
Lillian Jean
The Simms daughter. An arrogant nine year old who insults Cassie in
Strawberry
Mr. Simms
Father to Lillian Jean, R.W., Melvin and Jeremy. Hates blacks in general.
Involved in the Strawberry incident where he shoves Cassie into the road and
demands a humiliating apology for Lillian Jean.
Jeremy Simms
He tries to befriend the Logans in spite of his family. A quiet, good natured
little boy who doesnt seem to fit with his own people. Brings messages to the
Logans and gets help when the fire starts.
Mr. Granger
A white land owner. Pays 50 cents an hour to field workers. Wants to buy the
Logan land as it once belonged to his ancestors.
Mary Lou Wellever
A student; the daughter of the principal. Tries to squabble with Cassie on the
first day of school about her choice of seat.
Other students
Gracey Pearson, Alma Scott, Moe Turner. Students of sharecroppers. Mentioned
on the first day of school, but have no action in the plot
The Laniers
Sharecroppers. Have no action other than helping to fight the fire.
The Berrys
Sharecroppers. Victims of the initial tragedy which motivated the Logans to
stop shopping at the Wallace store. The Wallace brothers dowsed the Berry
brothers in kerosene and set them on fire. Mama takes the children to visit the
Berrys as an explanation of why they are not to go to the Wallace store.

SETTING
The story is set in Mississippi during the Great Depression around 1933-1934.
It is an area where former plantation owners and their descendants have been
forced to resort to sharecropping their land in order to continue some
semblance of their pre-Civil War way of life. The Black families who had been
freed by the war have had no where to go and no means of survival off the
plantations. Thus they became the tenant farmers or sharecroppers, planting
acres of cotton or other crops. The landowner took a percentage of the crop as
his share, and the tenant farmer tried to survive on what remained. A major
problem with the system was that there was no standard for what was a fair
share of the farmers work.
In this type of environment, a Black family who owned their own land was
unique and would have been seen as a threat to the whites. There were also
no banking regulations. If a bank owner wanted to recall a loan and demand
that it be paid immediately, there was nothing to prevent him from doing so.
In Mississippi, not even the American legal system worked for the blacks. A
white person could even go so far as to kill a Black without fear of prosecution,
but a Black person could be executed for very minor offenses-or even on
entirely false charges, which frequently happened. It is in this environment of
fear and subjugation that we find the Logan family.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

Major Characters
Cassie Logan
The protagonist. Nine year old daughter of David and Mary Logan. First person
narrator. Faces problems of racism. She is the second oldest child in her family.
T.J. Avery
The son of a black sharecropper family who is farming on the Granger land.
Obnoxious know-it-all who commits serious errors in judgment in choosing his
friends. Cheats on tests, makes fun of his friends, tries to get the Logan
children to disobey their parents.
Stacey Logan
Cassies older brother. Reasonably mature 13 year old. Cassie looks up to him
for explanations on things she doesnt know yet. The oldest child in the Logan
family.
Mr. Morrison
A guest who moves into a little shack on the Logan land. David brings him
under the pretense of giving Mr. Morrison a job, but he really is there to
protect the family when David is away on his railroad job. Very large man with
a gentle nature who knows how to take a stand when its needed.

Minor Characters
Mama
Mary Logan, school teacher and mother to the Logan children. Soft spoken but
not afraid to stand up for what is right. Starts the business of boycotting the
Wallace store.
Big Ma
Grandmother of the Logan children on the fathers side. She actually owns the
land but has it transferred into her sons names to protect it. Tells stories at
Christmas time about her own background.
Papa (David Logan)
Father to the Logan children. Usually is away from home to work on the
railroad. Metes out advice and punishment when he is home. Takes action
against Wallace store and burns his own cotton to stop a hanging.
Uncle Hammer
Davids brother. A generous hothead who will do anything for the family but
has too much of a temper to be able to spend much time with the Logans.
Sells his car to save the land.
Christopher John
Cassies next youngest sibling. Chubby tag-a-long. Has no significant action.
Little Man
Cassies baby brother. Just entering first grade at the start of the story. Has a
fetish for cleanliness, but doesnt like to be left out of anything.
Mr. Avery
A sharecropper on Granger land that adjoins the Logan land. Easily
intimidated, unable to control his son, T.J.
Miss Crocker
Cassies school teacher. Comes across as rather pompous. Paddles Cassie and
Little Man for refusing the books.
Jim Lee Barnett
The owner of a mercantile in Strawberry. Dies of injuries received during the
robbery of his store.
Mr. Jamison
A white lawyer and friend to the Logans. Signs for credit so the sharecroppers
can shop in Vicksburg
R.W. and Melvin Simms
White teenage boys. Have no respect for blacks, including T.J. but will take
advantage of his ignorance in order to commit crimes and transfer the blame
to him. Break in to Barnetts Mercantile, but blame T.J.
Lillian Jean
The Simms daughter. An arrogant nine year old who insults Cassie in
Strawberry
Mr. Simms
Father to Lillian Jean, R.W., Melvin and Jeremy. Hates blacks in general.
Involved in the Strawberry incident where he shoves Cassie into the road and
demands a humiliating apology for Lillian Jean.
Jeremy Simms
He tries to befriend the Logans in spite of his family. A quiet, good natured
little boy who doesnt seem to fit with his own people. Brings messages to the
Logans and gets help when the fire starts.
Mr. Granger
A white land owner. Pays 50 cents an hour to field workers. Wants to buy the
Logan land as it once belonged to his ancestors.
Mary Lou Wellever
A student; the daughter of the principal. Tries to squabble with Cassie on the
first day of school about her choice of seat.
Other students
Gracey Pearson, Alma Scott, Moe Turner. Students of sharecroppers. Mentioned
on the first day of school, but have no action in the plot
The Laniers
Sharecroppers. Have no action other than helping to fight the fire.
The Berrys
Sharecroppers. Victims of the initial tragedy which motivated the Logans to
stop shopping at the Wallace store. The Wallace brothers dowsed the Berry
brothers in kerosene and set them on fire. Mama takes the children to visit the
Berrys as an explanation of why they are not to go to the Wallace store.

CONFLICT

Protagonist
Cassie Logan, a 9 year old girl in the Logan family wants to be able to go to
school, choose her own friends, have nice books to read, and in general enjoy
the rights and privileges-and receive the respect-that ought to belong to any
human being. However, Cassie and her brothers live in the deep south during
the depression in an area that suffers from racist attitudes in spite of the
abolition of slavery nearly 75 years earlier. Although there are many frustrating
little incidents-and some that are not so little-the primary conflict is internal for
Cassie. She is beginning to grow up and to realize that, whether it is right or
not, there are things she cannot do and cannot have just because she is black.
While Cassie does not have to accept it, in her particular time, she does have
to figure out how to live with it and still preserve her sense of personal identity,
something that is strongly connected to the land her father owns.

Antagonists
The antagonists are the white landowners, shopkeepers and their children with
whom Cassie and her siblings must interact. If the Blacks do not behave as
required, they can expect to be threatened and humiliated by the whites or
even tormented and tortured by the night riders.

Climax
The climax occurs when T.J. Avery gets involved in robbery and assault along
with two white boys whom he regards as friends. When the boys go too far and
T.J. tries to get out of it, they beat him up. The boys, who wear masks to
conceal their identity, put the blame for the robbery all onto T.J. A group of
outraged white men descend on the Avery house intending to hang T.J..
However, David Logan, Cassies father, sets his own cotton on fire to distract
the landowners and prevent a hanging.

Outcome
The landowners and Logan family work together to put out the fire. The Logans
are able to come up with the tax money and continue holding on to their land,
but T.J. Avery is most likely going to be executed for the murder of Mr. Barnett
even though he did not do it. The story ends with Cassie weeping for the land
and for T.J., knowing that as a 9 year old girl, there is nothing she can do to
change the situation.

SHORT PLOT SUMMARY (Synopsis)

The story begins with the Logan children on their way to school. They walk to
an all-black school and have to play a cruel game every day as the driver of
the bus of white children enjoys racing the bus past the Logans just to see
them get covered with dust or mud, depending on the weather. The children
try to time their walk so they can get up on a bank before the bus goes by, but
usually they fail and are trapped between steep banks and the ditch.
This year is Little Mans first year of school. He is a very intelligent little six
year old with a fetish for cleanliness and is frustrated from day one when the
bus races by and sprays dust all over his best clothes.
He will start out in the same room as his 4th grade sister Cassie as the first
grade teacher has not returned yet. The children start the year by getting new
books for the first time-only the books arent new, but are beat up cast-offs
that have been labeled as suitable for the nigra children. Little Man first
complains that the book is dirty, then sees the cover label and throws the book
on the floor and stomps on it rebels. He refuses to pick it up at the teachers
order. Cassie sticks up for him and both children get a whipping. Their mother,
also a teacher, sticks up for them and pastes brown paper over the school
district label of the books for her own students as well as those of her children.
The Logan children are more fortunate than the rest of the children as their
parents own the land which they farm rather than having to sharecrop the land
as most of the area farmers do. As the school year progresses, other little
complications occur among the children. Stacey finds a way to get even with
the bus, and T.J. Avery, an obnoxious 14 year old, entices the Logan children
into disobedient things that get them in trouble-until he fails his grade for
cheating and drops out of school altogether. Furious at Cassies mother for
failing him, T.J. reports Mrs. Logan for defacing the school books and for
teaching material that is not in the books. His actions cost Mrs. Logan her job.
T.J. also begins to hang around with some trouble making white boys who
promise they will get him anything he wants. He doesnt realize that they are
just using him until it is too late.
In the meantime, the Logan family is struggling to hang onto their land. Papa
takes a stand, however, when men of the Berry family are falsely accused of
bothering a white woman and are dowsed in kerosene and set on fire by the
Wallace brothers. Papa tries to lead a boycott of the Wallace store by shopping
in distant Vicksburg. At first, the other sharecroppers back him up, but threats
of being kicked off the land and sent to chain gangs gradually force them back
to the Wallace store where they are being overcharged for their supplies.
Papa makes one last trip to Vicksburg, taking Stacey and Mr. Morrison with
him. While he is doing his shopping, someone meddles with the wheels on the
wagon, causing them to fall off on the road on the way home. Papa is trying to
put the wheels back on when white men pull up behind them in a pick up
truck. One of them fires a gun and injures Papa; startled, the mule bolts and
the wagon runs over Papas leg. Mr. Morrison singlehandedly takes on the three
white men, breaking arms and effectively getting them to back off.
The incident prevents Papa from returning to his job on the railroad. Events
are coming to a head as the bank forecloses on the mortgage and rumors build
of changes in T.J. who is openly running with the Simms brothers. The climax
of the story comes when T.J. and the Simms brothers break into Barnetts
Mercantile in Strawberry. The Simms brothers, who are wearing stocking
masks, break into the display case and take out a pearl handled gun that T.J.
had longed for. They are trying to break into another cabinet when the
Barnetts appear on the stairs from their apartment. Mr. Barnett struggles with
Melvin, trying to get his cash box back. R.W. smashes him on the head with an
ax and shoves Mrs. Barnett so she hits her head on a stove. Believing they
may be dead, T.J. threatens to tell the whole story, but the Simms boys beat
him up and then take off to play pool. When he is finally able to move, T.J.
makes his way to the Logan home and taps on Cassies window to be let in. He
tells his story to Cassie and Stacey whom he persuades to help him get home.
T.J. is no sooner home than a string of cars appears and stops at the Avery
home. While the Logan children watch from the woods, the Wallaces and other
white men drag the Averys out of the house, knock the girls and parents
around, and drag T.J. out on his knees. There is talk of hanging him.
Mr. Jamison, the attorney, appears and tries to get the men to let him and the
sheriff take T.J.. Stacey sends Cassie and the younger boys back home to get
Papa. David Logan and Mr. Morrison go after Stacey, but while they are gone
the thunderstorm breaks. A section of the cotton field close to the woods is
suddenly on fire, ostensibly from a lightning strike. The danger of the fire
getting into the woods and then to other plantations deters the white men
from their vengeful intentions as all spend the night fighting the fire. Cassie
later realizes that her father set the fire himself to stop the hanging.
The story ends tragically; Mr. Barnett dies from his injuries and Cassie realizes
that while her family has managed to keep their land, T.J. will not keep his life.
The implication is that T.J. will be convicted of robbery and murder and that
the white boys who instigated the whole thing will go free.

THEMES

Major Themes

Friendship / Family
Cassie learns how disaster can result from choosing friends for the wrong
reason as well as how to use false friendship to her own advantage. She and
her siblings also discover that sometimes people who are not blood related are
just as important as actual relatives. Part of growing up is developing an
understanding of the things that really hold families and friends together.

Identity / Survival
An important element in being able to survive during hard times is a strong
sense of identity, especially in relationship to other members of the family and
community. For the Logans, their sense of identity develops from pride in
ownership of their land as well as memory of their combined history.

Minor Themes

Racism
Although racism permeates the book and could be considered a major theme, I
feel that the author used racism as a tool rather than as her primary subject.

The Great Depression

The Great Depression created an environment that exacerbated problems for
both cultures. The story does not dwell on poverty, but the hard times prevent
many of the characters from doing anything to improve their lots.

MOOD
Somber, tragic, leaving the reader with a paralyzing sense of the injustice and
cruelty inflicted on some of Americas people. The protagonist also develops an
understandable sense of bitterness.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES WITH NOTES / ANALYSIS

CHAPTER 1

Summary
The story opens with the Logan children on their way to school. They are
walking which is usual, but as it is the first day of school, they are also wearing
their best clothes and shoes Usually they go to school barefoot. Little Man, the
youngest is slowing everyone down because he is trying not to get any dirt on
his clothes. The children are Little Man, Christopher John, Cassie, the main
character of the story, and Stacey, the oldest boy. We receive a little
background-information about the surrounding land which is occupied by
tenant farmers in contrast to the Logan land which is actually owned by the
family. Papa works out of town in order to make enough money to pay the
taxes on the land.
Part way through the Granger land, the Logans are joined by T.J. Avery, son of
one of Grangers tenant farmers.
T.J. is repeating his class (which is taught by Mary Logan) because he had
failed the previous year. On the way to school he informs the Logan of the
burning. Although he doesnt know why, T.J. does know that on the
previous night some white men had poured kerosene on the Berry men
(another tenant family) and then lit a match to them.

Before the children can reach a crossroads where a bus load of white children
regularly turns off toward the white school, the bus appears. The driver
deliberately races by the children at an unreasonable speed so he can cover
the Logans with dust. Attempts to get onto the bank in time to get out of the
way are unsuccessful. They are dusting themselves off and cursing the bus
when another friend, a little white boy named Jeremy Simms comes off of a
forest path and walks as far as the cross roads with them.
The kids attend the Great Faith Elementary and Secondary School. Most of the
children are from sharecropper families. The highlight of the first day of school
is that all the children will have books this year. However, the books are 11
year old rejects from the white school. Little Man feels insulted and refuses the
dirty, worn books. Cassie defends him and they both get paddled. After school,
Miss. Crocker reports the incident to Mary Logan, whereupon Mary not only
defends her kids, but pastes brown paper over the telling labels of the books
for her own students.

Notes
This chapter not only introduces the major characters, but also sets up the
complications that will unfold as the story progresses.
Cassie, the protagonist, is a 9 year old girl who is just beginning to awaken to
some of the injustices continually perpetrated against the sharecropper
families around her. The school girl trivialities of who is going to sit where pale
against the insult of being given a book labeled nigra after 10 years of white
students had already used it.
Stacey, age 13, is the oldest boy and looks after his younger siblings to the
best of his ability. Little Man is characterized by his passion for cleanliness, an
attribute which makes the dirty books that much more repulsive to him.
Mary Logan is a soft-spoken woman who thinks things through before drawing
conclusions.
T.J., a rather cocky 14 year old and friend of Staceys, is always bursting with
new information and doesnt hesitate to make up a story to protect himself. He
is not particularly honest, but he doesnt mean any harm to anyone either. His
major problem is that he has poor judgement and fails to recognize when
white boys with whom he wants to be friends are merely using him.

CHAPTER 2

Summary
The Logans are in the field picking cotton when Papa appears coming down the
road. He is home unexpectedly and has brought a guest, Mr. Morrison, with
him. Mr. Morrison has lost his job on the railroad for fighting with white men;
he says it was the white mens fault, but, of course, they did not lose their
jobs. Cassie senses that Mr. Morrison is there for some reason other than a
job.
After church the next day, Cassie listens to the adults as they exchange the
neighborhood gossip. One of the Berry men have died; Mrs. Lanier says that
the whole incident happened when the Berrys pulled up to a gas pump next to
some white men and Henrietta Toggins claimed that one of the Berry men had
been flirting with her daughter. The men chased the Berrys dragged them out
of a house and set fire to them. As if changing the subject, Papa announces
that the Logan family doesnt shop at the Wallace store which is where most of
the sharecroppers do their shopping. Papa says that the Wallaces have been
selling bootleg liquor to kids and that he doesnt want his children hanging
around the Wallaces.

Notes
Taylor uses the church meeting and front porch chat as devices to tell what
actually happened to the Berrys although she does not yet reveal who is
responsible. Mr. Morrison is introduced as a human tree in height, taller even
that David Logan who is over 6 feet himself. Mary Logan also implies that
things are going on which have not been revealed to the children, thus creating
some foreshadowing for future crises.

CHAPTER 3

Summary
The end of October with the late fall rains has arrived. The children trudge to
school in the mud, trying to get to the crossroads in time to prevent the
Jefferson Davis school bus from spraying them with wet, red mud from the
puddles. They are not usually successful. The next day the bus speeds by so
close to the them that the children are forced to leap into the ditch to avoid
being hit. Stacey figures out a way to get revenge and prevent the splashing
from happening again, at least for awhile. At lunch time, he takes Cassie and
the boys through the woods to the spot where the bus had splashed them that
morning. Using pails and shovels, they dig a ditch all the way across the road
and fill it with water. The plan works even better than they had planned, as
continued rain and washout widen their ditch to the proportions of a small lake
all the way across the dirt road. The bus driver barrels full speed into the ditch,
breaking an axle and getting the bus stuck in the mud. The white children have
to walk home in the rain.
That evening the children struggle with fits of giggles over their sweet revenge.
Their revelry is brought to a halt when Mr. Avery arrives with the news that the
night men are riding again. He mentions the bus driver which makes the kids
think that someone knows what they did. They have a miserable, sleepless
night, but nothing happens beyond a caravan of cars using their driveway to
turn around.

Notes
The night men are a group of self appointed enforcers who ride around at
night terrifying the black families whenever they think one of them has gotten
out of line. Their continuous threat is one of the reasons David Logan has
brought Mr. Morrision to their home.

CHAPTER 4

Summary
After the Logan children have moped for a week, expecting any moment to
have their secret revealed, T.J. Avery pays a visit to the boys. T.J. wants them
to sneak down to the Wallace store and learn how to do the new dances, but
Stacey reminds him that they are not permitted to go there. Failing to bait
them with forbidden adventure,
T.J. announces that he has the latest about the night men. They had gone to
the Tatum place where they had tarred and feathered Mr. Tatum for calling Mr.
Barnett a liar. Mr. Barnett (who ran the Mercantile in Strawberry) had charged
Tatum for a number of items that were never ordered. Relieved that it had
nothing to do with the bus, the children leave the room to run an errand for
Mama-but T.J. does not immediately follow as he says he has to get his hat. A
few minutes later they find him in Mamas room looking at her school
materials. He denies looking for answers to an upcoming test, but the
implication is that he was doing exactly that.
A few days later, T.J. shows them a paper on the way to school. Stacey takes it
from him and tears it into little pieces. At lunch time, T.J. makes a new cheat
list. When he sees Mrs. Logan coming toward him during the test, he slips the
notes to Stacey who doesnt see his mother coming. Consequently, Stacey gets
the whipping for cheating.
After school, T.J. takes off toward the Wallace store. Stacey follows him after
trying to tell the other children to go home. They refuse and go with him.
Stacey catches up to T.J. outside the store and a fist fight ensues which is
stopped by Mr. Morrison who puts the kids in his wagon and takes them home.
He promises not to tell, but only because he is leaving it up to Stacey to tell on
himself.
The next evening, Stacey having already told his mother about the incident,
Mary takes the kids for a ride to the Berry home. There they meet Mr. Berry
who spends his days in the dark and lives in constant pain as a result of the
burns inflicted on him. Mary tells the children that the Wallaces did that-which
is the reason they no longer go to the Wallace store. On the way home she
stops at the Turner home in an attempt to get them to stop shopping at the
Wallace store as well.

Notes
Taylor uses a pacing device to create the passage of time of the ride home
from the store and to tell the story of the Logan land. They are the only black
family in the area who owns their own land; Grandpa Logan had bought 200
acres from a Yankee who had purchased all the Granger land after the war. The
elder Jamison had also bought about 2000 acres. Later the Grangers wanted to
buy it all back, but the elder Jamison and Logan wouldnt sell. When Mr.
Jamison died, his son Wade sold another 200 acres to the Logans and the rest
of it back to the Grangers. Mr. Granger is at the Logan house when Mr.
Morrison gets the kids home. Mama tells them that he has been after them to
sell their land again.

CHAPTER 5

Summary
Big Ma makes a trip to Strawberry to sell her butter, milk and eggs. For the
first time, Cassie is permitted to go with her along with Stacey and T.J.. Cassie
objects to Big Mas market spot which is at the end of the market, well away
from the main stream of buyers, but Big Ma explains that she has to take the
isolated spot because the good spots are the booths for white people.
After the marketing, Big Ma has business in Jamisons office. She tells the
children to stay in the wagon until she returns. Getting impatient, T.J. suggests
that they go to the Mercantile and look around, arguing that they would be
doing Big Ma a favor by ordering up their stuff. T.J. points out a pearl handled
gun that he would like to have, then gives his list to Mr. Barnett, the
storekeeper. Barnett begins to fill the order but stops several times to fill
orders for white people.
Cassie gets angry because of the white people pushing their list in front of her
and steps behind the counter in an attempt to get Mr. Barnetts attention. Mr.
Barnett becomes angry, and orders Stacey to get her out of the store.
Despondent, Cassie wanders along the sidewalk and accidentally bumps into
Lillian Jean Simms. She apologizes, but Lillian demands that Cassie get off the
sidewalk. Cassie refuses only to have Mr. Simms shove her off the sidewalk in
such a way that she falls in the road. Big Ma returns to the wagon intending to
go home, but Mr. Simms will not let them go until Cassie makes a humiliating
apology to Lillian Jean. Big Ma orders Cassie to say the words Mr. Simms
wants.

Notes
Cassie has never been told what to expect in the store. T.J. and Stacey know
that even if the storekeeper is waiting on them, he will stop to fill the orders of
white people first, making them wait until last. Cassie sees the unfairness in
this but not the reason for it. It doesnt occur to her that she should have to
wait because she is black. Later when she bumps into Lillian Jean, Lillian will
not accept her apology until she gets off the side walk and addresses her as
Miss Lillian Jean. Big Ma makes Cassie comply because she knows that worse
treatment will follow if she doesnt.

CHAPTER 6

Summary
After they arrive home from Strawberry, Stacey talks to Cassie about the
incident. She is angry at Big Ma for making her apologize, but Cassie
understands why she had to do it.
Uncle Hammer has come to visit, driving a new silver Packard nearly identical
to the car owned by Mr. Granger. Hammer asks Cassie about her visit to
Strawberry and she tells him about the incident with Lillian Jean in spite of her
mothers attempts to stop her. Hammer is angry about the humiliation of
Cassie and tries to take off for town, ostensibly to get even with Simms.
However, Mr. Morrison jumps into the car just as Hammer is leaving the
driveway. Mama is assured the Morrison will bring him back without incident.
In the meantime, she tries to explain why Big Ma forced Cassie to apologize.
Cassie objects to having to call Lillian Jean Miz, but Mama says that its the
way of things. When Cassie doesnt understand, Mama explains that the white
people think they are better just because they are white.
She talks about slavery, explaining to Cassie that slavery was justified by
people who claimed that people from Africa werent really people.
Consequently, even though seventy years have passed since slavery, most
white people still think of blacks as slightly sub-human. The fact doesnt make
it right, but Cassie, as with all people, has a choice of what she will do with her
life and how she will live it even though she didnt have a choice about the
color of her skin.
Hammer returns safely after driving around for hours with Mr. Morrison in the
car. The next morning they all go to church in Uncle Hammers car, but not
before he notices that Stacey really needs a new coat. Hammer gives Stacey
his Christmas present early-which just happens to be a new, very expensive
wool coat. Its a little big for Stacey, and when T.J. sees him in it, he teases
Stacey, calling him preacher.
On the ride home from church, Hammer comes to a one lane bridge. Usually
the first person to the bridge has leeway, unless that person is black. A black
driver will be forced to back all the way off the bridge so a white can cross
first. Hammer sees the Wallace truck-loaded with kids-approaching the bridge
from the other side and deliberately guns his car. The Wallaces back off the
bridge because they think the silver car is Mr. Grangers. The Logan children
are delighted when the Wallace men touch their hats in respect to Mr. Granger,
then freeze when they see it is the Logans. Mary Logan gently scolds Hammer,
telling him that sooner or later the family will be forced to pay for fooling the
Wallaces.

Notes
Hammer is a cocked pistol in the Logan home. He lives and works in the north,
so he is out of the extreme racist environment of Mississippi. He seems to be
endowed with the courage the Logans lack in that he will take on the Simms
and deliberately get the better of the Wallaces. It is also apparent that he
knows exactly what kind of car Mr. Granger has and deliberately bought one
just like it, only newer. He is obviously well-off. The problem is, he does not
completely understand that the blacks of Mississippi are not in control of their
own lives; they have no one to speak for them, and if they anger a white
person, the white can get revenge with impunity. Hammer will not have to
hang around to endure the punishment meted out to blacks who dare to defy
the white authorities.

CHAPTER 7

Summary
A few days later, Mama tells Stacey to get his new coat so she can take up the
sleeves. He doesnt have it because he loaned it to T.J. who first teased him
about its appearance and then offered to wear it until Stacey would grow into
it. Mama tells him to go get it, but Hammer interrupts and says that T.J. can
keep the coat permanently because at least he knows a good thing when he
sees it. Stacey tries to explain about being teased, but Hammer calls him a
fool for letting T.J. trick him out of something that he should have kept. He
gives Stacey a severe tongue lashing, telling him that if he goes around caring
what a lot of useless people say about him, he will never get anywhere. For the
last few days before Christmas, T.J. flaunts the coat at school, and Lillian Jean
manages to give her superior smirks twice in one week.
Papa arrives home the night before Christmas. The family sits around the fire
sharing stories and memories. Mr. Morrison tells the children about his own
childhood. He was orphaned when night men attacked his home after his
father had taken in two fugitives who had been falsely accused of molesting a
white woman. His sisters as well as his parents had been killed in the blaze of
their house, but his mother had thrown him as hard as she could to get him
away from the fight and the danger.
After the children have gone to bed, the adults sit up discussing the land.
Cassie wakes up to hear voices and listens at the door. Big Ma is talking about
doing something with the land, and her parents are talking about getting
people to shop in Vicksburg rather than patronizing Wallaces store. Papa spots
Cassie lurking in the shadow; she asks him if they are going to lose the land
and Papa assures her that they will never lose the land.
On Christmas morning each Logan child receives a new book and a sock full of
candy. They attend church service, and the Averys join them for dinner. During
dinner, little Jeremy Simms pays a visit. He has a bag of nuts for Mama and a
handmade flute for Stacey. T.J. goads Stacey about whether he is going to
keep the flute, but Stacey doesnt allow himself to be tricked out of the gift. He
doesnt understand why Jeremy brought them the gifts. Papa has no problem
with Stacey and Jeremy being friends, but he warns him that when Jeremy
grows up, he will think of himself as a man, and Stacey will still be a boy to
him.
The day after Christmas, Mr. Jamison visits Big Ma and arranges a transfer of
land ownership from her to David and Hammer. Before leaving, Jamison tells
that he has heard of attempts to get credit in Vicksburg and offers to back the
credit himself for those who wish to shop there. He does this to prevent David
from putting his land up as collateral and ultimately losing it. In the following
days, Hammer, Papa and Mama visit the houses of the families who said they
would consider shopping in Vicksburg. Hammer and David make a two day trip
to Vicksburg and return with a wagon-load of store bought goods.
Mr. Granger shows up shortly after the men return from Vicksburg. He makes a
lot of thinly veiled threats about having to charge people more of their crops to
make up for the lower price of cotton and of getting the Logan land. He says
that the bank may call up the mortgage any day, implying that he has a lot of
pull in that area as well. He also questions Hammer about his ability to get the
fancy car, indirectly accusing him of selling drugs for it. Hammer tells him that
he has a mans job for a mans wages, and that he doesnt consider 50 cents a
day (the price paid to anyone who works in the Granger fields) worthy of a
childs labor, never mind a mans.

Notes
Big Ma catches Granger off guard when she tells him that the land now belongs
to David and Hammer. With Granger regularly harassing her to get her to sell
it, the only way she could protect it was to transfer ownership. Granger has
already spoken to the bank owner about refusing to honor the loan to folks
who go around stirring up trouble. The Logan independence is a threat to the
Grangers who dont want to see any real change in the subservient positions in
which Blacks are held. . The end of the chapter is a foreshadowing of trouble
Mr. Granger has already planned for the Logans.

CHAPTER 8

Summary
Having been encouraged by Papa to choose her battles and take a stand for
herself-so long as he does not have to get involved-Cassie thinks of a way to
get even with Lillian Jean. In front of her astonished siblings, she catches up to
her on the way to school and offers to carry her books, speaking to her with
deference. For an entire month, Cassie acts as Lillian Jeans slave, waiting on
her and calling her Miz. Lillian Jean confides secrets to her about a boy she
loves, games she has played to get his attention, secrets of other girls she
hates and tales of her brothers romances.
After priming Lillian Jean for a month, Cassie tells her that she has a surprise
in the woods that she wants to show her. Once she has Lillian Jean out of sight
of the road, Cassie throws her books on the ground. When Lillian Jean slaps
her across the face, Cassie lights into her, pulling her hair and punching her,
but being careful not to touch her face. She forces Lillian Jean to apologize for
the incident in Strawberry and for all the name calling. When Lillian threatens
to tell her father, Cassie tells her that if she lets out one word of it, the entire
community will know all the secrets she has divulged about herself and her
friends.
The end of the school quarter has come and gone, and T.J. failed Mrs. Logans
class again after being caught cheating. He takes off for the Wallace store and
complains to Mr. Wallace about Mary Logan. Kaleb Wallace, Mr. Wellever the
principal, Mr. Granger and an unnamed board member visit her classroom on a
day shortly after exams. They sit through class for part of the lesson, which
happens to be her lesson on slavery. She talks about the cruelty of it, the rich
economic cycle it generated and how the country profited from it-and
continued to prosper from labor of a people who are still not truly free. Partway
through the lesson, Mr. Granger picks up one of the books, noticing the pasted
over front covers. He accuses her of teaching things that are not in the book,
telling her that she is expected to teach what is in the book that has been
approved by the Board of Education. He then tells her that she is fired. Mama
tells the kids that although they claimed to have fired her for teaching things
they didnt like, the real reason was the Vicksburg business and her teaching
was just an excuse they were using.

At recess the next day, Little Willie Wiggins tells the Logans that he heard T.J.
tell Mr. Wallace that Mrs. Logan had failed him on purpose and that she had
been destroying school property and was not a good teacher. After school, they
follow Stacey to the Avery house. T.J. at first denies having said anything that
would cause her to be fired. Stacey does not beat him up, but tells him that he
has something worse than a beating coming to him. When he returns to
school, the other children ostracize him. At first he tries to apologize, but when
that doesnt work,
T.J. claims that he was tired of hanging around with a bunch of children
anyway. The white boys give him things and treat him like a man.

Notes
Mary Logan is an example both to her own children and to those of the
sharecroppers. She is characterized in this chapter as a woman who does not
make a big display of her disagreement, but quietly teaches the children what
she feels is right. The school board is entirely white; thus even her own
principal is intimated against defending her. While she wanders in the field
trying to come to terms with her loss, Papa explains to Cassie that Mary was
born to teach. Her own parents had saved every nickle they could manage to
lay aside even at great personal sacrifice so Mary could attend a teacher
training school.
The Wallaces and Grangers really couldnt care less about Marys teaching.
They dont really care if the Black children even attend school; it is just one
more step in the process of depriving the Logans of the means to pay their
mortgage and the taxes on their land.
T.J. is a tragic figure. He wants the things the white boys have and wants to be
treated like a man. He is sucked in by a game the boys are playing. They are
using him, but because they give him things, he thinks they are his friends.
He does not understand the meaning of friendship, nor of integrity. His own
willingness to cheat for a passing grade makes him vulnerable to worse things
and marks his weakness of character.

CHAPTER 9

Summary
During the last week of school for the Logans, Jeremy Simms confides that his
brothers R.W. and Melvin dont treat T.J. very nicely. They bring him home and
act friendly, but then talk about him and call him names when he leaves.
Mama tells Cassie that maybe they keep T.J. around just so they can laugh at
him and thus feel good themselves.
Money is getting shorter in the Logan home. Mama cuts back on the flour and
baking powder for the corn bread. Mr. Jamison pays a brief visit just to let
David know that the Wallaces have been talking about how theyre not going
to let a few smart colored folks ruin their business. They are threatening to
put an end to the trips to Vicksburg. David should have already returned to his
railroad job by now, but seems to be waiting for something.
One evening, Mr. Avery shows up to tell them that he will not be wanting them
to fill the shopping list he had given them for the next trip to Vicksburg. Mr.
Granger has raised the percentage of the cotton crop that he will be taking
from them, and some of the other landowners are doing the same thing. The
Grangers have also made threats about kicking the tenant farmers off the land
if they continue shopping in Vicksburg, or even sending a sheriff after them
and getting them assigned to a chain gang.

When Mr. Avery is gone, Stacey explodes over the men pulling out. He calls
them a bunch of scared jackrabbits until Papa grabs him by the shirt and tells
him to stop talking about things he knows nothing about. Papa understands
the danger the tenant farmers brought on themselves by shopping in
Vicksburg in the first place. His own children were born blessed because they
have land of their own. Nevertheless, he vows that he will keep doing what he
has to and will never give up.
The next day after finding out that seven families are still in the Vicksburg
arrangement, Papa and Mr. Morrison make one more trip, this time taking
Stacey with them. On the way home they discover that someone had loosened
the bolts on the wagon wheels and both back wheels fall off at once. Papa in
engaged in putting them back on when a truck pulls up behind them and
stops. Because of the rain and thunder, they dont notice the truck at first, but
then headlights come on. David grabs his gun, and the men fire on him,
spooking the mule. The mule dashes off, pulling the wagon over Davids leg.
Mr. Morrison takes on all three men single handed, breaking bones and
effectively convincing them to leave. David will now be unable to return to the
railroad until his leg mends.

Notes
Stacey grows up a little more during this incident as he has to observe close up
just how vulnerable his family and people really. When they fight back, they
have to be careful to do so in a way that will leave the whites too embarrassed
to tell people about it. Stacey feels partly to blame for his fathers broken leg
as he was holding the reins and was unable to restrain the mule. Mr. Morrison
demonstrates his physical strength; his ability to act as a protector without
acting rashly makes him a valuable part of the household-unlike Hammer who
is likely to act without thinking of the consequences.

CHAPTER 10

Summary
David and Mary are discussing their finances and other family business. The
money is nearly gone, but they have enough for the taxes and will sell some
cows in order to make the July and August bank notes. After that, the cotton
will be in. Mary wonders if Mr. Morrison-who is out looking for work-should
leave. She doesnt want him to, but fears for him due to the way he beat the
Wallaces.
Mr. Morrison enters to tell David that he is going to help Mr. Wiggins plant
some late corn. The children decide to ride along so they can play with little
Willie. On the way there, the Wallaces appear coming from the opposite
direction. They block the road with their truck, and Kaleb Wallace gets out and
makes threats to Mr. Morrison. When Wallace refuses to move his truck, Mr.
Morrison moves it himself, lifting first the front and then the back and simply
walking the truck to the side of the road. Kaleb Wallace is too stunned to
respond. They are far down the road when they hear him shouting additional
threats.
Davids recuperation stretches into the month of August. One day Jeremy
Simms visits Cassie and Stacey. He has news about T.J. and the Simms
brothers. Objects such as watches and lockets have been missed. Mr. Lanier
blames T.J. for the thefts, calling him a thief running around with white boys.
The children are trying to escape the heat under the shelter of the trees when
Jeremy tells them that he has a tree house and that he even sleeps in it. He
invites Stacey to come and see it, but Stacey refuses.

In the evening Mr. Morrison returns from Strawberry where he had gone to
make the August mortgage payment. He has bad news from the bank-the loan
has been called and is to be paid immediately. David prepares to go back to
town to try to argue about it, but Mary convinces him to wait until morning as
the bank will be closed by the time they get there. The next morning he goes
into town, but soon returns to tell them that he has called Hammer who has
promised to get the money.
On the third Sunday of August, the Great Faith Church starts their annual
revival services. While all are feasting and chatting after church, Stacey spots
a man coming up the road. It is Hammer, and he has sold his new car to get
the money for the land. He brought the money in person because he didnt
dare trust the mail or wire service. He only stays one night because of the
familys fear of the enemies he may bring upon them with his presence.
On the last night of the revival meetings, T.J. and the Simms boys show up.
T.J. is loud and obnoxious, makes rude comments and tries to put a hand on
Cassie. When his former companions turn away from him, he taunts them by
introducing them to R.W. and Melvin. He brags about a suit coat they gave him
and says that they will give him anything he wants because he is their best
friend. He goes so far as to volunteer that they will even get him the pearl
handled pistol that he wants. R.W. agrees, then Melvin tells him that since they
came with him to the revival meeting, he has to go with them to Strawberry
like he promised. T.J. doesnt follow the Simms boys immediately. The last
glimpse Cassie has of him before entering the church is the image of a
desolately lonely person.

Notes
Mr. Morrisons complete self control in moving the truck is more of a weapon
than his fists. When Mary expresses fear of retaliation, Mr. Morrison explains
that Kaleb Wallace is the type of person who can only carry out his threats
when he has a group of his own kind to support him. By himself he is a
blustering coward.
Hammer does not at first tell them that he has sold the car, but when he is
finally pinned down about it, he is nonchalant. You cant grow cotton in a car, is
his explanation. He cannot stay because his success is a threat to the white
people of the area. They dont want the tenant farmers to start thinking that
they could have things better for themselves.
T.J.s manner is typical of someone who wants to believe a lie. He doesnt
appear to notice when Melvin smirks at him behind his back, but his loud rude
behavior suggests that he is trying to prove something to the Logans and his
other school friends. The Simms had not actually promised to get him the
pistol, but once T.J. thinks of it, it gives the Simms boys ideas. They apparently
already had some deviltry planned in Strawberry and only used the visit to the
Black revival meeting to get a return favor from T.J..

CHAPTER 11

Summary
From the night of Davids injury, Mr. Morrison has appointed himself to
nightlong vigils around the Logan house. He would sit on the porch for awhile,
then stand at the rear of the house, and eventually return to the porch.
Everyone knows that he is guarding against some unexpected surprise by the
Wallaces. One night Cassie hears strange sounds that are not Mr. Morrison.
She opens her outside door to find T.J. who is in serious trouble. He has been
badly injured by the Simms brothers who used him to help rob the mercantile
in Strawberry.
The Simms had gone from the revival meeting to the mercantile to get the
pearl handled pistol for T.J., but the store was already closed. T.J. was afraid of
the idea of just going in and taking it, but the Simms boys assured him that it
was no problem, they would just say they had borrowed it until Monday and
would pay for it then. They slip T.J. in through a storeroom window and he
unlocks the doors so they can get in. They break the gun case with an axe and
give T.J. the pistol, then try to break the lock off of a wall cabinet. The noise
wakens Mr. Barnett who lives in an apartment over the store. He appears on
the stairs, then tries wrestle his metal box from Melvin. R.W. hits Mr. Barnett
on the back of the head with the flat of the axe and then shoves Mrs. Barnett
aside. She falls, hitting her head against a stove.
T.J. wants to go home, but the Simms have other plans. When T.J. threatens to
tell everybody who actually hurt the Barnetts, the Simms beat him until he
cannot stand and toss him in the back of a truck. Eventually T.J. crawls from
the truck, gets a ride to his own neighborhood with a local farmer, then takes a
round about way to get to the Logans. He is afraid the Barnetts may be dead.
T.J. talks Stacey and Cassie into helping him get home where he will just tell
his own mother that white boys beat him up for no good reason. All of the
talking wakes up the other children who wont be left behind. They all trudge
through the forest to the Avery yard where they help T.J. slip into his room
through an open window.

Just as the Logans get out of sight into the forest, a row of cars appears on the
road-all headed for the Avery house. Kaleb Wallace and his brother Thurston
jump from the cars along with other men who surround the house. Kaleb
bangs on the door demanding that they bring out the thieving, murdering
nigger. The Logans watch helplessly as R.W. smashes a window allowing
several men to climb through. The Avery parents are dragged from the house,
the girls thrown through open windows, slapped and spat upon. Claude is
hauled out, knocked to the ground and kicked. Then T.J. is dragged out on his
knees, his face already bloody. The men find the pearl handled pistol, and
when T.J. tries to say something about it, Kaleb kicks him in the stomach.
Mr Jamison appears and tries to tell the men that they ought to let the law
decide whether or not T.J. is guilty. Then the sheriff show up and warns them
that Granger has vowed to hold everyone of them responsible if any hanging
takes place on HIS land. Jamison tries to shield T.J.s body with his own as the
men discuss taking him someplace else and whether or not to use a new rope.
Stacey orders Cassie to take the younger children home and get Papa and Mr.
Morrison before the Wallaces can hurt the Averys any more.

Notes
It is fairly obvious that the Simms brothers have anticipated repercussions as a
result of their actions and have already put the blame on T.J.. They seem to
have planned to have T.J. take the fall as they were wearing stocking masks
and
T.J. was not. T.J. does not ask why they dont have a mask for him, but the
dark stockings make it easy to claim that all of the thieves were black. While
the story is fiction, a reader has the galling realization that many crimes were
probably perpetrated by whites and blamed on helpless blacks who had no way
of proving themselves innocent in a society that wanted to believe they were
guilty.

CHAPTER 12

Summary
As Cassie and the boys approach the house, they can see that their parents
have already discovered that the children are not in their beds. Discarding any
attempts at secrecy, they enter boldly at the front door and blurt out the Avery
situation in bits and pieces as Papa prepares to whip them for leaving. Then
Cassie gets his attention and tells him the whole story, including the fact the
Stacey is still there, hidden in the woods. Papa grabs his gun, and he and Mr.
Morrison head into the woods with Marys words, dont use the gun, hardly
giving him pause. He stops just long enough to tell her that this thing has been
coming for a long time and T.J. just happened to be the one stupid enough to
trigger it. He will do what he has to do, but at the last minute it seems like
another idea has occurred to him.
The women and children wait as time passes slowly and a rainless thunder/
lightning storm rages. Suddenly Mama smells smoke on the wind. Deep in the
field where the land slopes toward the Granger fields, the cotton is on fire. Big
Ma and Mary gather burlap sacks, soak them in water and head for the fields
to fight the fire, ordering the children to stay in the house.
Shortly before dawn, Jeremy shows up. He had been sleeping in his tree house
when he smelled the smoke and told his pa. They assume the lightning had
struck a fence post and sparked the cotton. They had gathered all the men,
including R.W. and Melvin, Mr. Simms, the Wallaces, the sheriff, and all the
other tenant farmers and landowners in the area. Mr. Granger and Pa had
directed the men to dig a ditch and set the pasture grass afire as a fire break.
At last, however, the storm breaks completely pouring rain onto the land and
putting the fire out. With the fire nearly out, Cassie and Little Man run along
the road to the burnt area where weary people are dumping shovels full of dirt
on stubborn patches of fire. They soon discover that everyone is okay except
T.J. who has been taken into Strawberry. Papa and Mr. Morrison didnt have to
fight for T.J.. Once everyone is back in the house, Cassie insists that Stacey tell
her what happened at Averys. The Wallaces had tried to take T.J. away in one
of their cars, but Jamison had swung his car in front to block the road and had
run to get Mr. Granger who passed the buck to the sheriff. The Simms brothers
had just finished pushing Jamisons car off the road when Mr. Granger came
running out shouting that smoke was coming from his forest. People raced
around collecting shovels and then all headed for the woods.

Mr. Jamison arrives to tell David and Mr. Morrison that Mr. Barnett died. Papa
offers to go into town with T.J.s parents, but Mr. Jamison tells him he better
stay clear of the entire mess or someone might start wondering about the fire.
Cassie tries to ask for an explanation, but Stacey tells her to hush. Then it
dawns on Cassie that her father had done as Mama had asked and had found a
way to stop the hanging without using the gun. He had started his own cotton
on fire. This something, Cassie realizes, that belongs to the category of known
and unknown things, something never to be spoken, not even to each other.
Stacey wants to know what will happen to T.J. Papa cannot lie to them- or
deny that T.J. will probably die, falsely accused of murder and robbery. All he
can say is that it shouldnt be.
The story ends with Papa going into the woods after Stacey and Cassie crying
for the land and for T.J..

Notes
David can make the sacrifice of setting his own land on fire because under
normal circumstances, no one would expect him to do that. Without a means
of stopping the hanging, T.J. would have been executed on the spot and no one
would have even been questioned about it. Stacey knows from the start that
his father had set the fire, but could not have told Cassie if she had not
guessed. Cassies tears are full of mixed emotions. She knows their land has
been saved even if a quarter of the years cotton is lost. She also cries for T.J.,
for although she had never liked him, he had always been a part of her life,
and she had thought he always would be. She does not completely understand
what has happened to T.J., but does know that it is something that will effect
her and her family for the rest of her life.

OVERALL ANALYSIS

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Cassie Logan
Cassie is the protagonist of the story. She is a nine year old child when the
story begins and is just beginning to recognize injustices in the situations of
the people around her. Cassie is characterized from the start as a very
intelligent little girl with a fierce sense of loyalty and protective instincts toward
her siblings. She is a typical child whose life prior to the story has consisted of
school, squabbles with other tenant farmer children over trivialities like where
to sit in the classroom. Her worst problem has been how to avoid getting
buried in dust or spattered with mud by the white school bus that passes them
on their way to school every day.
The novel begins a new phase of Cassies life. She is not only growing up,
which children did much younger in days when they had to help the family
survive, but is also becoming aware of differences between herself and other
children, differences which are based on skin color alone, but which she has
difficult time accepting. Her first protest happens in school when she backs
up Little Man who has objected to the used books. Expecting to be punished by
her mother when Miss Crocker reports to her, Cassie tries to get to her mother
first. However, Mary Logan-who does not accuse Miss Crocker of wrong doing
understands Cassie.
Perhaps her mothers subtle defense gives Cassie the nerve to speak up in the
store in Strawberry, but given her personality, she probably would have
anyway. There, she learns for the first time that people with white skin think
themselves better than those with black skin; she has to endure her first true
humiliation in showing deference to a white child no older than she is. This
incident awakens her to two aspects of her life that she cannot change; one is
that she can expect to be forced to take second place to a white person of any
age. The second is the adults in her family cannot prevent her from being
humiliated aside from just keeping her at home.
Cassie also learns that she can get limited revenge with impunity providing she
finds ways that would put the whites in a humiliating spot if they admitted the
incident or if she can do it in a way that prevents them from knowing who is
responsible. Stacey takes advantage of the rain and the dirt road to
temporarily stop the bus from tormenting them. Later, Cassie also finds a way
to get even with Lillian Jean in a way that will prevent Lillian Jean from telling
on her. She learns that part of self preservation is knowing when to keep quiet
about what she knows and how to make it inconvenient for her enemies to get
the best of her.

Cassie also learns something about friendship versus merely using someone.
She doesnt really like T.J. much, but she tolerates him and helps him when he
comes to them in need. However, she is able to see that T.J. defines friendship
in terms of what someone will give him rather than liking him for who he is. In
other words, he friendship can be bought, and those who buy it only use it for
their own means. However, the result is loneliness and a not so secret longing
to be with the people who really care about him.
By the end of the story, Cassie understands the element that truly
differentiates them from the other Black families. Her family owns land, thanks
to the insight of her grandfather. So long as they manage to hang onto it in
spite of all obstacles, they have roots and a source of self-confidence that the
tenant farmers will never have. Their land gives them not only a permanent
home, but also a firm sense of accomplishment and identity along with an
ability to influence changes at some point in the future.

Stacey Logan
Stacey is Cassies older brother-13 at the opening of the story. Due to his age,
he is more mature than Cassie, but as he is also a boy, he has had access to
information that she has not. He serves as an example to her, although his
decisions are not always correct. When he runs off to the Wallace store to beat
up T.J. for putting the blame for cheating onto him, he is acting impulsively.
However, since it is simply one black boy fighting with another, the whites dont
care.
Stacey does know how to be careful when the conflict involves whites; he
shows deliberate planning and strategy when he digs the ditch across the road
and does his best to quiet Cassie when she speaks up in the store in
Strawberry.
Stacey does have his own lessons to learn, however. He is sensitive about
being teased by older friends and allows T.J. to talk him out of the coat given
to him by Uncle Hammer. The coat does not look bad on him, but T.J. wants it
for himself. The scolding given to him by Mr. Morrison was worse than any
punishment his mother could have inflicted as it accuses him of weakness and
of being more foolish than the fool who took advantage of him. Stacey learns
quickly, however, and does not make the same mistake when T.J. tries to rib
him about the handmade flute Jeremy gives him for Christmas.
Stacey matures in his understanding of friendship. He and T.J. have always
been friends, but when T.J. cheats a second time, gets Mary Logan fired, and
then turns to white boys for his friends, Stacey refuses to have anything more
to do with him. However, he remains concerned about him and asks about him
from other boys who have seen him. He also keeps to himself his opinion about
the white boy Jeremy Simms friendship. Jeremy shows himself to be a friend
even when Stacey seems ill at ease about accepting it. Stacey continues his
friendship with Jeremy even though he keeps it low-key. Also, in keeping the
flute, but putting it away, it seems as though he may be waiting to find out if
his father is correct in saying that sooner or later Jeremy will turn on him.
In the end, Stacey has seen examples of doing what you have to. He saw Mr.
Morrison beat the Wallaces under circumstances when the Wallaces could not
retaliate, and he saw his father find a way to subvert white intentions without
letting them know who had done it. He runs into the woods to vent his grief
over his friend. As with Cassie, the incident will leave him a changed boy.

T.J. Avery
T.J. is the son of the sharecropper who farms part of the Granger land which
adjoins the Logan land. He is a weak character who wants to be treated as a
man. He wants to count in a society where his color makes him second class.
He likes to feel important, a characteristic portrayed early in the story when he
visits the Logans with news he thinks they have not yet received and makes a
major project out of the telling. He tries to act big by teasing the younger
children and by trying to talk them into things their parents have forbidden.
T.J. does not have a high sense of integrity. He sees nothing wrong with
cheating on a test or lying to Stacey to get his new coat away from him. He
uses his friends the same way the Simms use him later on. He is also gullible,
measuring friendship in terms of how much he can get. He does not
understand that his horrible loneliness is a direct result of his abuse of his real
friends.
In T.J.s defense, regardless of his weakness, he is not simply an evil
character. He is the victim of circumstances. The very fact that the Logans do
have their own land and his father does not may motivate him to try to show
that he is just as good as they are even though they have not flaunted their
own position. He really has nothing, and his father is at the mercy of
landowners who can take what little he does have any time he displeases
them.
Getting things through deception and treachery is not dishonorable to him as
long as he doesnt get caught. Furthermore, getting caught does not teach him
that what he did was wrong. It just proves to him that he has to be cleverer
the next time as in the school cheating incidents. Furthermore, when faced
with the consequences of his behavior, his immediate reaction is to find
someone else to blame. He does not realize that that is exactly what the
whites around him are doing to the black community. It is ironic that he who is
guilty of multiple little grievances and deceptions is actually innocent when the
real crime occurs-that is, innocent of everything except allowing himself to be
led.

Mr. Morrison
Mr. Morrison is a static character, but his superhuman strength, his deliberate,
measured self-control, and his example of courage and determination make
him a pivotal character. Early on, he breaks up the fight between T.J. and
Stacey, but does not scold Stacey for his actions-beyond noting that they had
been told NOT to go to Wallaces store. Stacey initially does not like him, but
the ice is broken when Mr. Morrison leaves it up to him to tell Mama why they
had disobeyed. Stacey could have chosen not to tell at all, but in refusing to
tattle, Mr. Morrison was treating him like a man and an equal. Staceys task
in response was to act like a man which meant taking responsibility for his
action.
Morrisons personal story of survival when the night-men attacked his family
would justify a bitter and vengeful attitude, but if he feels that way he keeps it
well contained. He is able to prevent others such as Hammer from acting
rashly and succeeds in preventing David from making a fruitless trip to the
bank. Still, for all his apparent mild manner, he does not back down, but
stands up to the white men in ways that catch them by surprise. The night
men do not attack the Logans in any sort of fair contest partly because they
are afraid of Morrison.

PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

The novel is structured in a linear plot with the story segments paced
according to the calendar. It begins with the start of the school year and ends
just before the start of another school period a year later. The primary conflict
is internal for Cassie as she is growing up and beginning to be aware of adult
issues which often make no sense. Events occur in chronological sequence with
an occasional story telling segment as a strategy for explaining the background
of certain adult characters. Another strategy used to provide Cassie with
information that moves the plot forward involves the local gossip such as that
which takes place at the church meetings and the news passed along among
the children.
In addition to chronology, the novel is structured around a series of problems
and solutions, each problem a result of the previous solution. The problems
and their complicating elements become more insurmountable as time passes.
The growing sense of impending doom is introduced by T.J., the character who
will also become its primary victim. Centering the climactic events in a
character whom Cassie doesnt really like very well, and having the Logan
children pull away from him when he begins doing things that are explicitly
hurtful creates an objective correlative that allows both the Logans and the
reader to maintain a healthy distance from the worse actions in the novel and
also leaves the Logan family intact for other stories involving these characters.
The novel ends without any real resolution. T.J. is going to die, and no one
lives happily ever after. There is no sense of coming change between the
Mississippi Blacks and Whites any time in Cassies foreseeable future.
Threaded throughout the novel is the Logan emphasis on their land and their
determination to keep it even as Harlan Granger makes repeated efforts to
take it away from them. Ownership gives the Logans a sense of permanency
that the tenant farmers do not have. Yet, as important as the land and crops
are, David Logan is capable of making at least part of it a temporary sacrifice
in order to save one of his own people. His efforts do little more than prolong
the inevitable, but at least he is able to cool the violence and hatred for a short
time.
Cassie is a 9 year old child at the beginning of the story. At the end of it, she is
only a year older by the calendar, but a life time older in knowledge and
understanding.

THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS

Friendship/Family
Cassie develops a more adult understanding of what friendship is as well as
what it isnt. Little Jeremy Simms is, at least for the present, a real friend,
perhaps because he is something of an outsider among his own people and
family. Nevertheless, he never rides the bus, but chooses to walk through the
woods and join the Logans. He shares his concerns about T.J. in a manner that
is not merely gossip. He brings Christmas presents without expecting any in
return, and the flute he gives to Stacey, he had made with his own hands. He
invites them to his treasured spot-his tree house, and hastens to get help
when he discovers the smoke. Jeremy is a friend who gives of himself without
setting conditions on that gift.
Two false friend relationships in the story parallel each other with different
outcomes, that of Cassie with Lillian Jean and
T.J. with the Simms boys. Both relationships are temporary and both involve
ulterior motives. Cassie acts as a friend and personal slave to Lillian Jean,
allowing the white girl to think she is using her. When she has collected enough
information for her purpose, she turns on Lillian Jean; her revenge is
weakened a bit, however, as Lillian Jean is not bright enough to realize that
Cassie had been playing a game all along. In T.J.s case, the Simms brothers
have befriended him-also to use him to their own ends. Everything they give
him has a price-something he must do for them. Furthermore, T.J.s low status
in the community gives the Simms brothers a scapegoat; T.J. fails to
understand that until it is too late. By the time of the revival meetings, he does
recognize that he has ostracized the people who care the most about him, but
he doesnt know how to turn back the clock.
The definition of family relationships are readjusted by Mr. Morrison and Uncle
Hammer. Hammer is much loved, and as any true friend, will come to their
rescue and give whatever is needed to prevent harm from coming to them.
However, he cannot stay; his influence, reputation and personality are too
volatile for the situation. Mr. Morrison, however, is better suited to the nuances
of the community, better able to deal with the things that are but shouldnt be,
able to be a part of the family. Not only that, but having lost his own family, he
is motivated to do what ever it takes to protect a second one.

Identity and Surviving

A second theme is one of preserving identity-not so much individual for the
protagonist as the identity of a family with a heritage and traditions, and the
intertwining of the identity with land ownership. The conflict between the
Grangers and the Logans is not personal until the Logans make it so by taking
customers away from the Wallace store and shopping in Vicksburg. David
Logan understands that Granger does have a need to get back what he
thinks ought to be his and to preserve his own identity as a major land owner,
descendent of one of the great plantations. The fact that Black people who
were once his familys slaves now own land-and not just any land, but land
that had also belonged to his people- diminishes him in his own eyes as well as
in those of his peers. Land holdings have always been the great equalizer; thus
if the Logans can own Granger land, are they not making an implicit statement
of equality with the Grangers and ever other landowner in the area. The
Mississippi whites of the 1920's and 30's were a long way from accepting such
equality.
The Logans themselves look to the land, especially to the forest with its trees
whose roots go deep. Hardship, perseverance and intelligence has gotten the
land for them. Memories of grandparents who acted on opportunity and found
ways to put roots in the Mississippi clay give them the assurance that as long
as they do not lose the land, they ARE somebody; that ownership suggests a
future for coming generations regardless of what Cassies family may have to
put up with.

Racism / Discrimination
It is not Mildred Taylors goal to simply present a book about the horrors of
racism or to blame her white characters for their feelings. Mama explains the
pre-Civil War history to bother her students and to Cassie when the
opportunity arises. It is not racism itself, but rather Cassies realization of it
that is important. An understanding of the history of slavery and the
justification by considering blacks as subhuman will enable Cassie to follow her
fathers advice in choosing when to stand up for what is right versus when to
be patient and wait for a better opportunity. She has the example of a few
people who try to overcome the barrier; their friend Jeremy takes physical
punishment from his father for conversing with the Logans, but continues to
offer his friendship in spite of it. Mr. Jamison helps Big Ma protect her land and
tries to provide a means for the sharecroppers to get out from under the
oppressive practices at the Wallace store. His father also sold Grandpa Logan
part of the land and Jamison himself delivers warnings of threats and rumors in
order to give the Logans opportunity to protect themselves. Apparently, some
of the landowners also try to be fair, as Mr. Avery mentions that Harrison
wont raise his percentage because he is a decent man.
At any rate, the important concept is that Cassie learns that lighter skinned
people are not better than she is; they just think they are. She can learn to
endure the slights and insults because she has respect for herself regardless of
what a lot of useless people think about her. She also has a history of
courageous and persevering ancestors and family members who have
established themselves through their education and their own efforts. Her
family has established themselves as equal whether the whites want to grant
that quality or not.

Depression
The depression is not explicitly mentioned in the story, but is apparent in much
of the description and conversation. The parents talk about hard times, the
school books have been used for eleven years by white children before being
passed on to the black children. The children save the shoes for Sunday wear
and for the winter when the ground is too cold for bare feet and many of them
have patches on their clothes. The price of cotton seems very uncertain from
one year to the next, and both blacks and whites have transportation that
ranges from horse and buggy to beat up pick-up trucks with only a few having
truly nice cars. Work is nearly impossible to find, which is one reason a man
like Mr. Morrison will work for a room, food and a few dollars spending money
at the end of the season.

POINT OF VIEW
The story is told in first person, entirely from Cassies perspective. The author
uses gossip and story telling as devices to provide Cassie with information that
a nine year old would not usually have. She also does things that a child would
do such as following her brother to the forbidden store, making an excuse to
get out of the classroom so she can peer in at the windows of her mothers
classroom, and refusing to be left behind in anything that looks like excitement
or danger.
On the rare occasions when she cannot be in the middle of things, she is able
to get Stacey to tell her almost everything. What he does not tell her, she is
clever enough to figure out for herself. She is as reliable as a child can be, and
her candid observation of the effects of racial prejudice creates a vivid image
for the reader.

IMPORTANT QUOTES - QUOTATIONS AND ANALYSIS

1. To all our little first grade friends only today starting on the road to
knowledge and education, may your tiny feet find the pathways of
learning steady and forever before you.
Attribution/Analysis - Miss Crocker on the first day of School. The teacher
means well, but has learned to conform to what is expected of her by the white
school board. In spite of what she says, education is given to these children
grudgingly and with many inaccuracies. (pg.19)
2. 12.....September 1933....Very Poor..........nigra.
Attribution/Analysis - This is from the label inside the new books. Eleven
children have used the books and worn them out before they were handed
over to the black schools. Cassie and Little Man are outraged to be considered
only good enough to handle the very worst of the white castoffs. This was
typical of black schools throughout the south prior to integration. (pg. 25)
3. Yesm, he can. He been reading since he was four. He cant read all
them big words, but he can read them columns. See whats in the last
row. Please look, Miz Crocker.
Attribution/Analysis - Cassie is defending her little brother regarding the
books. Miss Crocker at first refuses to look, and then says thats what you
are. Perhaps it is self-preservation, but Miss Crocker is in a state of denial in
trying to convince herself that there is no problem with the school. (pg. 28)
4. Biting the hand that feeds you. Thats what youre doing, Mary
Logan, biting the hand that feeds you. Again Mama laughed. If thats
the case, Daisy, I dont think I need that little bit of food.
Attribution/Analysis - Mary Logan and Miss Crocker are discussing the book
situation. Mary has covered the offensive labels with brown paper and says
that maybe someone should come and see all the things they need in order to
conduct a proper school. Miss Crocker accuses Mary of being ungrateful for
what they are given, but Mary doesnt really see the need to be grateful for
being handed someone elses trash. (pg. 30)
5. Friends gotta trust each other, Stacey, cause aint nothin like a
true friend.
Attribution/Analysis - T.J. to Stacey after being caught looking through the
school stuff in Mary Logans room. He had just mentioned that the notes for
the test should be somewhere around there, so the other children assume he
was looking for them. T.J. makes light of the idea that they would suspect him
of cheating and tells Stacey that they should trust each other. Unfortunately,
trusting T.J. is like walking into a trap. Furthermore, when T.J. practices his
own advice, he ends up trusting the wrong people for the wrong reason. (pg.
77)
6. Sometimes a persons gotta fight, he said slowly. But that store
aint the place to be doing it. From what I hear, folks like them
Wallaces got no respect at all for colored folks and they just think its
funny when we fight each other.
Attribution/Analysis - Mr. Morrison after breaking up the fight between
Stacey and T.J. and loading the kids into the wagon to take them home. He
understands that Stacey had a good reason for fighting T.J., but to do so in
front of a store owned by whites is simply turning a private issue into a sport
for people whose only motive is one of mockery. ( pg. 87)
7. As we passed one of the counters, I spied Mr. Barnett wrapping an
order of pork chops for a white girl. Adults were one thing; I could
almost understand that. They ruled things and there was nothing that
could be done about them. But some kid who was no bigger than me
was something else again.
Attribution/Analysis - Cassie as she realizes that Mr. Barnett, owner of the
Mercantile, is waiting on a third person ahead of them after taking T.J.s order.
This is Cassies initiation into the fact of life that black people of any age are
consistently forced to take a back seat to white people of any age. Stacey and
T.J. take the treatment in silence because, as Stacey says, they know how to
act. They know how they have to act if they dont want to be driven out of the
store. ( pg. 110)

8. So now, even though seventy years have passed since slavery,

most white people still think of us as they did back then-that were not
as good as they are-and people like Mr. Simms hold on to that belief
harder than some other folks because they have little else to hold on
to. For him to believe that he is better than we are makes him think
that hes important simply because hes white.
Attribution/Analysis - Mamas explanation to Cassie about why the Simms
think they are better than blacks. This occurs after Cassie has been kicked out
of the store for speaking up about not being waited on. She walks
despondently on the board sidewalk until she accidentally bumps into Lillian
Jean Simms. Her initial apology is not accepted as Lillian Jean wants her to get
off the walk and to call her Miz Lillian Jean. When Cassie refuses, Mr. Simm
grabs her arm from behind, twisting her off of the walk and making her fall.
Not satisfied with that, he wont let Big Ma drive off in the wagon until Cassie
has given Lillian Jean the apology he wants to hear. (pg. 129)
9. If you want something and its a good thing and you got it in the
right way, you better hang onto it and dont let nobody talk you out of
it. You care what a lot of useless people say bout you, youll never get
anywhere cause theres a lotta folks dont want you to make it.
Attribution/Analysis - Uncle Hammer scolding Stacey for letting T.J. trick
him out of his new coat. There was nothing wrong with the coat except that
the sleeves were a little long, but T.J. called him a fat preacher until Stacey
agreed to let him borrow it. It isnt the value of the gift that makes Hammer
angry, but the fact that he allowed someone else to take advantage of him just
because he couldnt take a little teasing. (pg. 143)
10. During slavery there was some farms that mated folks like
animals to produce more slaves. Breeding slaves brought a lot of
money for them slave owners, specially after the government said
they couldnt bring no more slaves from Africa, and they produced all
kinds of slaves to sell on the block. And folks with enough money,
white men and even free black men, could buy zactly what they
wanted. My folks was bred for strength like they folks and they grand
folks fore em. Didnt matter none what they thought bout the idea.
Didnt nobody care.
Attribution/Analysis - Mr. Morrison telling his life story on Christmas Eve.
His parents had been mated for their size and strength, but they loved each
other and their children and tried to protect their family from the night-men.
The night his sisters and parents were all killed, Mr. Morrison was only 6, but
he says that he makes himself remember. The explanations help Cassie to
understand why black/white relations are what they are. (pg. 149)

STUDY QUESTIONS Comprehension and Discussion

(secondary questions are discussion)
1. What white child meets the Logans on the way to school every day? (Jeremy
Simms)
1a. How does Jeremy pay a price for his persistence?
1b. Why does Stacey try to discourage Jeremy from walking with them?

2. Whom does Papa bring home with him from the railroad? (Mr. Morrison)

3. How did Mr. Morrison lose his railroad job? (Fighting)

3a. Mr. Morrison says that he was not the one responsible for starting the fight,
but that he was the only one fired as the other men were white. Discuss
actions and characteristics of Mr. Morrison that indicate that he is telling the
truth.
4. What is wrong with the school books? (They have labels indicating that they
are white discards)

5. What does Mama do to help the children feel better about using the books?
(Covers the labels with brown paper)
5a. In addition to the books, describe other indications that education of the
blacks is not given much importance in this community.
6. How is it that the children are in the path of a school bus every day, but
have no ride to school themselves? (The blacks and whites go to different
schools, but follow the same route to a crossroads where the busload of white
students turns off. There is no bus for black students)
7. Why does Papa work out of town? (His cotton doesnt bring enough money
to pay the taxes)

8. What information does T.J. Avery have that the Logans havent heard yet?
(Burning the Berrys.)

9. Why do the black children have a shorter school year than the whites?
(Their school year corresponds to the work in the fields where their help is
needed.)
10. How long do some of the children spend on the road in order to get to
school? (Three and a half hours)

11. How many grades share a single room in the school? (4)

12. What is Cassies reaction to Miss Crockers class introduction? (Bored)

12a. Discuss the impression that Miss Crocker makes on Cassie and the other
children.

13. What is Staceys original reaction to Mr. Morrison? ( He doesnt like him)
13a. How does Mr. Morrison develop a relationship with Stacey?
14. Where do the tenant farmers usually do their shopping? (The Wallace
Store)
14a. Explain why Papa has ordered the children not to go to that store.
15. What happens that leads the children to disobey the order about the
Wallace Store? (T.J. is caught cheating and Stacey gets the blame. He follows
T.J. to the store to beat him up and the other children tag along)
15a. Speculate on possible reasons why Mr. Morrison promises not to tell Mama
that the children went to the store. Why do you think Stacey voluntarily tells
her even though he will be punished?
16 Who comes to visit at Christmas time? (Uncle Hammer)
16a. Discuss the things that make Hammers new car more than just a car.

17. What has happened just prior to Hammers visit? (The incident in
Strawberry)
17a. Why do Mama and Mr. Morrison try to stop Hammer from going into
town? What is wrong with Hammers way of solving problems?
18. What should have been done in order to prevent Cassie from getting in
trouble in Strawberry? (Discussion)

19. If you had been in Cassies shoes, what do you think you would have said/
done regarding Lillian Jean? (Discussion)

20. Do you feel that Big Ma was right or wrong in making Cassie apologize?
(Discussion)

21. How does Mama deal with the childrens disobedience? (Takes them to visit
the Berrys)
21a. Why is this more effective than whipping them?
22. Characterize the relationship Big Ma had with her husband Paul Edward.
(Discussion)

23. What technique does the author use to reveal information from the past?
(Storytelling)
23a. Explain why Papa insists that the children be permitted to hear Mr.
Morrisons story. What does the story tell them about themselves and their
own familys situation?
24. Discuss the elements that contribute to the hesitancy of the other
sharecroppers to shop in Vicksburg. (Discussion)

25. Who makes it possible for the farmers to do their shopping in Vicksburg?
(Mr. Jamison)
25a. Explain how the credit system works at the Wallace store. How is this
system fair or unfair to the sharecroppers?

26. Explain why Mr. Avery backs out of the Vicksburg arrangement.
(Discussion)

27. Explain how white people used Christianity during slavery. (Discussion)

28. Why had Papa Lukes owners not tried to break him? ( He had medicinal
knowledge they needed)
29. Explain how white people justified slavery. (Discussion)

30. How did northerners who fought against slavery feel about black people?
(They still thought they were not quite as good as whites.)
31. According to Mama, what element of our lives do we have a choice over?
(What we make of it once we are here.)

32. Explain Uncle Hammers reaction once he discovers that Stacey has given
away the coat. (Discussion)
32a. Do you think Hammer was too hard on Stacey? Why or why not?
33. What does Hammer do on the way home from church that makes Mama
fearful? (Deliberately tricks the Wallaces into letting him cross the bridge first)
34. What treasure did each of the children receive for Christmas? (Books)

35. Why do you think Stacey is hesitant about letting Jeremy into the house on
Christmas day? (Discussion)
36. Do you agree or disagree with Papas opinion about friendship between
blacks and whites? Do you think things are different today? On what do you
base your opinion?
37. How does T.J. try to trick Stacey a second time? (Tells him he wouldnt
have anything to do with a flute made by a white kid)
38. What does Big Ma do about her land to prevent the Grangers from getting
it. (Has it put into Davids and Hammers names so it cant be sold without
both of their signatures)
39. What do the laborers get paid in the Granger fields? (50 cents a day)

40. How long has the Logan family owned the land? (50 years)

41. How do you feel about the way Cassie handled Lillian Jean? Would you
have done anything different to stand up to her?
42. What does Papa compare their family to when he talks about hanging onto
the land? (The little fig tree)

43. What does T.J. do that causes conflict between him and Mary Logan?
(Cheats on the semester exam)

44. Why does T.J. blame his school failure on his teacher? What personality
characteristic had he NOT developed? (Discussion)
45. What lesson was Mama teaching when the school board members visited
her class? (Slavery)
45a. Do you think she should have done some quick thinking and changed her
lesson while the white men were there? Why or why not?
46. What is wrong with T.J.s definition of friendship? (Discussion)

47. Who is the first to point out that R.W. and Melvin are not real friends to
T.J.? (Their younger brother Jeremy)
48. Which of the landowners will not raise the price taken from the
sharecroppers? (Mr. Harrison)

49. Where does Mr. Granger threaten to send the sharecroppers? (To a chain
gang)
49a. Do you think Mr. Granger can really do that, or is it just a scare tactic?
50. Why does Mr. Morrison not want to leave the Logans in spite of the threat
of danger? (Discussion)

51. What does Mr. Morrison do when Kaleb Wallace tries to block the road with
his truck? (Physically moves the truck off the road)
51a. Explain why Mr. Morrison is not afraid of Kaleb Wallace. (Discussion)

52. What does Jeremy try to share with Stacey? (His tree house)

53. What happens that forces Papa to contact Hammer for money? (The bank
forecloses)
53a. Explain why the bank decided not to honor the loan for the full term.
54. Discuss the actions that Granger takes to get the land away from the
Logans and tell why each one of them fails.

55. Explain what happens to T.J. at Barnetts store. How was T.J. partially at
fault even though he did not actually break anything or hurt anyone.

56. (Graphic Organizer) Create a time line of the Logans lives and ownership of
the property, beginning with the original purchase of the land.
57. (Character study) Create a character map of Cassie Logan in which you
show the problems she faced, what she did about each and how it helped her
to mature.
58. (Character study) Create a character map of T.J. Avery. Show a sequence
of events in which he was involved and describe the gradual decline in his
attitude and behavior.

VOCABULARY LIST
Words to know - Define each of the following terms and/or tell how it is
culturally significant in the context of the story.
Sharecropper
Credit
nigra
Racism
Freedom
Revival meeting
night-men
Friendship
Family
ESSAY TOPICS / BOOK REPORT IDEAS
1. Define friendship and use examples from the story to differentiate between
real friends and false ones.
2. Write a character analysis of Cassie showing what kind of person she is at
the beginning of the story and the ways in which she changes by the end of
the story.
3. Write a comparison between Uncle Hammer and Mr. Morrison. Why is Mr.
Morrison safer to have around?
4. Pretend you are a 1930's tourist who happens to be visiting the store in
Strawberry on the day Cassie is mistreated. Write a letter to the newspaper
editor describing your observations and making constructive suggestions about
what should be done about it.
5. Create a diary for Jeremy showing how the story would be different from his
eyes. How do the Logan children hurt him without meaning to? What could
they have done differently?
6. Write a research paper about the effects of the Depression on the southern
states, focusing especially on the effect it had on African Americans.
7. Define prejudice and show the impact it had on the characters. In what
ways are the Logans themselves also prejudiced?
8. Research the Civil Rights Movement. Show how conditions in Mississippi got
worse before they got better.
9. How does prejudice affect Americans today? How can people be prejudiced
against a group of people without even realizing it?
10. Define respect and tell how a person earns it. What is wrong with using
violence to demand respect? When, if ever, is violence an okay or necessary
solution?