1. Why would Lucy and Sarny think skirmishes between a couple of hundred men were big battles?

2. When does Lucy stop hating white people? Why does she? How does this develop the themes of the novel?

3. Why does Miss Laura leave most of her wealth to Sarny and not to Bartlett or to one of her other friends?

4. Why does Sarny remember the names of the four dying Union soldiers in 1930, about sixty-five years after they died?

5. Why does Sarny think of Lucy as a "cross between a daughter and a younger sister"?

6. Lucy seemed to be in a good situation working for Miss Laura. Why would she wish to go to the North to live?

7. Why would being in the large plantation house make Sarny cry?

8. Is Sarny's life ever happy? 9. Why would Sarny be convinced that literacy is important to freedom?

10. Why would...