Summary

Chapter four focuses on Madge’s family history and conception. The narrator describes the lives of three sisters, Polly Ann, Sarah Lou, and Berta Mae, who were abandoned by their enslaved father in Tennessee. Their mother, a free woman, was a healer and taught her daughters by example. Their usefulness to their community ensured their safety, something the sisters felt were in jeopardy after their mother’s early death. They proved themselves capable of living in her legacy after healing a white woman, whose recommendation reinvigorated their business. Despite the pact of loyalty the sisters made to one another, Sarah Lou had an affair with Frederick Kingsley that produced Madge. From an early age, Madge felt the sting of being unwanted by all three sisters, and decided when she became of age to move to Chicago on her own after the war.

The...