Chapter 5 Summary

A few weeks later, Stingo receives another letter from his father, again on the subject of death and inheritance. Frank Hobbs had dropped dead in the shipyards at the age of sixty. Despite the fact that his politics were extremely right wing, Hobbs had been a dear friend of Stingo's father's, and the will he left behind gave his farm to Stingo's dad, with the hope that he not sell it, but live there as a gentleman farmer and enjoy the property. Stingo's dad does not want to leave his job at the shipyard and offers the farm to Stingo. His dad tells him there are two Negro farmhands who have the place well in hand, and Stingo could spend most of his time writing, overseeing the farm, and living off the comfortable income it would afford. As a final inducement, his father...