Summary

In Chapter 16, Prince Ibrahima finally gets an answer to his request for freedom. Henry Clay reports that the U.S. government will meet all of Ibrahima's expenses, but it will not pay any of the expenses related to buying his children and grandchildren out of slavery. Ibrahima steels himself for such a response, but it still hurts him greatly. He proposes a fundraising tour of the northern U.S. cities--all arranged and promoted by the American Colonization Society. Thomas Foster's requirement that Ibrahima should never be free on American soil is all but disregarded. Thomas Foster becomes incensed.

Chapter 17 opens as Richard Grant converses with William Terrell, the editor of the African American newspaper in Natchez, the Bluff City Post. Grant asks Terrell what he knows about the Deacons for Defense, a group active during the civil rights struggles in Natchez. Terrell offers...