Chapter 8 Summary

Fern lives only eight miles from Caldonia, but feels it is vital to stay with her for over five weeks, bringing her comfort and helping prevent Caldonia from becoming adrift in a life of grief. By the fourth week, Caldonia is on the mend. When interviewed later by pamphleteer Frazier Anderson, Fern downplays her role as teacher; Caldonia comes from good stock. The night of Fern's departure, Moses first tells Caldonia the story about Henry driving the first nail on the house.

Maude is the first to go home, realizing her talk about legacy is hardening Caldonia. Maude is also anxious to return to the lover she took after murdering her husband. The slave Claude told her he had taught himself to read. She recalls how a white woman in a near-by county discovered her slave Victoria reading and had her whipped. Making...