Summary

North Carolina, Part 3, p. 161 - 172. On the Monday morning after the execution of the escaped slave, Martin allows Cora down into the lower attic where he gives her food, water, and space to walk and stretch. This becomes Cora’s routine: kept in the attic during the day, while the angrily unhappy Fiona takes care of the house; and then freed for a few minutes in the evening. Every few days Cora is allowed to wash. During the times of her freedom, Martin tells Cora the recent history of North Carolina: how politicians, businessmen, and lawyers shaped the system so that there are no “niggers” in the state any more: that all the field work, in this cotton-rich part of the world, is done by poor white immigrants, Irish and Germans.

As the daily routine continues and as months pass without word from the...