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Chapter 5: Journey to Keene 1779
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Amos Fortune, Free Man, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Slavery
Dignity and Racism
Hard Work and Good Character
Providence and Faith
Summary
Analysis
Amos labors diligently for a year to finish his work at Woburn and save enough money to tide his family over the six months or more it will take to move and establish his business at Jaffrey. A tannery takes a while to establish, and he knows no one will pay an “unknown” workman in advance. He also has to time the move for early spring, when he can collect the bark he needs for tanning hides. Finally, in late March, he and Violet fill up the cart they’ve purchased with their household and workshop goods.
Amos leans on his work ethic to prepare for his move, just as he has used hard work to see him through all the other trials and transitions of his life. But he does so joyfully, since he’s following God’s signs to the promised land and because he looks forward to a life of true freedom, not one where the local community got to know him as an enslaved person. But his worries about establishing himself remind readers of the racism he still faces.
Themes
Just before they leave, Amos tucks an ax and a bag of beans under the wagon’s seat, casually remarking on their importance in the wilderness. Violet cringes nervously—she’s used to living in a big house with many fellow enslaved people. But she reminds herself that a life of freedom with Amos is worth facing danger. So, she carefully packs up lilac, japonica, lily-of-the-valley, and rose cuttings to transplant in her new home—in honor of the Bible verse that promises that God will make the wilderness bloom with flowers—and climbs into the wagon with Amos. She considers the plants as they travel, imagining how they will look around her new home. She treasures the delicate white flowers of the lily-of-the-valley most.
Amos’s preparations—and Violet’s fears—remind the reader the world can be dangerous even for free people. Or especially for a family of free Black people in a world that generally denies Black people their most fundamental rights. The flowers Violet carries with her represent the beauty of the promise of freedom, as well as make a (future) claim on her (and Amos’s) right to own land and belong in a community. Like Amos, she shows herself to be a person of faith. But, also like Amos, her faith isn’t passive. She takes her initiative to make good on God’s promises.
Themes
Celyndia sits between Amos and Violet, clutching the cornhusk and leather doll Amos made her. Although she wishes for a porcelain doll with a white face, she treasures this one, which looks like her. Amos focuses on the road and questions his choice to leave the safe and secure world he knows. But that world also subjected him to indignity and servitude, and although he’s no longer young or quite so strong as he once was, he still hears Roxanna’s words echoing in his mind. Her reading of the Bible taught him how he could regain his lost royal identity in his new world, through hard work and faith.
The last time Amos left the world he knew behind, it was not by his own choice. Now, he sets out as a free man looking for a place where he can live with the dignity and respect the At-mun-shi people granted him in his youth. And he understands his life’s journey now in terms of his Christian faith. In moments like this, the book softens the abuses of slavery as it suggests that Amos reaches his highest potential when the faith of his enslavers augments his excellent personal character.
Themes
On the fifth day, the family approaches Jaffrey. Violet remarks that Monadnock looks like the hill a person must climb to reach heaven. Celyndia smells food cooking in the village houses and asks when the family will arrive at their “big folks’ house” for dinner. Violet embraces the girl, reminding her that they’re free. They will have their own house. Amos knows that, although they have reached their destination, they won’t be home until he’s found a place and built a home.
Celyndia, a child born enslaved and later freed, does not yet fully understand the idea of freedom—she expects to find herself in the home (and service) of white people, just in a new place. But freedom itself can only carry a person so far; they must make the best of it themselves. Thus, while it’s good that the family has freedom, they won’t reap the full benefits of that until they have a home of their own.
Themes
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People in the town immediately notice the arrival of a Black family, and after a few minutes, the local constable approaches Amos to try to convince him to move on. Amos bows respectfully, as he has been taught, but without compromising his innate dignity. He towers over the constable, who refuses to look up and meet his eyes. The constable insists that Amos and his family continue up the road to Marlborough. When Amos hints that the town could use a tanner, the constable looks up and notices Amos’s unexpectedly nice clothes. Still, he insists that Amos leave. Amos knows that the constable’s words formally absolve the town of the responsibility of providing for the family if they become impoverished. Amos politely insists that he plans to make a home in Jaffrey.
The constable’s interaction with Amos betrays unmistakable racism—both in the general idea that a family of Black people might be more likely to need financial assistance from the town and in his surprise when he notices Amos’s fine clothing. But Amos’s dignity protects him from dehumanization. The legal practice of “warning out” families deemed a threat to a community’s moral or civic wellbeing dates to the earliest New England colonies and was well-established by the 19th century, which is probably why Amos doesn’t find it personally offensive.
Themes
Amos shows the constable his, Violet’s, and Celyndia’s papers. Like the other dozen or so Black people who live in the area, they are legally free. The constable becomes somewhat friendlier, suggesting that Amos ask Parson Laban Ainsworth for information about land he might buy. Ainsworth’s welcome is far warmer than the constable’s. He even offers to show Amos a parcel of his own land to see if it suits Amos’s needs. While the parson and the tanner visit the site, a local boy brings Celyndia and Lydia some refreshments. He wants to know why Celyndia has a “dirty” face, and she explains it’s because she’s been traveling. The boy promises that when he gets old, he’ll take a long trip to dirty his face to match.
The constable’s change of attitude, like the little white boy’s compliments to Celyndia, seems to portray racism as a personal failure rather than a systemic issue. Yet, the fact that Amos and his family must carry papers to prove their freedom (unlike white people) pushes against this assertion and reminds readers of the systemic racism and devaluation of Black lives in Amos Fortune’s time. And Celyndia will later find that not all of the white children in Jaffrey look on her with such affection as this first white boy.
Themes
Ainsworth won’t sell the land to Amos, loaning it to him in perpetuity so long as Amos makes him a pair of breeches and shoes for all his future children. After Ainsworth marks the land for Amos’s use, Amos starts felling trees to make a rough shelter. Violet unpacks the cart. Soon, a group of friendly neighbors arrive to lend a helping hand and by nightfall the Fortune family has a shelter and a roaring fire on which to cook. That night, as he and Violet fall asleep under a blanket of stars, Amos prays that God will grant him the strength to continue to do his work for many years to come.
When the residents of Jaffrey—whose representative was “warning out” the Fortunes just hours before—come together to help build the family a temporary shelter, the book shows God following though for Amos. This does seem like a promised land where Black people can be treated with dignity and respect. By opposing this generally kind behavior to individual and specific acts of racism and prejudice, the book tries to claim racism as a personal failure, not a systemic issue. And while Jaffrey generally embraced Amos Fortune as a well-respected community member, the simple fact of his prior enslavement—and the ongoing enslavement of most Black people living in North America at the time—argues against the idea that racism isn’t systemic.
Themes
