Patriot/Rebel Analysis in Chains

Patriots, or the rebels, were those who supported and/or fought for American independence during the Revolutionary War.

Patriot/Rebel Quotes in Chains

The Chains quotes below are all either spoken by Patriot/Rebel or refer to Patriot/Rebel. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“You feel beholden to Lockton?”

“Pardon?”

“He’s going to feed you and your sister, give you a place to sleep. He can order you sold, beat, or hung, if the mood takes him. That could make a person feel a kind of loyalty.”

I stopped, considering this. “Someday I’ll find that lawyer and Miss Mary’s will and that’ll free us. Until then, we need to eat, work, and stay together. So yes, I guess I’m loyal to Lockton.”

The words tasted bitter. Being loyal to the one who owned me gave me prickly thoughts, like burrs trapped in my shift, pressing into my skin with every step.

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Curzon (speaker), Ruth, Master Elihu Lockton, Miss Mary Finch

Page Number and Citation: 39

Explanation and Analysis:

“They won’t say anything in front of me.”

“You are a small black girl, Country,” he said bitterly. “You are a slave, not a person. They’ll say things in front of you they won’t say in front of the white servants. ’Cause you don’t count to them. It happens all the time to me.”

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Curzon (speaker), Master Elihu Lockton, Master Bellingham

Page Number and Citation: 41

Explanation and Analysis:

“Listen to me good. Them that feeds us”—she pointed upstairs—“they’re Loyalists, Tories. That means we’re Tories too, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded. “But…” I hesitated, not sure if I was allowed to ask questions. “Master Lockton claimed he was a Patriot on the docks.”

[…] “He was faking to protect his skin. Some folks switch back and forth. One day they’re for the king, the next, it’s all ‘liberty and freedom, huzzah!’ A tribe of Mr. Facing-Both-Ways, that’s what you’ll find in New York.”

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Becky Barry (speaker), Master Elihu Lockton

Page Number and Citation: 46

Explanation and Analysis:

As the crowd marched off to make bullets and celebrate liberty and independence in the taverns, I realized dark was fast falling, and I had tarried overly long. I picked up a sliver of lead that lay in the street. It was fringed with gilt; my own piece of majesty. Tyrants beware, I thought as I put it in my pocket.

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Madam Lockton

Page Number and Citation: 126

Explanation and Analysis:

I would turn myself over to the rebels. I had helped them fair and square. Now it was their turn.

We were all fighting for liberty.

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Ruth, Madam Lockton, Colonel Regan

Page Number and Citation: 137

Explanation and Analysis:

“Listen,” he started. “Our freedom—”

I did not let him continue. “You are blind. They don’t want us free. They just want liberty for themselves.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Oh, no. I understand right good,” I countered. “I shouldn’t have believed your rebel lies. I should have taken Ruth and run the night we landed. Even if we drowned, we would have been together.”

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Curzon (speaker), Ruth, Colonel Regan

Page Number and Citation: 160-161

Explanation and Analysis:

A second man, this one with neatly trimmed hair, leaned on his shovel. “Dunmore freed the Virginia slaves so the crops would go unharvested and ruin the planters. The British care not for us, they care only for victory. Some Patriots own slaves, yes, but you must listen to their words: ‘all men, created equal.’ The words come first. They’ll pull the deeds and the justice behind them.”

Related Characters: Isabel

Page Number and Citation: 164

Explanation and Analysis:

“Please, ma’am,” I tried again. “How did you know?”

Her gaze returned to the logs in the hearth. “Take care how you go, Isabel. Many people think it is a fine and Christian thing to help the prisoners. I do not think my niece is one of them.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I whispered.

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Lady Seymour (speaker), Madam Lockton, Curzon

Page Number and Citation: 227

Explanation and Analysis:

“You named him after the King?” Hannah asked.

“Perhaps,” Sarah said cheerfully. “We never figured the colonists would hold on this long. My man was saying the other night that mebbe the King should stop the war. Mebbe the babe and us might stay here, not sail home. ‘Plenty of room here,’ he said.” She kissed the baby’s nose. “A name like George is a good one on either side of the ocean.”

Related Characters: Sarah (speaker), Hannah (speaker), General George Washington

Page Number and Citation: 259

Explanation and Analysis:

I laid down one long road of a sentence in my remembery: “For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever.” Way I saw it, Mr. Paine was saying all people were the same, that no one deserved a crown or was born to be higher than another. That’s why America could make its own freedom.

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 271

Explanation and Analysis:

Everybody carried a little evil in them, Momma once told me. Madam Lockton had more than her share. The poison had eaten holes through her soul and made room for vermin to nest inside her.

[…]

The evil inside of me woke and crackled like lightning. I could wrap my hands around her throat. I could brain her with a poker, thrust her face into the flames. I could beat her senseless with my fists.

I shook from the effort of holding myself still, clutching the crumpled paper. Momma said we had to fight the evil inside us by overcoming it with goodness. She said it was a hard thing to do, but it made us worthy.

I breathed deep to steady myself.

I threw the Captain’s note into the fire.

Related Characters: Isabel (speaker), Madam Lockton, Momma/Dinah

Page Number and Citation: 280-81

Explanation and Analysis:

Patriot/Rebel Term Timeline in Chains

The timeline below shows where the term Patriot/Rebel appears in Chains. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The Personal and the Political Theme Icon

Bellingham greets Lockton as Lockton hisses to his companions to act like “happy rebels.” The enslaved boy sets up a portable writing desk and stool for the thin man... (full context)

...thought. Quietly, Curzon whispers that Isabel would be better off giving her loyalty to the rebels. She might hear things at the Lockton house. (full context)

...she notes that they’ll torture her if they find out. Curzon tells her that the Patriots will reward her for her help; Captain Regan might even send her back to Rhode... (full context)

...Tories, she and Isabel are Tories too. Isabel notes that Lockton said he was a Patriot on the dock, so Becky explains that in New York, people are constantly switching sides... (full context)

...library, she hears Lockton say that “There’s enough money here to bribe half of the rebel army.” Through a crack in the door, Isabel can see Madam’s linen chest open inside—and... (full context)

...which reminds Isabel of the sound bees make. Isabel keeps an eye out for the rebels—soon, she and Ruth will be sleeping like ladies on a ship bound for Rhode Island.... (full context)

...and goes downstairs—and when she opens the door, Isabel’s heart sings. It’s Master Bellingham and patriot soldiers. (full context)

...with metal bars. As Master Lockton appears, Bellingham explains that everyone must make sacrifices: the patriots need the lead to make bullets, and it should be an honor for a patriot... (full context)

...though Isabel discovers that Lockton suspects one of his friends of exposing him to the patriots. Every day, Becky returns from the marketplace with gossip. Isabel tries to take Momma’s advice... (full context)

...few blocks from the pump, Isabel asks why nobody has arrested Lockton. Curzon says the patriots need solid proof, like letters or maps. Isabel jokes about procuring the King from the... (full context)

...plates. As Isabel returns to her corner, Goldbuttons says it’s been difficult to bribe the patriots. They don’t care about the land the King promises them; they just want peace and... (full context)

...Then, Lockton asks the mayor to write down the names of everyone involved; if the rebels catch Lockton and the Loyalists don’t rescue him, he’ll give the list to the rebels.... (full context)

...names from earlier. Isabel slips outside and, evading soldiers as she moves, creeps to the Patriot fort at the southern tip of the island. (full context)

...of abandoning her. He insists she’ll be fine; she has to stay here so the Patriots don’t steal everything. Madam throws things and refuses to be left behind, but Lockton hits... (full context)

...Everyone left is a Loyalist, so the reverend doesn’t have to worry about insulting any rebels. As Ruth plays with her baby doll, Isabel prays to God to let Colonel Regan... (full context)

...and Lady Seymour to look at the docked British ships. Madam is thrilled, but the rebels in the crowd are furious. Several rebels set off cannons. Isabel wonders if she should... (full context)

...into August, British ships continue to arrive with soldiers. Two weeks pass without rain, and rebel troops experience outbreaks of smallpox and dysentery. Isabel prays that Colonel Regan will die a... (full context)

...asks if Madam has gotten letters from Lockton, and Isabel snaps. She says that the rebels don’t want to free enslaved people, just themselves. She should’ve taken Ruth and run the... (full context)

...enslaved people to ruin the crops in Virginia; the British only care about victory. The Patriots, though, say “all men, created equal,” and they’ll be the ones to free enslaved people.... (full context)

...people continue to argue about whether they can or should trust the British or the Patriots. At one point, Grandfather chuckles. He says the young people around him are funny. This... (full context)

The British win a battle in Brooklyn, capturing or killing 1,000 Patriots. It then promptly starts to rain. Madam paces, and Isabel wishes the bees would come... (full context)

...proves that God is siding with the Rebellion; He created the fog to help the Patriots. Isabel thinks that if God wanted to help, He would’ve destroyed the British fleet before... (full context)

Isabel leaves the house and finds herself going the opposite direction as all the patriot soldiers. She finally slips into the abandoned chandler’s shop and sets her basket on the... (full context)

...heads for the waterfront, wondering how long she has before Madam becomes suspicious. At the Patriots’ campground, Isabel peeks in a tent. The soldiers abandoned everything. She hurries away, back to... (full context)

Another British soldier approaches Captain Campbell and says that the rebel camp is totally empty. Campbell tells him to prepare Washington’s headquarters for their Major General,... (full context)

Captain Campbell deems this “regrettable” and understandable. But then he asks if Madam is a rebel supporter. Isabel says Madam supports the Tories; she can’t wait to entertain the soldiers. At... (full context)

...probably for “insolence” and says that Isabel thanked him for rescuing the city from the rebels. Isabel says she “prayed for liberation.” Lockton says it’s “quaint” that enslaved people are getting... (full context)

...families homeless. The burnt area is now known as the burned-over district. Loyalists insist the rebels started the fire; Patriots insist it was God’s judgement on the British. Soldiers search for... (full context)

...just can’t enter heaven. But she also hears Curzon’s voice telling her to join the rebels—and she tells that voice to be quiet. Isabel figures Curzon is at Fort Washington with... (full context)

...shoot them all first. Lady Seymour suggests they take care of the prisoners, since the Patriots also hold British prisoners. One man jokes that the Patriots would have to capture prisoners... (full context)

...can when Lady Seymour falls asleep. In this way, Isabel follows the war’s progress. The Patriots are doing poorly; they don’t have enough ammunition, and the Congress have fled Philadelphia. Isabel... (full context)

The rebels enjoy another victory just after New Year’s Day, so the British promise to feed prisoners... (full context)

Chains

Laurie Halse Anderson

Patriot/Rebel Term Analysis

Patriot/Rebel Quotes in Chains

Patriot/Rebel Term Timeline in Chains