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Chapter 39
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Copper Sun, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Slavery, Dehumanization, and Resistance
Horror vs. Beauty
Friendship
Memory and Storytelling
Gender, Race, and Power
Summary
Analysis
Amari, Polly, and Tidbit wake in the morning to birds singing. Amari isn’t sure if Fort Mose is days or weeks away, but she feels as though she’s already arrived. They climb onto the horse and head south. The palm trees remind Amari of home. After a while, Tidbit and Amari get down and walk. They discuss what Fort Mose will be like and Tidbit asks if Teenie will be there. Amari kneels down with Tidbit and tells him that Teenie loves him and that she’s happy he’s safe. She assures him that Teenie is glad because Tidbit is glad. She asks Tidbit why Teenie gave him the kente cloth and asks if he still remembers her words—that if he remembers, nothing’s gone. She asks Tidbit if he’ll always remember, and he promises he will.
It’s possible that in this moment, Tidbit finally realizes that his mother is probably never coming for him. But as heartbreaking as this is, Amari tries to make the point to him that Teenie desperately wanted her son to be free—and she’d be happy to know that Tidbit will his spend his life a free man, rather than be condemned to a life in slavery. In other words, Teenie fully believes that even if she can’t help herself, she must support the next generation’s struggle to find freedom.
Themes
Amari assures Tidbit that Teenie is smiling at him from every cloud and flower. Very seriously, Tidbit asks Amari if she’ll be his mother now, and Amari agrees that she will be. Amari says that Polly will always be there too, and she tells Tidbit he isn’t a slave anymore—and neither is she. Amari remembers what Polly said about freedom, though, and wonders if she won’t actually be happy now. By afternoon, they catch sight of Fort Mose. The fort is tiny and around it, small houses dot the landscape. Polly laughs at the muddy streets, and Amari declares that freedom isn’t big or pretty, but it feels good.
Now that Amari so close to freedom, it’s easier for her to recognize that freedom in Spanish Florida might not look the same as her free life in Africa did. Simply by virtue of not being a native resident, not knowing the language well, or even being Black and female, Amari may still face difficulties and discrimination as a free woman. The system that trapped her in the Carolinas may not exist in Spanish Florida—but that’s not to say she’s guaranteed to be as free as she hopes she’ll be.
Themes
