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Pa (Elijah Carter)
Jackson Lovett is Troublesome Creek’s most eligible bachelor, having recently returned to Kentucky from a stint out west where he helped to build the Hoover Dam. Jackson is thoughtful and well-read; unlike most of Cussy Mary Carter’s male patrons, he prefers Pulitzer Prize winners to local color authors. Also unlike most of Cussy’s patrons—and most of the people in Troublesome Creek—Jackson doesn’t regard her with fear or disgust. He’s immediately able to look past her skin color to see her good heart and her keen intelligence. Jackson has also known trauma and tragedy: his mother and brothers died of illness when he was young, and his father died shortly thereafter of alcoholism. Thus, although he is still a fairly young man, he has serious, somewhat sad eyes and a fierce determination. This can be seen when he makes six attempts to ask Pa for permission to court Cussy Mary. He also cares deeply about justice, and right and wrong. This manifests in his unwillingness to help thieves like Mr. Moffit as well as his steadfast unwillingness to recognize unfair and cruel laws, like the anti-miscegenation statutes under which Sheriff Davies Kimbo arrests him for marrying Cussy Mary. Nevertheless, he is kind and conscientious, supporting Cussy Mary in her decision to adopt and raise Honey, and burying Angeline and Mr. Moffit with care and respect. He is so kind that he’s even able to befriend Junia, Cussy’s ornery and misanthropic mule. But as much as he cares about justice, Jackson doesn’t care very much for what other people think of him. He is unabashed in his affection for Cussy Mary.
Jackson Lovett Quotes in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
The The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek quotes below are all either spoken by Jackson Lovett or refer to Jackson Lovett. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
Lovett’s Ridge was a spectacle, and soon I relaxed a little and soaked it up. Layers of dark-blue mountains stacked in the distance, at every turn their cuts rolling, deepening, then lightening to shades of blue-greens from the day’s passing clouds. The air blew fresh and breezy. Scents of apple blossoms lifted from a nearby tree, and honeysuckle clung to a crumbling split-rail fence as swallowtails and fat-legged bees flitted above the old timbers and dipped for nectar.
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Chapter 32
Quotes
I’d been foolish. Reached the worse. The drug had not redeemed me. I didn’t belong at this bright, happy gathering with these lively folks and bubbly chatter. I belonged in darker places where darker thoughts kept me put, where sunlight, a cheerful voice, or a warm touch never reached me. Weren’t no pill ever going to change that.
I threw the cake into a bush and mounted Junia, glancing once more at the crowd. Across the street, Jackson talked to a group of smiling men and women. He lifted his head my way, raised a hand, and called out, “Cussy Mary…”
I couldn’t bear for him to see my disgrace, see me for who I really was—who I’d become in their eyes. “Ghee!” I kneed the mule hard, and she raced off toward our dark, dead holler.
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Chapter 43
Quotes
“Let me tell you, Cussy, a miner’s life is a short one.”
“Oh, Pa,” I fanned his words away.
“Daughter, they buried eight of ’em last January after the collapse. Sealed that pit with them eight poor souls trapped inside it.”
I had heard the horror of it all. How the men and young boys were trapped so far down in the midnight dust and crumbling rock, no one could reach them. Then a leak of poisonous gas put them to sleep. There weren’t anything left to do, no way to rescue them except to cover the tomb and have a preacher hold a burial service at the face of the mine.
Chapter 46
Quotes
I gasped. It had never happened here, but I’d read about the laws in the city newsprints and know’d they were being enforced in other places. Folks were charged and thrown in jail for courting someone not like themselves, for taking another color to their marriage beds. It was an ugly law that let mere folk lord over different-type folks, decide who a person could or couldn’t love.
[…]
Sheriff shifted and squared his shoulders. “The law clearly states that marrying a colored person destroys the very moral supremacy of our Godly people and is damning and destructive to our social peace.”
“I’m taking my wife and daughter home,” Jackson told the sheriff.
“You listen to me, Lovett. You think you can jus’ waltz back in to Kaintuck with your highfalutin ways and soil the good people. No, sir, this ain’t the west!” Sheriff’s face heated with a fury.
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Jackson Lovett Quotes in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
The The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek quotes below are all either spoken by Jackson Lovett or refer to Jackson Lovett. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
Lovett’s Ridge was a spectacle, and soon I relaxed a little and soaked it up. Layers of dark-blue mountains stacked in the distance, at every turn their cuts rolling, deepening, then lightening to shades of blue-greens from the day’s passing clouds. The air blew fresh and breezy. Scents of apple blossoms lifted from a nearby tree, and honeysuckle clung to a crumbling split-rail fence as swallowtails and fat-legged bees flitted above the old timbers and dipped for nectar.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32
Quotes
I’d been foolish. Reached the worse. The drug had not redeemed me. I didn’t belong at this bright, happy gathering with these lively folks and bubbly chatter. I belonged in darker places where darker thoughts kept me put, where sunlight, a cheerful voice, or a warm touch never reached me. Weren’t no pill ever going to change that.
I threw the cake into a bush and mounted Junia, glancing once more at the crowd. Across the street, Jackson talked to a group of smiling men and women. He lifted his head my way, raised a hand, and called out, “Cussy Mary…”
I couldn’t bear for him to see my disgrace, see me for who I really was—who I’d become in their eyes. “Ghee!” I kneed the mule hard, and she raced off toward our dark, dead holler.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 43
Quotes
“Let me tell you, Cussy, a miner’s life is a short one.”
“Oh, Pa,” I fanned his words away.
“Daughter, they buried eight of ’em last January after the collapse. Sealed that pit with them eight poor souls trapped inside it.”
I had heard the horror of it all. How the men and young boys were trapped so far down in the midnight dust and crumbling rock, no one could reach them. Then a leak of poisonous gas put them to sleep. There weren’t anything left to do, no way to rescue them except to cover the tomb and have a preacher hold a burial service at the face of the mine.
Chapter 46
Quotes
I gasped. It had never happened here, but I’d read about the laws in the city newsprints and know’d they were being enforced in other places. Folks were charged and thrown in jail for courting someone not like themselves, for taking another color to their marriage beds. It was an ugly law that let mere folk lord over different-type folks, decide who a person could or couldn’t love.
[…]
Sheriff shifted and squared his shoulders. “The law clearly states that marrying a colored person destroys the very moral supremacy of our Godly people and is damning and destructive to our social peace.”
“I’m taking my wife and daughter home,” Jackson told the sheriff.
“You listen to me, Lovett. You think you can jus’ waltz back in to Kaintuck with your highfalutin ways and soil the good people. No, sir, this ain’t the west!” Sheriff’s face heated with a fury.
