The Underground Railroad: Chapter 7: Ethel Summary & Analysis

Ethel always dreamed of being a missionary in Africa, “bringing the savages to the light.” She fantasizes about adventuring deep into the jungle and being revered by the Africans she finds there. At 8 years old, she plays missionary with her best friend, a black girl called Jasmine who is “like a sister to her.” The girls then move on to play husband and wife, kissing and quarrelling with one another. Jasmine and her mother Felice live in Ethel’s house. On Ethel’s eighth birthday, her father, Edgar, bans her from playing with Jasmine “so as not to pervert the natural state of relations between the races.” After Felice dies, Edgar rapes Jasmine at night; when Ethel asks what he is doing, he simply replies that he is “going upstairs.” Eventually, Ethel’s mother sells Jasmine, and the family buy an elderly woman to replace her.

By the time Ethel marries Martin, she has lost hope in happiness. She has little interest in men and hates sex, but is grateful for the birth of her daughter. When the family moves to North Carolina from Virginia, Ethel is horrified by the public lynchings; though she is not morally opposed to them, she finds them disturbing. She was similarly not concerned by slavery as a “moral issue,” and would argue with Martin at length about the underground railroad. Ethel feels that everything she wants has always been “denied” to her, from living her purpose as a missionary to loving people “the way she wanted.” When Cora gets sick, Ethel feels she can finally live out the dreams that have been denied. She reads Cora scripture, bathes her, and kisses her, content at last.