The Thread Collectors

William makes the treacherous 10-mile journey to Camp Parapet, a former Confederate Army camp that the Union commandeered. Along the way, he is nearly caught by a pack of bloodhounds, but he evades them by hiding in the bayou. At Camp Parapet, he joins hundreds of other Black men who have fled enslavement for a chance to join the Union Army. As he waits to be assessed in the medical tent, he touches Stella’s handkerchief for comfort.

A doctor examines William while a Jewish army musician named Jacob Kling takes notes. William worries that his slight build will disqualify him. While the Black men at camp are strong from a lifetime of working in fields, William was “plucked from his mama’s pallet” at six by his enslaver (17), Clinton Righter, and sent to work as a musician in his house, amusing Righter’s wife, Eleanor, with his prodigious musical skills. The doctor declares William fit for service.

William’s answer piques Jacob’s interest. He enquires which instrument William plays, and William answers that he plays the flute. Jacob recalls his first meeting with his now-wife, Lillian “Lily” Kling. As a young man, Jacob lived in New York City and played the cornet. He bought his sheet music at the Kahn Music Store, a large music supply shop owned by a German Jewish immigrant named Arthur Kahn. Each time he visited, he hoped to see Kahn’s beautiful daughter, Lily, slipping in and out of a back room in the shop.

One day, Jacob orchestrated a meeting with Lily by deliberately dropping his sheet music in front of her. During their first conversation, Lily told him about her fervent passion for the abolition movement. Jacob realized that Lily was using the back room to host meetings for other abolitionist women. Lily told him about her hero and friend, Ernestine Rose, whom she described as “an abolitionist, a suffragette and a Jewess, like me” (23).

The doctor’s voice brings Jacob back to reality as he tells William to get dressed. Before William steps out of the tent, Jacob advises him to mention his musical talents to his supervising officer.

As Jacob prepares his cornet for evening drills, he reflects on recent events at the camp. Camp Parapet has been designated as the recruiting ground for a new faction called the 3rd Louisiana Native Guard, made up of entirely Black soldiers. This decision has caused discontent among white soldiers.

Jacob notices William, who has been recruited as a musician, playing the flute as a 10-year-old boy named Teddy accompanies him on a drum. The sound of their duet makes Jacob nostalgic for his childhood when he used to play music with his family in their New York apartment. Jacob’s parents emigrated from Bavaria, bringing with them a love of music. During their early days of poverty, they shared a violin. When Jacob’s father’s business began to take off, he took Jacob and his brother, Samuel, to a secondhand shop to pick an instrument each. Jacob chose the cornet, while Samuel chose to continue the violin.

From his pocket, Jacob produces a letter from Lily. The letter details how she is keeping herself busy by fundraising to support the abolitionist movement and the Union Army. She expresses her disappointment that Samuel has joined the Confederate forces in Mississippi but says that she will keep him in her prayers because he is “of [Jacob’s] blood” (25).

Jacob reflects on Samuel’s decision. During a stint as a music tutor in Satartia, Mississippi, Samuel fell in love with and eventually married his pupil, a Jewish woman named Eliza Baum. This marriage catalyzed his eventual decision to join the Confederates, which caused his family great shame. Jacob notes that “talent—and an instrument to use it—[can] alter a man’s destiny forever” (25). 

Three days after William’s escape, Stella is consumed by worry and spends most of her time in the cottage with the blinds drawn. Ammanee warns her that she must pull herself together before Frye comes back from the front. She picks up an old pillowcase that Stella embroidered years ago and begins pulling out the stitches so that Stella can distract herself by making something new with the thread.

Stella recalls her childhood home, a Creole cottage on Rampart Street, which was full of castoff furniture. In this home, Stella and Ammanee’s mother, Janie, taught her daughters how to mend, reminding them that “beauty [does] not come without a cost” (30). Janie, a formerly enslaved woman, conceived Ammanee with her true love, an unnamed enslaved man. Shortly afterward, Percy had Janie moved off his plantation and into a cottage on Rampart Street, home to many of the light-skinned women favored as mistresses by white Southerners. He would not allow her to bring Ammanee along, leaving her on his plantation for four years.

When Stella was born, Percy granted Janie manumission and allowed her to take Ammanee to the cottage. Though Janie is technically free, Percy has advised her to stay on Rampart Street, where he can watch over her family. Percy’s offer of freedom did not extend to Stella or Ammanee, but he allowed Ammanee to work as Stella’s nursemaid and promised Janie that she would be able to choose Stella’s enslaver when the time came.

When Stella turned 18 in 1854, she was sent “to market,” an event at which white enslavers selected multiracial or light-skinned Black women to serve as their mistresses. On the night of the market, Stella wore a dress with violets on the hem, embroidered by Ammanee as a symbol of love and protection. As Stella prepared to head out, Janie reminded her, “[T]his ain’t a ball you goin’ to. It’s an auction” (30).

William recalls how Frye brought him along to the market, hoping that William’s music would “bring [him] the most delicious fruit at the market” (37). That year’s market was planned in secrecy because of the growing abolitionist movement. Speaking to a group of assembled white men, Frye boasted that he was never cruel to his enslaved people. He referenced an incident on Righter’s plantation, in which Righter meted out a “particularly harsh punishment” to William’s mother Tilly (31).

As William set up with the other musicians, he recalled the music lessons Eleanor Righter gave him in secret. Eleanor taught him to play classical pieces by Mozart and Bach and even arranged for him to learn how to read sheet music from her musical tutor.

When Stella entered the room, she caught the eyes of both William and Frye. William watched her dance, and when she stumbled, he put out a hand to catch her. Frye danced with Stella all night, monopolizing her time. At the end of the night, he selected her to be his mistress.

In the days following the market, Frye and Percy arranged Stella’s transfer. True to his word, Percy aided Janie to approve the deal. Janie stipulated a list of demands. In addition to providing Stella with sewing supplies and amenities, Frye reluctantly agreed to let Ammanee live with Stella, serving as her maid.

Frye insisted that Stella spend the first night in the Burgundy Street cottage alone with him. On entering her new bedroom, Stella spotted a colorful quilt on the bed. In it, she recognized scraps of fabric from Janie’s dress, Ammanee’s apron, and the clothes of countless friends and neighbors from Rampart Street. Janie and Ammanee sewed the quilt in secret as a gift for Stella. Stella remained focused on the quilt as Frye sexually assaulted her for the first time.

Jacob eats a meager dinner of stewed beef cooked over a fire; the supplies at Camp Parapet are in poor condition, with mold and maggots spoiling much of the food. Many of the soldiers who joined hoping to “[get] some action against the Rebs” are growing weary and frustrated by the poor conditions (38). Jacob retreats to his tent, where he keeps a gift from Lily’s latest care package, a quilt that she stitched with blue and white stars.

After dinner, Jacob sings and plays the banjo to boost the spirits of his fellow soldiers. He performs an original song called “Girl of Fire,” which he wrote for Lily at the start of their relationship. When he finishes, one of the soldiers says that Jacob plays well for a “shoddy,” using an antisemitic slur. The slur has its roots in the fact that many Union soldiers blame Jewish textile merchants for the decreasing quality of their uniforms. Superior officers and the federal government perpetuate antisemitic sentiment because Jewish people are easy scapegoats, distracting attention from the government’s poor handling of the war.

After the other men go to bed, Jacob lingers by the fire, feeling unsettled. Hearing music drifting over from the Native Guard’s encampment, he sets off in search of the source. Jacob is surprised to see that the Black recruits’ quarters are in even worse shape than his own; many of the men are sleeping on bare ground. William stands by the fire, playing Mozart and Beethoven on his brass flute. William’s talent stuns Jacob, but the Black men around the fire complain about his selection, asking him to play “something real.”

William recalls how he first learned to play on a flute hand-carved by Ol’ Abraham, an elderly enslaved person on Clinton Righter’s Indigo plantation on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Abraham carried a golden oak staff with a serpent head, which he believed contained protective powers. After Clinton Righter meted out his brutal punishment to Tilly, Abraham carved the staff into a flute in the hopes that it would protect William.

William’s skills caught the attention of Eleanor Righter. Eleanor took William under her wing, arranging private music lessons for him with her instructor, Henry Peabody. At Peabody’s suggestion, Eleanor covertly arranged for William to learn to read sheet music, keeping the lessons a secret from her husband. Eleanor’s fascination chafed at Clinton, who was haunted by William’s resemblance to his mother, Tilly. In William’s music, Clinton “only heard revenge” (46).

Shortly after William’s 12th birthday, Frye bought him off Righter in exchange for investment in Righter’s plantation. During their final goodbye, Tilly took apart her prized possession, a cowrie shell bracelet, and gave William one of the shells for protection.

Returning to the present, William plays a Gullah spiritual he remembers from Sapelo Island, “singing toward the ghosts of his childhood” (47). After he finishes, Jacob steps out of the bushes and introduces himself. The other members of the Native Guard are wary due to a history of negative interactions with white soldiers, but William calms them, saying that he remembers Jacob from earlier.

Jacob spends most of the night playing music with William. Among the Black soldiers, he feels comfortable playing traditional folk melodies that he wouldn’t dare to play at the white camp.

When dawn breaks, Jacob sounds the morning reveille to wake the sleeping soldiers. Later, he writes a letter to Lily, informing her that the recruits will soon begin moving toward Mississippi. Jacob dreads setting foot in his brother’s home state. Samuel, a successful businessman, lives in a luxurious plantation house alongside Miss-Lou River. Jacob recalls their last interaction, a year before the war began. Samuel invited Jacob and Lily down to his home for Passover dinner. At the dinner table, a heated argument broke out when Eliza defended the family’s use of enslaved labor in their business ventures. Lily castigated her for this choice, and the visit ended on an awkward note.

Since that fight, the brothers’ only correspondence has been a letter Samuel wrote, in which he forecast “a most wretched war” and stated that he was not fighting to defend enslavement but to defend his business and way of life (53). He proclaimed his continued care for Jacob and expressed his hope that they would not end up on opposite sides of the battlefield.

In the Native Guard’s camp, William sounds the reveille, accompanied by Teddy. The other soldiers think the boy is “not quite right in the head” because he doesn’t speak much (54), but his talent impresses William.

The Native Guard is put to work digging graves for eight men who succumbed to illness during the night. A few of the soldiers complain that they joined the army to fight Confederates, not to do manual labor. William recalls the first time Frye took him to Stella’s cottage, dressed in a flamboyant outfit, to perform a “private concert.” William was filled with humiliation and rage so intense that he briefly considered killing Frye.

A month has elapsed since William’s escape, and Stella hasn’t heard from him. Though she expected this—William cannot read or write—worry still plagues her. Frye, who works as a quartermaster in the Confederate Army, has become increasingly agitated in the wake of William’s escape. As New Orleans remains under Union control, inflation has devastated the South, and Confederate operations have been driven underground.

Because he believes that Stella is “as compliant as a small child and [...] loyal as a dog” (58), Frye complains openly to her about the failing Confederate strategy, even divulging the location of Confederate strongholds. He is unaware that Stella has been noting down this information for months. She used it to design William’s escape route, diverting his previous plan to go to Port Hudson when she learned of the Confederate presence in the area.

The following week, Ammanee tells Stella that an old neighbor from Rampart Street, Miss Hyacinth, needs help. Her son, Jonah, is about to be conscripted into the Confederate Army, and Miss Hyacinth is sure that he will be killed in battle. Ammanee asks Stella to map out an escape route for Jonah. Stella is initially hesitant, but Ammanee urges her to be brave like William, and Stella ultimately agrees.

Because Frye has covertly taught Stella basic reading and writing, she has the option of rifling through his bag in search of notes. Stella guards the secret of her literacy closely, fearing violent retribution from the Confederates if word spreads.

The next time Frye visits Stella, she gives him a drink of strong brandy. Throughout the night, she prompts him for information on the location of Confederate outposts. As Stella has sex with Frye, she imagines Jonah’s escape route mapped out on the ceiling. By the time Frye leaves, she has enough information to put together a map.

Ammanee fetches Stella a scrap of cloth and a bit of thread from Miss Hyacinth, on which Stella embroiders a simplified map of the route using color-coded thread: green marks the safest route, and red highlights areas to avoid.

In the morning, Stella shows the map to Ammanee. She recalls how Ammanee taught her to embroidery during Percy’s visits, hoping to distract her from the sound of Percy assaulting their mother. She hopes that the same love and hope that Ammanee put into that embroidery will protect Jonah on his journey.

Stella reveals that Ammanee is in love with Benjamin, an enslaved man who grew up alongside her on Percy’s plantation and now works as a blacksmith on his farm. Ammanee visits Benjamin in secret whenever she can, under the guise of running errands for the family. Stella recalls a conversation she overheard between Janie and Ammanee, in which her sister begged Janie to ask for Percy’s blessing to marry Benjamin. Janie brushed her off, telling her that “marrying don’t mean nothin’ for a slave” (68).

When Janie herself married Ammanee’s father, Percy found out and was furious. Two weeks later, he sold Ammanee’s father to a plantation in Alabama, and Janie never saw him again. Stella laments the fact that all three women’s lives are controlled by their enslavers, denied “the most basic freedom—the ability to make a life with the person you loved” (69).

Lily sends Jacob another letter. She grieves their separation but keeping herself busy helps her cope. She has begun organizing a quilting bee among the abolitionist women, with the proceeds to be donated to Union medics.

Jacob recalls the aftermath of his last visit to Samuel’s house. On the train back to New York, Lily castigated him for not backing her up during her argument with Eliza. She demanded that he definitively choose a side in the war because “apathy [is] as malignant as condoning [slavery]” (71). Jacob pondered for several days before returning to her and promising to support abolition full-heartedly.

Walking toward the Native Guard camp, Jacob hears some of the Black recruits playing an interpretation of “Girl of Fire.” He feels an unexpected sense of belonging. This contrasts the feeling of alienation he experiences around his infantry, many of whom have never met a Jewish man before.

Entering the Native Guard camp, Jacob informs William that Colonel Abbott and several other high-ranking officers will be visiting Camp Parapet the following day. Jacob has told Abbott about William’s talent, and Abbott requested a special performance. William agrees to perform if he can bring Teddy with him.

When Ammanee returns from delivering the embroidered map to Ms. Hyacinth, Stella complains of nausea. Looking at her sister’s complexion, Ammanee realizes that Stella is pregnant. Stella is a month along and not yet showing. She doesn’t know if the baby belongs to William or Frye—each answer poses “a terrible hardship.” If the baby is William’s, Frye will inevitably discover her betrayal and likely sell her and Ammanee off. If the baby belongs to Frye, its best chance at a good life will be to get far away from her and attempt to pass as white. Stella hopes that the baby belongs to William, a product of love rather than force. She begins strategizing ways to conceal her pregnancy from Frye.