The Thread Collectors

William continues through the woods. He passes by a sugarcane plantation before spotting the general store. A crowd of drunk white men is assembled outside of it. Knowing that he is “a ripe prize for humiliation and violence” (220), William steels himself before stepping into their view. The men immediately set upon him, severely beating him and stealing the money from his pocket. They drive him into the nearby woods, where they intend to lynch him. Discovering that none of them have rope, they instead leave him in the woods to die. As William lies on the ground, he has a vision of himself wading into blue water, where a man whom he knows is his father presses a hand comfortingly to his face. Feeling a renewed hope, William gets to his feet.

William wanders for several days. Though he comes close to giving up several times, thoughts of Stella, Jacob, and his father drive him onward. When he stumbles upon the campground that he, Teddy, and Jacob left on Christmas, he finds it deserted. Pulling out his makeshift map, William decides to make his way back to the general store, and then to the old woman’s cottage.

In a letter dated January 3, 1864, Lily expresses her worry at not having heard from Jacob since December. She describes her continued work with Ernestine Rose and the abolitionists. Their latest venture is a fundraising effort to finance new uniforms and equipment for Black Union soldiers. Ernestine Rose is also penning a manifesto to support equal pensions for Black soldiers.

William wakes to the sound of a wagon approaching. He is relieved to see that it is full of Union soldiers and beseeches one of them for help, frantically describing his situation. In response, the man calls him a racist slur. He accuses William of lying about being a soldier or being a “loathsome deserter.” The men order him to get into the wagon, which is headed in the direction of Algiers, New Orleans. They imply that William will be lynched upon arrival.

Lily awakes from a nightmare in which Jacob is injured and trapped in a dangerous place. Over breakfast, she expresses her worries to her father, who assures her that a musician does not face the same danger as a standard soldier. When no letter arrives from Jacob that day, Lily grows increasingly distressed.

When the wagon stops at a Union camp, William is dragged to the supervising officer. He once again explains his story, naming Private Jacob Kling as the injured man. The supervising officer dismisses him as “crazy” and walks away. Realizing that no one in the camp cares whether he lives or dies, William sets out toward New Orleans, hoping to reach Stella.

By the time William reaches Rampart Street, he is completely exhausted. Stella answers the door, holding Wade, whom William instantly recognizes as his son. They embrace, and William finally feels that he’s come home. Stella tells him that Frye is dead, and they are free to be together.

William tells Stella about Jacob, but she advises him to rest; They will worry about Jacob in the morning. Hours later, Ammanee returns home, delighted to see William.

Weeks go by without a letter from Jacob, and Lily is certain that something bad has happened to her husband. She confides in Ernestine Rose, who advises her to go looking for Jacob herself. Against her father’s protests, Lily decides to take the train to Mississippi.

Lily sends a letter to Eliza, expressing her worry for Jacob. She outlines her plan to look in all the field hospitals for him. Lily asks Eliza to look past their ideological differences and let her stay in the Satartia home—as a woman from the North and a known supporter of abolition, she is unlikely to find lodging anywhere else in Mississippi.

Lily faces several obstacles in her journey, as most of the railroads south of Chicago have been torn up by the Union, necessitating a circuitous and dangerous route down the Miss-Lou River. Undeterred, Lily hires first a boat, and then a coach to bring her to Satartia, stopping at all army hospitals and encampments along the way. At each stop, the sight of burned-out homes and wounded or dead men confronts her. When she finally arrives in Satartia, she finds Samuel’s stately home in disrepair. Eliza answers the door and is perturbed to see Lily, not having received her letter. Samuel appears behind his wife in a wheelchair, missing one of his legs.

Eliza lashes out at Lily, furiously describing the destruction wrought on Satartia by the Union Army. Lily turns to leave, but Samuel beseeches her to stay, telling her that their familial ties are more important than their ideological differences. He agrees to help her search for Jacob.

William tells Stella about everything he has endured in the past year—the escape to Camp Parapet, the battles he fought in, and his friendship with Jacob and Teddy. He emphasizes that Jacob sees him, not as “just another runaway slave” but as a fellow musician and an equal (252). His friendship with Jacob has recontextualized the meaning of music for William, teaching him that his songs can “reach into people’s souls” (252). The map he drew is falling apart, so Stella resolves to recreate it in embroidery. Walking around the cottage, she discovers that she has used up all her spare thread and has nothing left to repurpose except the quilt made by the women of Rampart Street. Without hesitation, she starts to unravel it.

Over breakfast, Samuel and Lily discuss the odds of finding Jacob. Eliza worries that their neighbors, who already mistrust them because of their Jewish identity, will find out that they are hiding a Northerner. She again begins to lament the hardship of living in the South, but Samuel interrupts her, telling her that they have all suffered “unfathomable loss,” and there is no need to compare.

Eliza and Lily visit a Union hospital in Oxford, Mississippi. Eliza remains outside, as the hospital brings back too many traumatic memories of Samuel’s injury and amputation. Inside, the sight of maimed and dying men overwhelms Lily. Witnessing their suffering firsthand makes her understand how disconnected she was in New York, despite all her work to support the Union. Jacob is not among the Vicksburg patients. On the carriage ride back to Satartia, Eliza hesitantly expresses her hope that Lily finds Jacob alive and uninjured.

Stella shows William the detailed map she has embroidered based on his sketch. She asks him to send a Union man on the journey rather than go himself, unwilling to risk losing him again.

Lily visits three more hospitals but finds no sign of Jacob. On Tuesday, she and Eliza journey to their final stop, a plantation in Baxter which has since been converted into a temporary hospital. A matron invites her inside to view the unidentified soldiers, but none of them are Jacob. Samuel advises Lily to head toward New Orleans, where she may find information on Jacob at the Union headquarters.

Stella visits Janie’s cottage, where she finds Ammanee suffering from a fever and a cough, acquired on a recent trip up to Algiers to deliver supplies to a Union contraband camp. Stella encourages her to rest so that she can be ready for her wedding to Benjamin.