River Sing Me Home

When Cherry Jane and Mary Grace reunite, Rachel thinks of Hope, particularly the beauty of Hope and Cherry Jane. The way that Cherry Jane regards the room in which the family lives embitters Rachel. Rachel tells Cherry Jane what happened to her other siblings. When she tells her that Micah died, Cherry Jane cries. With her cool exterior broken, Cherry Jane states that she saw Mercy a few years ago while she was riding around town but refused to speak to her. Rachel grows terrified at Cherry Jane’s callousness. Fighting her anger, Rachel rationalizes that the choice to pass was not an easy one to make. Sensing the tension between Rachel and Cherry Jane, Mary Grace touches Cherry Jane’s cheek. Rachel asks if Cherry Jane is happy in order to glean peace from the experience. No longer seeing Cherry Jane’s passing as destructive but preservative, she accepts her daughter’s choice. Cherry Jane leaves.

The encounter causes Rachel to think about the different paths to freedom that her children found. Although she will not see them again, the fact that they cannot forget her grants her solace.

Rachel, Mary Grace, and Nobody leave the inn. They travel by foot out of Port of Spain. As they travel, Rachel asks people on plantations if they know Mercy. The search continues with no leads on the last child’s whereabouts.

Once they reached an area of the island where the plantations give way to forests, they encountered a traveler. Rachel is struck by the traveler’s peculiarities. He is thin and dressed in rags and travels with a donkey that carries wares. Although the man says that he has never met Mercy, he recommends that the group travel east. The man’s strangeness causes Rachel to recall stories of heroes, gods, and shape-shifters from her childhood. That night, the group make camp to rest for the journey the next day.

Eventually, the group sees a plantation in the distance. Rachel pushes forward recklessly to the extent that she does not notice a white man watching them beyond the trees. The man has a gun and uses it to intimidate Rachel into speaking. The man examines Rachel to the extent that she understands that he knows where Mercy is. In exchange for working at his plantation, the man agrees to let Rachel, Mary Grace, and Nobody talk to the enslaved people.

At a slave residence, Rachel finds Mercy, who is far along in her pregnancy. The women embrace.

Rachel reflects on the impact of slavery on her daughter. Mercy tells them that they were at Perseverance Plantation. Rachel learns that the white man she met is Thornhill. Because of Rachel’s experience of working at Providence Plantation, the work at Perseverance does not affect her. What does is the sense that Thornhill was crueler than other white enslavers because of the joy he took in harming enslaved people. Rachel wants to tell Mercy about Micah, but Mercy is not ready to hear about him.

One day, Abraham, one of the enslaved people at the plantation, fills Rachel in on what happened to Mercy and Cato, Mercy’s beloved. Mercy and Cato had escaped. Thornhill shot and killed Cato. Mercy was left to live because she was pregnant and he needed more people to enslave. Because Thornhill’s sister is married to a judge, he was never punished for the murder. Rachel then works on a plan to free Mercy.

After speaking to Abraham, Rachel rushes to speak with Mercy about escaping. Nancy, another enslaved person at the plantation, comments that there is trouble. Thornhill emerges with Mercy, whom he is dragging by the wrist. Before a gathered crowd, he strings Mercy to a tree branch by the wrists and states that Mercy must be punished for animals escaping a pen. He whips her. Rachel, unable to bear the sight, says, “No” (291). Rachel’s refusal to be silent intrigues Thornhill. Rachel tells him to stop assaulting her daughter and grabs his arm. Thornhill strikes Rachel against her head with his fist. As she lays on the ground, Rachel contemplates the point of her dying for Mercy—not because she will not die for her, but because it would not stop Thornhill’s cruelty. The only way to stop him is to escape the plantation. Seeing images of Mercy, Mary Grace, Nobody, and herself free pushes her to keep fighting for freedom.

Thornhill releases Mercy. Rachel and Nobody take Mercy back to her hut where they dress her wounds. To alleviate the tension, Rachel sings one of Quamina’s songs. After Rachel completes the song, Mercy tells Rachel that she can tell her about Micah. Inspired by Micah’s bravery, Mercy thanks her mother.

Rachel, Mary Grace, Nobody, and Mercy plan to escape Perseverance. They decide to escape during the day since Thornhill would expect people to leave by night. Mercy explains that they could leave while the first and second gangs take sugarcane to the plantation’s mill. Once they are in the forest, they can flee to one of the free villages along the sea.

The following day, the group sets their plan into action. They join a group of enslaved people heading toward the mill. Because of the heat, Thornhill retires to the main house. Rachel notices Abraham in a doorway, and a pang of fear strikes her because Abraham seems complacent about his subjugation. However, Abraham does not alert anyone of the group’s movement along the boiling-house.

Mary Grace flees first for the forest, followed by Nobody. Rachel follows next, yet she notices Mercy struggling to make it to the forest due to her wounds and her pregnancy. As Mercy approaches, a gunshot rings out. The bullet hits a nearby tree. Rachel quickly seizes Mercy. The group runs until Mercy cannot run anymore. Nobody warns them that they have to push on lest they be found. Mercy forces herself to continue running until they find a river.

Along the river bank, the group rests. Rachel allows the forest scent to lull her into sleep until she wakes. Mercy is in labor. Rachel, unsure as to how to help Mercy birth a child, since she is not a midwife, directs Mercy to breathe and push. Mary Grace rubs Mercy’s back in hopes of comforting her. When Mercy’s son is born, the women are relieved. Mercy names her son Micah.

The afterglow of the birth is short-lived. Nobody alerts them that he sees lights in the forest. Rachel, wanting to ensure that her grandson remains free, tells everyone that they have to cross the river to survive. Nobody pushes a fallen tree into the river for the family to hold onto. Holding Micah above her head, Rachel crosses the river. The current carries them as bullets fly over them. Rachel clutches the tree with one hand and holds Micah above the water. Meanwhile, Nobody and Mary Grace cling to Mercy to keep her from being carried away by the river’s current. Rachel prays to the river to let them live as they have no choice but to be carried away.

Once they are safe enough to approach land, Nobody and Mary Grace push the tree toward the river’s shore. Weary and still clutching Micah, Rachel gives him to Mercy. Nobody notices that the river carried them eastward. They walk until Mercy notices the sea. Nobody calls attention to a collection of huts facing the sea and people tending to the soil. They have reached the free settlement about which Mercy told them. Overcome with joy, Mary Grace, after years of silence, sings. Rachel notices that Mary Grace is singing one of Quamina’s songs. Mercy joins her sister in the song although she does not know the words. Nobody soon joins them, singing “not quite the same song” but one that was passed by his own people (312). As the songs blend together, Rachel looks at Micah. She realizes that the best gift she can give her grandson is “the fragments of a memory she had carried with her all this time” (312).

The novel concludes with Rachel joining the others in song.

The unknown narrator from the Prologue returns, stating that “there was hope in this new world, after all” because “when they sang, we heard them” (312). The narrator explains that in the song, in dreams, and in the smile between mother and child, they are remembered. These instances indicate the indestructibility of who they are.

In this section of the novel, Shearer details her reasoning for writing the novel, as well as her writing process. She gives some biographical information such as her grandparents’ being part of the Windrush Generation as well as naming texts that helped inspire her academic and creative interests. One such text is Fernando C. Smith and Keithlyn B. Smith’s 1986 book, To Shoot Hard Labour, which focuses on the life of Samuel Smith. While learning about Smith’s great-grandmother, Mother Rachael, who searched Antigua for her daughters, Shearer drew inspiration for River Sing Me Home.

The novel is also drawn from the author’s time with relatives in St. Lucia. She explains that although “people travel to the Caribbean because it seems like paradise […] the Caribbean is beautiful because of its history, not in spite of it” (316). While conducting field work, the author interviewed activists, historians, and family in St. Lucia and Barbados in order to understand the historical legacy of slavery in the past and present. The precarious feeling of freedom caused by the Emancipation Act of 1834 inspired the author to investigate the meaning of freedom and resistance during the period. Because she wished to describe real rebellions like the one Micah took part in, she referred to Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood (1994) by Emilia Viotti de Costa. Shearer also wanted to include Nuno’s story in order to shed light on the traumas experienced by the Indigenous communities in the Caribbean.

Aside from this information, Shearer reveals her struggle with writing historically accurate yet accessible dialogue in a way that reflected the Caribbean’s creole languages. She discloses the role that Bajan creole in particular has in Caribbean storytelling—an important trait of Orion’s chapter.

Shearer ends this section by divulging her hope that the novel will give readers a sense of love and possibility. Because women like the character Rachel and the real Mother Rachael fought to recover their fragmented families, their stories need to be told.