James: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of sexual assault, abuse, racism, and enslavement.

The novel begins with an epigraph from the notebook of Daniel Decatur Emmett. This notebook, penned by a white man who is in charge of a traveling minstrel show, is a group of racist songs.

Jim is waiting at Miss Watson’s door. He notices Huck and Tom in hiding in the yard and, not wanting to deal with their shenanigans, loudly exclaims that he is about to take a nap. The two boys sneak into Miss Watson’s house, take several of her candles, and leave her a nickel. Although Jim observes the theft, he does not breathe a word of it to Miss Watson, even when she asks if he has been in her kitchen. Later, he gathers with a group of enslaved people to tell a story about a dream he’d had. Although the enslaved people speak in standard English among themselves, they speak in dialect when in the presence of white people. As they hear white people approaching, they code-switch and begin to speak in dialect.

Later, while Jim is fixing the front steps for Miss Watson, Huck stops by.