The Thread Collectors

On December 26th, Lily sends a Christmas package and a letter to Jacob. She describes how watching children in her neighborhood open presents on Christmas morning made her think of Teddy. She encloses a pair of small mittens in the package as a gift for him.

Lily admits that she is envious of the women in her social circle whose husbands have already come home. While she waits for Jacob’s return, she continues her activism. In addition to abolition, she has now aligned herself with the suffrage movement, hoping for a future of intersectional equality. She closes the letter with “I remain your girl of fire” (218).

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.