The Underground Railroad

Chapter 20 Summary

This vignette depicts Caesar at Randall, during Jockey’s party. Caesar has taken refuge in the old, run-down schoolhouse near the stables. This is where he goes when he’s feeling down. From its window, he can pretend that he is a mere witness to the cruelties of the plantation, instead of one caught in its web—enslaved and certain to meet with a painful death. He knows that, if his plans work out, this will be the last time he sees one of Jockey’s birthday celebrations. He also feels that these plantation celebrations (a made-up birthday celebrated with dancing after hard labor) are nothing compared to the festivities that he used to enjoy in Virginia, where he was free to visit the farms of freemen and see relatives on estates for holidays and grand feasts. The enslavers in Virginia stayed away from these feasts, whereas the enslavers at Randall were always lying in wait. He reminds himself: “I was born on August 14. My mother’s name is Lily Jane. My father is Jerome. I don’t know where they are” (236).

Through the schoolhouse window, he watches Cora tend to Chester, her favorite, at the race’s starting line.