The Thread Collectors

As William prepares to play for Abbott, he reflects on the connection between talent and survival. Though his mother was a small woman, she had a larger-than-life singing voice, which she used on Sundays when the enslaved people would pray at the praise house. It was Tilly’s voice that first caught the attention of William’s father, an enslaved man named Isaiah.

In the year of William’s birth, a flood ruined the plantation’s spring harvest, making Righter irate and violent. As William grew up, Isaiah began to plan an escape to the North. Tilly refused to endanger William by bringing him along. Instead, she resolved to help Isaiah escape on his own.

On the Sunday of Isaiah’s planned escape, he gave Tilly a pouch made of indigo cotton, containing a cowrie shell bracelet passed down from his mother. He timed his flight to coincide with that night’s devotional. That night, Tilly sang especially loudly, covering up the sound of his running.

When Isaiah’s absence was discovered the next morning, the overseer blamed Tilly’s loud singing for his failure to notice the escape. In response, Righter punished Tilly by burning out her tongue with a hot iron.