Yellow Wife

Pheby awakes to the smell of smoke. Tommy accidentally set a haystack on fire. Rubin whips Tommy in front of everyone with a hickory branch. After he is finished, Pheby tends to the boy. Tommy gets an infection and fever from his wounds. Pheby is pained when she thinks about how little time she is permitted to spend with her son.

Pheby has three children with Rubin: Hester, Isabel, and Joan. Rubin permits Pheby to read to their three daughters and have them educated, but Pheby must tutor Monroe privately. Monroe asks Pheby if he is enslaved. Pheby admits that everyone at the jail apart from Rubin is enslaved, including her.

Hester and Monroe are close, but each child is raised differently. When Monroe and Hester play a game of hide the puppet, Hester gets frustrated that she cannot find it and begins to cry. Rubin drags Monroe away and beats him. He then forces Monroe to be moved out of the house completely and tells Pheby that Monroe is no longer allowed to spend time with their daughters. Pheby visits Monroe and tells him what her mother Ruth told her: “You his slave in name only, never in your mind, boy.