60 pages • 2 hours read
Shelley PearsallTrouble Don't Last
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Spiders and Candles”
The next morning, Samuel cannot find Harrison. He wonders if Harrison has left him because Mr. Hackler is more likely to search for Samuel; as a young boy, Samuel can be sold for more money than the elderly Harrison. Mr. Hackler once stated that Samuel was worth $700, which made Samuel feel proud. Lilly slapped him for his pride and told him that he shouldn’t be proud of being salable. Now, Harrison appears and tells him that it is time to move to the next hiding place: a bush of weeds with spiders in it. Samuel recalls an incident in which Seth burned his finger with a candle to see if the layers of Samuel’s skin would be white beneath the surface. Miz Catherine watched and allowed this abuse to happen. Samuel isn’t sure which prospect is scarier: wandering the dark woods full of creatures with Harrison or returning to Miz Catherine and Seth. Samuel and Harrison remain in their new hiding place until it gets dark, and nobody comes looking for them there.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Two Fingers Gone”
Samuel and Harrison emerge from the weeds and walk north through cornfields and woods. When the sun rises, they stop to rest in a cornfield and eat some corn. Samuel wants to know what is in the bag, and Harrison shows him but forbids him to tell anyone about it. Harrison has brought the knife, a skillet, Mr. Hackler’s boots and hat, a horse bridle, some gloves, a fancy bonnet, blankets, a lantern, and gray yarn. Harrison plans to sell some of these things, and others might be useful. Samuel declares that it was wrong to steal, but Harrison protests. They dress up in the Hacklers’ clothes and laugh, and they remain in the cornfield for the rest of the day.
Samuel can’t believe they haven’t been caught yet, and he starts to wonder if they have died and gone to the promised land. Harrison says they will reach the “River Jordan” soon. He means the Ohio River, where they can cross from Kentucky into Ohio.
Chapter 10 Summary: “River of Death”
Samuel doesn’t understand how they’ll be able to tell if they’ve reached the River Jordan or some other river. Harrison says the river will be wide, with lights on the other side, but Samuel is still doubtful, and his skepticism irritates Harrison. They come to a small creek and cross it, then continue walking north until they reach the banks of the Ohio River. Harrison warns that there may be patrollers around, and he says he’d rather die by suicide using Lilly’s knife than go back to the Hacklers.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Cornfield Bottoms”
Samuel and Harrison creep to the river. There is a weak fire, as if someone has been there recently. In the distance, they hear gunshots, dogs, and screaming. The river is so large that it seems impossible to cross. They wade into the water, and Harrison makes an owl call. After a while, another owl call responds.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The River Man”
Harrison is pleased that he has caught the attention of a “river owl.” Samuel wonders what sort of giant bird is going to come save them, but instead, a boat arrives; a large, scarred Black man is rowing it. The man tells Harrison and Samuel that if they want to cross the river, they must do whatever he says. He has a knife and a gun, and he points the gun at them as they get into the boat. As they push off the riverbank, they hear a woman screaming.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Hetty Scott”
The man rows quickly away from the shore and orders Harrison to extinguish his lantern. On land, some men and dogs are chasing a Black woman, who is screaming for help. After a while, the man turns back to get the woman, whose name is Hetty Scott. She is wearing several layers of fancy dresses. She gets in the boat, and they row away. Although the men shoot at them, they escape unharmed. They reach the other side of the river, and Samuel is surprised to see that Ohio looks the same as Kentucky. Hetty Scott doesn’t want to get out of the boat because her dresses will get muddy, and she also refuses to leave the dresses behind. After a bit of arguing, the “river man” pushes the boat back into the river with Hetty Scott in it. He starts walking away from the river, and Harrison and Samuel follow even though Samuel is worried that he will abandon them like he did to Hetty Scott.
Chapters 8-13 Analysis
This section further develops the theme of The Hardships of Enslavement by using strategic flashbacks to expand the histories of the characters. Specifically, this section focuses on the more insidious ways in which enslavers actively harmed enslaved people, both physically and psychologically. A prime example of this dynamic occurs when Samuel recounts the moment that Mr. Hackler tried to get him to be proud of being worth $700. Because Samuel has been enslaved since birth, he is more susceptible to accepting his enslavers’ view of the world, and Lilly must explain to him that being “valued” in terms of currency is dehumanizing and is not something to take pride in. Additionally, the entire family of the Hacklers is shown to participate in bizarre types of abuse, such as when Mrs. Hackler encouraged Seth to burn Samuel’s hand with a candle to check if the layers of his skin beneath the surface are white. Throughout the text, flashbacks are used to show that the types of abuse experienced under enslavement leave emotional “scars” as well as physical ones.
This section also develops The Challenges of Seeking Freedom as Samuel and Harrison encounter immediate difficulties on their journey. Given their extremely limited lives on the plantation and their lack of access to information about their surroundings, Harrison and Samuel do not have a map, nor are they able to read maps and signs. Their lack of knowledge is deliberately engineered by their enslavers; historically, enslaved people were not taught to read or write, and this state of affairs made it all the more challenging for them to escape. Similarly, Harrison and Samuel cannot risk asking for directions because any stranger might be dangerous. One of the only ways to tell which way they’re going is by following the stars or the sun whenever these are visible. Until they encounter guides like the river man, they face the possibility of getting lost before their escape plan has begun in earnest, and they also have to deal with physical discomforts like hunger and cold. While trying to remain fed, dry, and warm, they struggle to find the right path and must also avoid the many patrols that would thwart their entire mission. While the cover of darkness offers some protection from being captured, it is not a guarantee of their safety, and these early challenges foreshadow the fact that Harrison and Samuel still have a long, harrowing journey ahead of them.
In this section, Harrison and Samuel encounter the river man, the first person they meet who is connected with the Underground Railroad. The river man helps them immensely because he uses his boat to carry them across the Ohio River, which is too big to cross without a boat. Without the river man or a similar person, Samuel and Harrison would never be able to reach Ohio and would have risked being captured by the men patrolling the river’s shores. However, although the river man is a participant in the Underground Railroad and is ultimately helpful to Samuel and Harrison, he is also violent and unpredictable, as is suggested when he opens the discussion by threatening them with a knife and a gun. Furthermore, he easily abandons the other passenger, Hetty Scott, because she doesn’t want to get her dress dirty. Although Samuel doesn’t understand this cruelty, the narrative implies that the river man makes this hard choice in order to protect the majority of the group, for any further delay would cause all four of them to get captured by the nearby patrols. Therefore, he sacrifices her to save the remaining three who are willing to walk in the mud. With this morally ambiguous scene, the author uses the river man’s character to create a more nuanced perspective on The Role of the Underground Railroad in American History, as she shows that although it was not always a perfect network, it was instrumental in helping many fugitives from slavery attain their freedom.
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By Shelley Pearsall
