The Underground Railroad

Chapter 2 Summary

This chapter opens with a runaway slave bulletin by a W.M. Dixon. Dated July 18, 1820, it states that a negro girl by the name of Lizzie ran away and may possibly be hiding near the plantation of someone named Mrs. Steel. It offers a $30 reward for Lizzie’s return and threatens the penalty of the law for anyone found to be harboring her.

The chapter begins on Jockey’s birthday, which “only [comes] once or twice a year” (11), and is always on a Sunday, the slaves’ half day. Birthday feasts are a priority for the slaves, unless they have obtained a pass to sell wares in town or hired themselves out for day labor: “Impossible was the slave impudent enough to tell a white man he couldn’t work because it was a slave’s birthday. Everybody knew niggers didn’t have birthdays” (11).

Cora takes a seat on the hunk of sugar maple in her garden. This is her customary Sunday spot. Cora’s garden tending is not only maintenance, but “also a message that she had not lost her resolve since the day of the hatchet” (12). Cora’s friend Lovey asks her when her birthday would be if she could choose it.