57 pages • 1-hour read
Daughters of the Dust
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Part 5, Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: “Dawtuh Island: October 1926”
Part 5, Chapter 5 Summary: “How I Come to This as Told by Sallie Lee”
Sallie Lee hails from a well-respected family in Beaufort. As a young girl, she was sought after by every boy in Beaufort for her beauty. One day, she met Sugarnun and Willis George as they visited the mainland. Sallie Lee visited Dawtuh Island to watch Sugarnun singing. Initially doubtful, she was seduced by his charm, and they began a passionate affair. Sallie Lee fell in love with Sugarnun, but when she became pregnant, he vanished. The news of her pregnancy devastated her beloved father, who never spoke to her again before his death. Lost and alone, Sallie Lee accepted Willis George’s proposal. Willis George cared for her after her first child was stillborn and promised to provide for her as well as he could.
Sallie Lee is not cut out for the rigorous work that life on Dawtuh Island requires. She accepts her unhappiness as punishment for breaking her father’s heart. Although she doesn’t love Willis, she is grateful to him and has sworn to “do right by him” (134). Amelia and Elizabeth return home, where Lucy is patching Nana’s quilt. She shows them a strip of red satin and tells the story of its origin.
Part 5, Chapter 6 Summary: “The Red Satin Patch as Told by Lucy Peazant”
After giving birth to Elizabeth, Eula experienced postpartum depression, which placed strain on her marriage with Eli. Their period of estrangement coincided with one of Yellow Mary’s return visits to the island. Yellow Mary brought with her a friend and fellow sex worker named Baby Dell. Baby Dell and Eli had an affair, meeting in secret in the woods. When Lucy found out, she vowed to protect Eula from ever finding out. She set upon Baby Dell one day and beat her viciously, tearing a piece of red satin from her slip.
Amelia accompanies Elizabeth to the home of the Bouvier sisters, determined to use her time on the mainland to visit Haagar’s birthplace, Hog Alley. At the Bouvier house, they encounter Martha, who is Evangeline and Genevieve’s niece. Martha has brought along a friend named Natalie Duvalier, a young woman who works in a luxury boutique in Paris. Natalie is thrilled to learn about Elizabeth’s practice of making charms and believes that they would sell well in her shop. She gives Elizabeth 12 dollars to make her a test batch. Elizabeth takes the 12 dollars to the Beaufort Book Depository. Black teachers are only allowed to visit the depository one day a month, and the supplies are already picked over. Elizabeth is only able to find a few tattered books and pieces of paper. After the depository, Elizabeth accompanies Amelia into Hog Alley. Amelia locates the home of her great-grandfather, Jackson Devries, a descendant of the notorious white Devries family, who made their fortune by enslaving African people. Elizabeth is horrified to see that Jackson looks like a version of Burton Devries, Miss Genevieve’s late husband. Once a notorious philanderer who kept his four wives sequestered in his house, Jackson is now an isolated old man. Elizabeth is put off by Jackson’s misogynistic ideals, but Amelia pushes on, determined to learn about Haagar’s childhood. Jackson claims not to remember Haagar due to having “at least thirty chilren” (153), but recalls that Haagar’s mother, Mattie Baker, ran away from him, leaving Haagar and the others behind. He invites Amelia inside and agrees to tell her a story in exchange for five dollars.
Part 5, Chapter 7 Summary: “What Devries Got, Devries Hold as Told by Jackson Devries”
Jackson claims that all people holding the Devries last name hail from the same white patriarch. Since arriving in the South, white Devries men have had illicit families with enslaved Africans, many even raping their own daughters to father new children. As a young man, Jackson was recruited by Burton to infiltrate the growing civil rights movement in the North. Burton was anxious about the push for African Americans to gain the right to vote. Jackson acted as an undercover agent, sitting in on meetings and reporting back to Burton. Many of the people he turned in were severely punished or even killed. Jackson feels no regret about his actions.
Disgusted, Amelia turns to leave. On the way out, she catches Jackson attempting to sexually assault a young girl who has come to bring his dinner. She intervenes, allowing the girl to escape before Jackson can carry out the assault. Amelia is shaken at the revelation about her great-grandfather’s true nature and is also distraught at the knowledge that Haagar must have suffered greatly in her childhood home. She understands now why Haagar was so desperate to leave. When they return to Eli and Eula’s house, Elizabeth hands Amelia a letter from Haagar. Haagar demands that Amelia come home immediately and forbids her to speak to her Aunt Iona. Furious, Amelia resolves to visit Iona at her home out on the swamps of Dawtuh Island. Ben takes Amelia by boat out to Iona’s home, where she lives with St. Julien Last Child. As the boat docks, they are greeted by Chance and Neeny, two of Iona’s children. Ben and Chance engage in a form of ritual playfighting called com pe or “knockin n kickin” (165). Amelia recalls that weeks earlier, she watched Ben and Eli perform the same ritual. Observing his son’s skill with pride, Eli told Ben that he had “Kojo’s trace.”
Part 5, Chapters 5-7 Analysis
As Amelia continues to acclimate to life on Dawtuh Island, she loses the stigma of being an outsider, and people begin opening up to her, an occurrence that introduces The Importance of Family and Community. Likewise, Building Identity Through History and Storytelling continues to be a key theme of the narrative, as Amelia begins to piece together the story of her own family history through the accounts of others. In Chapter 7, for example, she learns the details of the past that Haagar has tried to conceal from her. Amelia’s encounter with Jackson also helps her to understand Haagar’s determination to remain silent about her likely abusive childhood. From Amelia’s encounter with Jackson, it is clear that Jackson was a neglectful father who treated his wives and children with contempt. To cement this unfavorable view of the man beyond all doubt, Amelia witnesses him assaulting a 13-year-old girl, and he makes a comment about “using” his adolescent daughters, hinting that he may have been sexually abusive toward Haagar. Haagar’s desperation to leave and her potent vitriol toward her heritage stems partially from the fact that she associates life in the South with the abuse inflicted upon her in “that hell house in Hog Alley” (158).
Jackson’s attempted assault on the young girl also shows that sexual violence against Black women is not a relic of slavery, but a pervasive and ongoing societal problem. Jackson is of Black heritage himself, but he has adopted the racist mindset that he has a right to the bodies of Black women: a mindset passed down from the white Devries men, who perpetuate sexual violence against enslaved women out a twisted desire “to own everybody” (155). The ongoing threat of violence against Black women is contrasted by the fact that women on Dawtuh Island generally enjoy respected and protected positions. Older women like Miz Emma Julia are seen as the keepers of tradition and wisdom, while younger women like Iona and Eula are respected for their abilities to raise children and live off the land. The women also speak openly about love, passion, and sex in a way that is new to Amelia. For example, Sallie Lee’s story about Sugarnun contains several graphic descriptions of their activities that make Amelia blush, causing Sallie Lee to interject, “I shaming you? I just tellin the truth” (132).
Jackson’s isolation in his old age, while deserved, also emphasizes The Importance of Family and Community. In his youth, Jackson turned his back on his own community, betraying them by acting as a spy for those who opposed the aims of the civil rights movement. As an old man, he therefore suffers their reciprocal scorn and lives in isolated squalor, reduced to paying his neighbors to bring him his meals. Jackson’s predicament demonstrates that community-building is a mutual act; in order to reap the benefits of a close community, one has to offer help and respect to others in turn.
Chapter 6 showcases some of the disadvantages of life on Dawtuh Island. For example, Elizabeth struggles to make do with the limited resources afforded to Black people in the South. Because Black teachers are only allowed to visit the book depository one day out of the month, Elizabeth is left with only tattered and outdated materials for her classroom. This injustice plays into the established knowledge that the government does not want Gullah-Geechee children to receive a well-rounded education. The general public’s perception of Gullah-Geechee people as ignorant is therefore actively perpetuated by the government and used to keep them at a major economic and social disadvantage.
In addition to highlighting the systemic racism that plagues those on the islands, Dash also makes it a point to explore the complex relationship between the Gullah-Geechee people and the landscape of the low country. Though the isolation of the Sea Islands allows for the preservation of the people’s African cultural traditions, it also places its residents at a socioeconomic disadvantage, for the Gullah-Geechee people experience prejudice and discrimination not only from white people but also from their Black peers in the North due to the distinct differences in their language, culture, and customs.
As the various stories unfold, they provide new insight into the subtler, unspoken aspects of the culture on Dawtuh Island. For example, Lucy’s account of Yellow Mary’s visit helps to explain why some Gullah-Geechee people reacted to Amelia with suspicion and fear upon first meeting her. Yellow Mary is a controversial figure on the island, having left Dawtuh Island for Savannah after a white planter raped her. Some of the Gullah-Geechee people view Yellow Mary as being tainted both being assaulted and by her involvement in sex work. When she returns to the island, they fear that she will bring corrupting influences of the outside world to taint them as well. For such an isolated and singular community, the introduction of influences from the mainland can have a significant effect, as proven by Eli’s affair with Baby Dell, which nearly causes another rift in the Peazant family unit.
As Amelia learns more about her family history and draws closer to them, Elizabeth continues to grapple with her own restlessness and worry about the future. She believes that her only prospects if she remains on Dawtuh Island are returning to work as a servant for the Bouviers or continuing to teach at the island’s underserved school. This narrow set of options helps to explain why migration is such a tempting prospect for younger Gullah-Geechee people, particularly those like Elizabeth who have experienced life beyond the Sea Islands.
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