44 pages • 1-hour read
The Invention of Wings
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Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4 Summary: “September 1821–July 1822”
Sarah lives with Israel Morris’ family in their house outside Philadelphia, and she teaches his children. She applies for membership in the Quaker church. Soon Sarah is in love with Israel, and he struggles with his feelings for her, out of his loyalty to his dead wife. Sarah has convinced her mother that her departure from Charleston is God’s idea; therefore, she preserves her relationship with her family. Her feelings for Israel threaten her plans when Israel’s sister, Catherine, questions the propriety of Sarah living with their family in front of the whole Quaker community. Sarah has received a letter from Nina, begging her to come home and help her manage their mother. Sarah leaves for Charleston.
Handful continues to go to Denmark Vesey’s house. Denmark refers to Handful as his daughter. Denmark is the leader of a planned slave uprising. Denmark claims that there are 6,000 names in his book; all men who will stand up and fight. They are gathering weapons for the rebel army. At risk to her life, Handful pretends to be a cleaning lady and steals two bullet molds from the city armory to make balls for the rebel muskets. The night before, mindful that she might be caught and killed, she and Goodis become lovers. Goodis has been in love with Handful for many years.
Upon her return to Charleston, Sarah is dressed as a Quaker, in plain, gray wool. Quakers do not wear cotton because it is produced using slave labor. Because of their outspoken abhorrence of slavery, Quakers are not welcome in Charleston. Accordingly, Sarah isn’t welcome in Charleston. News of a violent slave revolt has slipped out, and interrogation of slaves at the Work House reveals all the plot’s details. Fearing that this is something that Handful might be involved in, Sarah tells Handful that the plot has been uncovered.
Sarah is confronted on her way to church by a member of the local militia; only her father’s name saves her from being arrested as an agitator. She defies the crowd and speaks out, saying, “What would you have the slaves do? If we don’t free them, they will free themselves by whatever means!” (253-54). Sarah, hated at home, realizes that even though she has spoken out, she has accomplished nothing. Soon to be 30 years old, she decides that she must go back north and make whatever life she can.
The leaders of the attempted slave revolt are rounded up, including Denmark Vesey. They are tried and sentenced to death. Citizens are told through the newspapers that anyone publicly mourning Denmark Vesey will be arrested and whipped. Handful escapes the house and follows the wagon carrying Denmark to his hanging. She witnesses his death.
Part 4 Analysis
This part covers a year and a half, ending the summer before Sarah turns 30 years old. Sarah joins the Quakers and falls in love with Israel Morris. With him, she discovers a community who shares her beliefs and a place where she belongs. She enjoys living with Israel and his children in his home, “a small castle made entirely of stone,” noting, “I liked how impenetrable it felt” (213). She feels safe and protected within the home, and with Israel, a contrast to her lack of safety in Charleston, where she is targeted and despised as a result of her Quaker beliefs.
However, Nina feels Sarah’s absence in Charleston and begs her to come home. Missus’ violence toward the slaves and unreasonable demands escalate as she worries about money. Sarah’s return does not help anything; she only brings unwanted attention to her family, including stones thrown through the windows, due to her Quaker dress and outspokenness. She realizes that to preserve her and her family’s safety, she cannot stay in Charleston:
Within the stillness, I felt the old, irrepressible ache to know what my point in the world might be […] What came to me was the fleur de lis button in the box and the lost girl who’d put it there, how I’d twice carried it from Charleston to Philadelphia and back, carried it like a sad, decaying hope. […] I would leave this place yet again […] to make what life I could (255).
On the cusp of her 30th birthday, Sarah believes that her life has amounted to nothing. Though she connects her fleur de lis button to “decaying hope,” she still possesses the button, meaning that she has not lost all hope as she enters this next phase of her life in Philadelphia.
Handful also undergoes a transformation during this section, from a woman who watches her mother perform rebellious acts to a woman who commits her own rebellions. Supporting the theme of rebellion against oppression, Handful helps the slave revolt, stealing a bullet mold and sewing the list of rebel slaves’ names into a quilt to hide it. Her experience in the Work House forces her to confront the grim realities of her position as a slave, and she begins to actively seek freedom. The slave revolt reminds Charleston that slaveholders are in the minority, resulting in even more repression of the slaves and leaving the authorities on high alert for anti-slavery agitators, such as Quakers.
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