Jubilee

Innis Brown and Randall Ware chat with each other like long-lost friends. Vyry, however, feels mixed emotions, not yet knowing what to say to Ware. She is happy, though, that Jim will go to school. In his conversation with Brown, Ware says that Jim is like him—averse to farm work. He’s sure, though, that his quick-witted son will make a good teacher. Brown, on the other hand, has always been told that “education don’t do nothing but make a nigger a fool” (524). Ware notes that this is something that white men tell black people so that they can continue to make fools out of them. Brown notes that this very thing happened when they were on Pippin’s place. Ware notes the importance of education, saying that freedom won’t mean anything if the former Confederates can keep black people ignorant, restrict their movement, and control their labor. He also doesn’t think that white Northerners are any friendlier toward black people.

Vyry tells Ware that he sounds bitter and wonders if he thinks that “every white man hates every [black person]” (526). Ware says that he does, indeed, believe that white men are black people’s natural enemies.