The Glory Field

Part Three also begins at Curry Island, South Carolina. It is April 1900. Elijah Lewis, fifteenyearsold, is out ploughing the fields with Sukey, an old mule. Elijah is Saran and Moses’s grandson, and Lizzy and Richard's son. Elijah is ploughing the Lewis's own fields. After the Civil War, the Lewis family received eight acres of land bordering the Live Oaks plantation. They named the land the Glory Field.

Grandpa Moses and Grandma Saran are finding things difficult. They are trying to hold on to their land, but are behind on their taxes. Trying to borrow some money from a bank, the bank manager tells them,“the King Street Bank [is] for white folks” (75). Elijah is worried about them.

The Lewis family gathers at the African burial ground on their plot of land. After blessing the cemetery, they gather for a family picnic. Saran tells Elijah that his Uncle Lem fought and died in the Civil War. Old Master Lewis would not allow the family to bury Lem at Live Oaks, so he is buried on the Glory Field. Sister Clinton, who works doing laundry for whites, arrives at the picnic and tells Saran that she has seen David Turner, a blind white child who Saran takes care of, with Foster.