H
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, we learn about what happens to H, the son of Kojo. The chapter starts with H being put in chains by four policemen. When H rattles the bars of the cell, his cellmate tells him to stop, or the police officers will kill H. When H asks why he ended up in jail, his cellmate tells him he overhears the officers saying it is because he was "studyin' a white woman” (128). H replies that he was not and is annoyed at the false accusation. His cellmate then proceeds to tell him that it does not matter if he did or not, all white people have to do is say that he did. H’s cellmates also tell him that even though the war may be over, slavery still persists in other ways. After the man falls asleep, H remembers the day slavery had ended when he was thirteen, and how happy he was to be free after leaving his old master’s plantation. H spends the next four days in the county jail, and even though they will not tell him his charge, he has to pay ten dollars by the end of the night. However, H only has five dollars, which took him nearly ten years of sharecropping to save. H also has no family or money. H thinks about calling Ethe, a woman he met when he was eighteen, but he worries that if she came to the jail for him, the police officers would find other ways for her to pay the fine.
As H is unable to pay the fine, the next day, he is chained to ten other men and sold by the state of Alabama to work in the coal mines. Because of how big H is, he is sold for nineteen dollars, which is a large sum of money as the most they used to pay is eighteen dollars even for a "first-class man" (130). The first thousand pounds of coal are the hardest to shovel for H, and he spends days on his knees. H and the other men were lowered 650 feet down a shaft, where he shoveled fourteen thousand pounds of coal. H knew it was not just pain that could kill a man as he saw the prison warden whipping men to their death more than once, and other times mines collapsed burying the prisoners alive. As time passes, H can hardly remember being free, and he can not tell if he misses being free or the capacity for memory. Sometimes H would try remembering and force himself to think about the things his mind could call up, mostly Ethe.
The convicts working in the mines were almost all like H, black, once slaves, then free, now slaves again. The convicts included Timothy, a man on H’s chain link, and Joecy, a man working off year seven of his eight-year sentence. Sometimes, white men would also be prisoners sent to the mines, and when they did, they protested being chained to a black man– until they realized it was the only way to survive. Every person in the mine had a quota to fill, and if the miner did not, both the miner and his mining partner would be whipped, sometimes to death. One day, H was partnered with a white third-class man named Thomas. This week was Thomas’s first week, but his arms were shaking so badly that he could not lift a few pounds of coal before giving up. To fill both his and Thomas’s quota, H starts shoveling with both hands and fills both their quotas. This is how he gets his nickname, Two-Shovel. Following that, H tells Joecy that he cannot feel his arms and that he does not want to die. Joecy calms him down and tells him that no one is dying tonight. The next day when H partnered again with Thomas, Thomas thanked H for his help the other day. Thomas then asks H why he was named that, H tells him that his old master told him that it was what his mom used to call him before she killed herself, and they had to slice him out of her body before he died. A month later, Thomas dies of tuberculosis, but H does not remember his name, just the face he made when H had picked the shovel and fulfilled both their quotas.
In 1889, H shovels his last thousand pounds of coal. H thinks about going home, but he realizes he does not know where home is. He then goes into the first bar that contains black people and meets a black woman named Dinah, who was in Birmingham visiting her cousin. While talking to Dinah, she noticed the fresh scars on his back, but free men were not supposed to have scars since slavery ended twenty-five years ago, so she immediately recognizes him as a criminal and miner. Dinah walks away from H, and he realizes he has no place in the free world when he is marked the way he is. Then, H moves to Pratt city, a city made up of ex-cons and asks around until he finds Joecy with his wife and children. H meets up with Joecy, who had also moved to Pratt City following the end of his sentence. When meeting up with Joecy, he tells H that his son, Lil Joe, can write a letter to Ethe, but H refuses. Later, H goes with Joecy and gets a job in the mines, despite the fear he had of dying in the mines. H now has a paying job for a skill he learned as an enslaved criminal. H also joins the union after moving in with Joecy and his family.
H goes to a union meeting, where a doctor explains the negative side effects of mining like black lung. Following the meeting, H asks Lil Joe to write him a letter to Ethe informing her that he is a free man living in Prat City. The next morning, H mails the letter to Ethe. At the next union meeting, a white man tells them that they should strike, but H points out that white men do not listen to black men. However, the strike still happened. When the strike started, the bosses said that the miners could easily be replaced, and one week later a carriage full of teen black convicts appeared. H worries about whether they were arresting more people for nothing simply to get more workers. The next day, Joecy and H took the signs out to strike, and about 150 men were standing out in the cold. H shouts that they should let the kids go, and one of the kids pees himself out of fear. The boy then starts running, but a gunshot goes off. H then grabs a white man by the throat over the coal pit and tells him that one day the world will know what they did in the mines, but does not throw the white man in. In the end, after six months of striking the bosses give in and announce that they are paying them fifty cents more at a union meeting. After the union meeting, H saw Ethe inside his home. Ethe then tells him that she got his letter, and H proceeds to kiss her and take her body in his arms, however, she does not budge easily.
Character Analysis
H
Is the son of Kojo and Anna, their eighth, who Anna was pregnant with when she was kidnapped with the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law. He is portrayed as strong and independent (features reminiscent of his grandfather Sam), but alone. Like his father’s, Kojo, he does not know his parents and is estranged from any family. This continues the trend of characters who are unfamiliar with their heritage, leaving them without the sense of belonging. He is first introduced when he is arrested under false accusations. This was because the police were trying to find any reason for arresting black men, to make them work as slaves without paying them any wages. Although they did not call this slavery, it was an expansion of it. He is sold to work in the mines in Alabama, where he had to work for several years since he couldn’t pay the purposely high fine of ten dollars. During his time there, he is partnered with a white man named Thomas who was so afraid that he couldn’t perform his work. This led to H picking up two shovels and doing his work as well as Thomas’s, because people who couldn’t meet their quota for the day suffered from whips, and sometimes they’d get whipped to death. H’s actions in helping Thomas show H’s giving and thoughtful nature. The next day, H couldn’t shovel, so then Thomas, Joecy and Joecy’s partner, Bull, completed H’s quota. This displays how these men were dependent on each other to survive. After H is released, he remains working in the mines alongside Joecy; however, he gets paid well. He transforms from a slave into a free man. A free man who gets paid for doing the work and does not get whiplashed for not meeting the quota of the day. He then joins a union, where he tries to fight for the rights of miners since so many hazards exist while working in a minefield. In the union, one white man was convicted because he murdered a person, while so many black people were convicted for things as little as crossing a road wile a white woman was as well. Nevertheless, H still decided to work with the white men since they all want the mines to be a safer place. At the end of this chapter, H was reunited with the woman he loved, Ethe, who left him after he cheated on her. H thought about Ethe when he worked in the coal mines, and she represented hope for him. By the end, he got Ethe back, and gained 50 cents on top of his pay from his bosses at the mines. The chapter of H ends with hopefulness and optimism.
Ethe
Ethe is H’s wife. She is introduced in H’s chapter as his lover before he cheated on her and called her by another woman’s name. Ethe is important in this chapter because she represents hope for H. The thoughts he had of her during his time in the coal mines helped him bear the suffering he went through chained up in the coal mines.
H's cellmate
H's cell mate was introduced in the beginning of this chapter, and the character remained nameless. His cellmate warns H to stop rattling the prison bars, because he could get killed for it. He also informs H what he has been arrested for. He is helpful and he tries to talk to H. Moreover, we can deduce that his cell mate was old since he told H he remembers slavery and he played a part in it. H’s cellmate plays a significant role in this chapter to display how some people have endured slavery and were also enduring the convict lease system as well.
Chief Deputy
The chief deputy was a white man working in the police force. He was shoving H to the pit boss, and he sold H to the pit boss for nineteen dollars.
The Pit Boss
The pit boss is a white male who bought H to work at the mines. His cruelty can be displayed when he ran a knife across H’s neck and made him bleed. He also believes all black people are the same, this can be interpreted from a direct quotation: “he may be big, he’ll bleed just like the rest of them” (Gyasi 164). His character represents the justice system and how poorly they treated black men.
Timothy
Timothy is a black man that was chained up along H, and he has been arrested for going outside and hushing a howling dog. He was then arrested for causing disruption. Timothy’s character is significant since it shows the means the justice system in Alabama would go to, so they can imprison black men and sentence them to work for zero wages.
Solomon
Solomon is a black man who was convicted for stealing a necklace, and he was given a sentence of 20 years. His character is of importance to convey how the justice system operated against black people.
Thomas
Thomas is a third-class white man who was convicted along with H. At first, his character is portrayed as racist since he would complain about being surrounded with black people, and he would claim he was better than them. When Thomas could not lift his arms to shovel, H helped him meet his quota of the day. Thomas ends up repaying H by shoveling for him when H could not, along with Joecy and Bull. Thomas later ends up thanking H, before dying from tuberculosis. Thomas’s character is important since it displays how the white convicts, who were put to work in the coal mines with black men, would complain because they believed they were superior to the black ones. Later in the chapter, Thomas’s character goes to represent how the convicts all needed to work together, no matter their race, to survive.
The Doctor
The character of the doctor in this chapter signifies the hazardous conditions coal miners had to work in. He informed H of some of the health effects that coal dust can have on people, trying to convince H to join the union to fight for better working conditions.
Joecy
Joecy's character is introduced as friendly and nice to H. He tried to lift H’s spirits up when he thought he was going to die, as well as help him when he couldn’t move his arms. He is the first to pick up a shovel to help H, and then Bull and Thomas follow. Joecy also gets H a paying job in Pratt City and encourages him to join the union and fight for their labor rights. Their friendship grows, even after leaving Birmingham. Joecy is important in this chapter as his character symbolizes the trust and dependence these men had on each other so they can endure the hardships of conviction.
Bull
Bull is a third-class man who was Joecy’s partner. He is “branded” by the Klansmen who had burned his face to mark that he is “no good” (Gyasi 168). He also helped H when he couldn’t shovel the coal.
Dinah and the man at bar
Dinah was a woman H met at Pete’s bar in Birmingham. H had asked her where he was, and she commented on his looks. She said he looked strong, and the man with her told H to lift his sleeve up to show them his muscles. When H did roll up his sleeves, Dinah and the man were startled by the scars on his back. Their prejudice is displayed when the man said: “I knew he was one of them cons from over at the mines” (Gyasi 171). They both walked away to stand on the other side, away from H, showing how even amongst African Americans, miners were seen as criminals and therefore were shunned.
Jane
Jane is Joecy’s wife, and her character is sweet and giving. She is portrayed frying some food for H, and she asks him whether he has a partner. She also encourages H to let her son write to Ethe, so he does not remain not alone.
Lil Joe
Lil Joe is Joecy’s son. According to H, he looks like his father, and was almost eleven years old. Since Lil Joe knows how to write, H asked him to write to Ethe, so she knows that H is free. Additionally, H grew fond of Lil Joe, and Lil Joe made H want kids of his own.
Mr. John
Mr. John was H and Joecy’s boss at the coal mines in Pratt City. He took Joecy’s word to hire H, since Joecy vouched for H.
White Union Member
While he remained nameless in the chapter, he was portrayed as having been imprisoned for killing a man. H was conflicted on whether he should work with him, since the black men who were arrested were so for much less. Nevertheless, he decided to work with him since the white man displayed leadership skills in the union, and he was motivated to work in unison. His character also represents the significance of the union members working together, regardless of their race, to get better working conditions.
Major Themes and Symbols
New Guises of Slavery
The storyline of H begins by emphasizing the injustice experienced by African Americans after the Civil war. During this time, many would presume it was a period filled with positive change towards equality. Yet, the chapter on H displays the newly morphed version of slavery, which took over more after the civil war. This major theme centers itself around H’s resistance in the face of his renewed oppression. H fell one of the victims of the conviction of African Americans for petty or wrongfully accused crimes, he was taken advantage of for free labor in coal mines, and treated as a slave. Only now, the black men who are arrested suffer the consequences of being labeled as “ex-cons” after serving their sentences (170). Towards the beginning, H displays resistance to this new shape of slavery by using his strength, fearless at first as he starts to grasp the invisible shackles he was put in. The realization slowly sinks in through the people that he meets. His cellmate explains that “War may be over but it ain’t ended” (161); his pit boss declares that “there’s no such thing as a free n*****” (163) after his protest that he couldn’t be sold as a free man. All this means that, the system of oppression was so embedded not only in culture but in the economy that formal abolishment of slavery made no change in the course of H’s life.
Estrangement and Loneliness
One major theme in the chapter on H is the feeling of estrangement that is repeated throughout his story. Having neither the knowledge of any of his siblings’ existence nor any background about his parents, the only information he was told about his family was about his mother suicide that led to his untimely birth. His one-lettered name reflected his sense of isolation in the line: ““Ain’t got no family” H said to no one”, as he recalled his lonesome travel from one state to another when he was freed for the first time (162). Before his imprisonment, Ethe was the only relationship H had maintained in his life, his loneliness amplified by his regret over losing her. However, H’s time in the coal mines forced him to quickly learn that he needs those around him to be able to survive. Underground, they were all coated with the same layer of coal. Even after becoming a free man for the second time, H understands his segregation as an ex-convict, and reverts back to the sense of community in Pratt City. Yet, he recognized the degree of separation present, even in Pratt City by clarifying the difference between black and white ex-convicts. He stressed that “we ain’t cons like you” (175), referring to the white ex-convict’s attempts in comparing themselves to him and the rest of black convicts that were wrongfully accused.
Coal
A major symbol in this chapter is the coal itself: its color, smell, and heaviness. Throughout the chapter, coal becomes his reference point for understanding the world. For example, he compares a woman’s shade of skin to that of coal, saying that “he missed that blackness, having only known the true blackness of coal for nearly ten years” (169). He also made a point of reference to Ethe’s groundedness, equating her to a lump of coal that “did not submit so easily” (178).
Metal
The repeated symbol of the knife that was held against his neck as threat to his life echoes in his observation that “metal was nothing like skin” (165). Both put him in a state of surrender. The contrast of textures, the coldness of the” knife blade” or the “prison bars,” are a material reality of the distance between H and his freedom.
Light
Another motif in the chapter is light. On the day of his release, as he leaves the coal mines a free man once again, he mentions the elevator shaft that “took him up into the light” (168). The “light” here indicates his freedom, and using the word “into” places him in his freedom, unshackled at last. This metaphor displaces both in the physical darkness he had lived in for nearly ten years, and expresses a sense of hopefulness and new-found energy. The synonymic words of “sun” and “rays” emphasize his escape and end of his “darkness,” which seems to mean the end of his incarceration underground (169).
Key Quotations
“Ain’t got no family,” H said to no one. He had made the walk from Georgia to Alabama by himself. He was used to being alone, but Alabama had turned H’s loneliness into something like a physical presence. He could hold it when he went to bed at night. It was in the handle of his hoe, in the puffs of cotton that floated away. (146)
In this passage, H’s long walk to Alabama from Georgia after the Civil War in the quest of new experiences, combined with his strong sense of loneliness, has rendered the state of Alabama an object of comfort to him. During his journey, Alabama is personified as freedom, attached with all the feelings, hopes, and dreams that come with moving to a new city. The length of the walk turned his image of Alabama from an uncertain thought to a solidified presence along the way. The freedom he thought he would have in Alabama was a comforting idea, which gave him comfort and support until his arrival. However, the very solace he expected to find by reaching Alabama was crushed by the events of his arrest, as he seems to have accepted his defeat after resisting arrest to no avail. Although the beacon of hope for freedom he had for his life.
“Naw,” the pit boss said. He looked at H carefully and pulled out a knife from the inside of his coat. He began to sharpen the knife against an ironstone he kept on his desk. “No such thing as a free nigger.” He walked slowly up to H, held the sharpened knife against his neck so that H could feel the cold, ridged edge of it, begging to break skin. (147)
This marks the first time H realizes that his strength cannot overcome the power of oppression. His bare muscle would never survive a knife. Similarly, the contrasting senses of the cold knife against H’s hot skin reminds H of his mortality. The action was precisely done as a threat by the white men to keep him constrained, leading him to surrender to them.
“I don’t want to die, Joecy. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” H could not stop himself from repeating the words, and soon he realized that he was crying too, and he couldn’t stop that either. The coal dust under his eyes started to run down his face, and silently H continued on. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” (149-50)
Here we see the first glimpse at H’s vulnerability, as opposed to the stoic act he seems to uphold thus far. The repetition of “I don’t want to die” reads like an uncontrollable stream of fear, exemplified by his inability to stop from crying. The sheer panic that resonates with every repetition rings loudly, along with his initial unawareness of his tears. Just as the incident with the knife against his throat, he once again is faced with his mortality and his instinct of survival.
“Men and children” and “men and boys”
These motifs emphasize that both men and children were put to work in coal mines, reminding the reader of the cruelty that was faced not only by adults, but also by children. The purposeful repetition does not allow the reader to forget such a detail, in order to emphasize the level of cruelty extended to black children. The writer also synthesizes these repetitions with the distressing stories of the two boys at different points in the story, both peeing themselves out of fear, materializing, through example, the extent of the brutality of the system.
He had showered that morning, tried to rub the clench marks of the shackles from his ankles, the soot from underneath his nails. He had stared at himself in the mirror until he was confident that no one could tell he had ever been in a mine. (152)
The passage shows the transition of H to his second freedom. Although he knew that he did not deserve his sentence, he wanted no one to recognize that he had ever been incriminated, aware of the shame associated with the label ex-con. Though thee act of cleansing himself of the chains and body markings of an ex-convict also serves the purpose of not removing the external dirt of coal that “clung” to his body, later we learn that he cannot erase the physical markings of his past from his body.
H could hardly remember being free, and he could not tell if what he missed was the freedom itself or the capacity for memory. Sometimes when he made it back to the bunk he shared with fifty-something men, all shackled together on long wooden beds so that they couldn’t move while they slept unless they moved together, he would try to remember remembering. He would force himself to think of all the things his mind could still call up: Ethe mostly. Her thick body, the look in her eyes when he’d called her by another name, how scared he was to lose her, how sorry. Sometimes as he slept the chains would rub against his ankles in such a way that he would remember the feeling of Ethe’s hands there, which always surprised him, since metal was nothing like skin. (148)
The struggle to remember that H experiences is caused by the repetition of every day, so much so that the days started to merge into one another, becoming hard to distinguish memories. The daily hard work that he gets put through underground is so strenuous that even his first freedom became a distant memory. The only remedy for his loss of memory is the one person he ever considered close, Ethe. As he lays between bodies of men chained together, he imagines her touching his ankles instead of the metal, only being able to remember her by her tangible, touchable skin that he visualizes next to his.
H wanted to throw the man down, down to meet the city underneath the earth, but he stopped himself. He was not the con they had told him he was. (159)
This is important as it is very similar to something that happens to Sam in the chapter on Ness. There, the slavers are so cruel that they force Sam to destroy the slave quarters, transforming him into “the animal he’s been told that he is” (77). Here, H demonstrates a sense of control, showing that despite the conditions of his existence, he has agency over this moment, and can choose what to do next.
“You have to understand, H. The day you called me that woman’s name,I thought, Ain’t I been through enough? Ain’t just about everything I ever had been taken away from me? My freedom. My family. My body. And now I can’t even own my name? Ain’t I deserve to be Ethe, to you at least, if nobody else? My mama gave me that name herself. I spent six good years with her before they sold me out to Louisiana to work them sugarcanes. All I had of her then was my name. That was all I had of myself too. And you wouldn’t even give me that.” (160)
After years of not seeing Ethe, H finds her waiting for him at his house after work. This monologue is a product of Ethe’s anger for being called someone else’s name. She emphasizes that she felt that her name was the only thing in her life that belonged to her, and H’s calling her someone else’s name stripped her of the one thing she considers her own. On top of that, her name was her only connection to her mother, from whom she had been taken away. To her, it seems that H’s real betrayal is not sleeping with someone else, rather it is his contribution to the theft of her identity.
Historical Context & Additional Resources
In the chapter of H, the history behind the convict lease system and the consequence of the American Civil War are demonstrated. This chapter begins in around 1892 when H is arrested and imprisoned for allegedly looking at a white woman. He was told he needed to pay a fine of ten dollars; however, he only had five. Therefore, he was sent to work at the mines, for no money. H and other black convicts being sent to work in the mines without payment is one of the unfortunate consequences of the convict-lease system, which was systemized in the years 1875 to 1928 in the state of Alabama (Curtin, para 1).
According to the article “The Civil War Era,” Hollis Lynch states that almost four million slaves were set free from the civil war because of the Union’s victory and the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in 1865. In 1868 and 1870, African Americans were given citizenship as well as the right to vote (Lynch, para 5). Nevertheless, African Americans still experienced a difficult time during the Reconstruction era, which lasted from 1867 to 1977. African Americans in the United States had little to no access to sufficient food, clothing, and housing (Lynch, para 2). In that period in Alabama, though slavery was abolished, prisoners were sent to work companies such as The Pratt Coal, Iron Company, and Railroad Company among others (Curtin, para 2). Moreover, in Curtin’s article, she further explains the working conditions in the coal mines: “convicts leased to coal mines suffered the worst death rates of any industry employing prison labor.” This goes to show how convicts were treated in coal mines, facing death if they do not shovel a certain amount of coal. Curtin’s article supports the historical aspects that can be found in this chapter since H mentions how people have died because they did not meet their quota of the day by getting whipped mercilessly. Additionally, more than 95% of the county prisoners and 90% of state prisoners in Alabama were African American (Curtin, para 5).
Alabama allowed companies to lease prisoners to work from the years 1875 till 1928. An important mining company by the name of Pratt Mines relied on employing convicts, buying them in exchange for $9 to $18.5 (Curtin, para 3), as mentioned in the chapter when the pit boss was trying to buy H for twenty dollars. The chapter “H” reveals H joining a union and striking against mining companies to provide the miners with their demands. Similarly, there were strikes against Pratt Mines in 1899 to protest the working conditions (Pratt Mines, para 6). The article also notes that most of the strikes were unsuccessful, with the miners not having their demands met. Furthermore, the hazardous conditions in Pratt Mines lead to one of their main mines to explode. This resulted in the death of eleven people, ten of whom were convicts (Pratt Mines, para 6). Furthermore, working at the mines was extremely dangerous and they were daily risks that the miners had to encounter. The risks consisted of chemical poisoning, collapsing mines, explosions, heavy machinery mishaps, and more which could lead to fatality. The miners used to stand in the water using only the light of their headlamps to mine the coals using sharp axes, which was very dangerous (PBS, para 1). In addition, the conditions were significantly worse for laborers who were prisoners since they had inadequate food supplies, small sleeping spaces, and little to no medical care. According to the chapter on H and to the Public Broadcasting Service, if the miners did not meet the required amounts of collected coal, they would be punished by getting whipped, being tied up, and sent to solitary confinements, as well as water torture (PBS, para 2).
