James: A Novel

Jim is adamant that the two separate. He thinks that Huck should head back to Hannibal while he heads north. Huck points out that he could be useful to Jim in all sorts of ways, and reluctantly Jim agrees.

Jim and Huck are fishing for catfish in the river. They have no equipment, so Jim tries to lure a fish with his fingertips. He is successful, but the fish weighs more than 50 pounds and it tries to drag him underwater. He has visions of Sammy and Norman, both dead in the water. He has another vision of John Locke, in which Locke tells him that he is fighting a war against his oppressor. Jim argues that, in that case, he has the right to use violence. Locke is not so sure. Jim regains control and manages to get the fish to shore. He and Huck eat part of it for dinner.

Jim and Huck make their way through the underbrush. Jim thinks it is best to avoid the river, and he wants to get back to Hannibal so he can return Huck to Judge Thatcher and Miss Watson and try to free his wife and daughter. Huck wants to accompany Jim on his journey north. Jim is tired but tries to explain to Huck that it would be better for him to remain in the safety of his white world than to travel with three Black people. On the path, they see a group of soldiers dressed in blue. Huck contemplates leaving to fight in the war.

Jim and Huck return home to Hannibal. There, they find out that Jim’s wife and daughter have been sold. Another couple is living in the house Jim occupied with Lizzie and Sadie. Jim panics. He tells Huck that Huck must help him: He instructs the boy to search through Miss Watson’s and Judge Thatcher’s papers to try to find a bill of sale. He lies down to get some sleep in his former cabin. He will have to leave the property as soon as he knows the whereabouts of Lizzie and Sadie, since he is a wanted man.

Jim has a dream in which he is talking with a young French girl about enslavement and freedom. She tells him that hope is a ruse because it is just a wish, not a concrete action plan, and that in spite of the war between the states, no one truly wants him to be free. He wakes up abruptly as the overseer is approaching. He hides quickly, and the overseer enters the cabin. He sexually assaults Katie, the woman who lives there, and Jim is sickened, angry, and powerless to stop the attack. Dispirited, Jim returns to the cave where he and Huck hid during the first days of their journey. He is sure that the boy will know to look for him there.

Jim spends four days hiding in the cave on the island. Time crawls by at a snail’s pace, but then one day a group of men appears on the beach. They stay for a while and then leave one man behind, the overseer who raped Katie. Because the overseer is so intoxicated, Jim is sure that he can overpower the man. He approaches and speaks to him without switching from standard English. The overseer is confused and wonders if he is dreaming. Jim explains that he is going to kill the overseer because of his long history of sexual assault and that he will not be troubled by the man’s death. Jim strangles the overseer, loads him into a canoe, punches a hole into the craft, and pushes it into the swift current of the river. He watches the boat sink as it is swept away.

Days pass, and Huck finally returns. Jim finds out that he is indeed being searched for by many white people in the area. Huck was unable to find out where Lizzie and Sadie have been taken, but he heard the name of the Graham farm come up in conversation about them. Huck says that the Judge told him he was too young to fight in the war, and Jim contemplates the conflict. He is sure that the Northern stance is rooted not in a humanistic desire to alleviate the suffering of enslaved people, but in a white guilt that seeks to alleviate its own discomfort at watching the suffering of others. He advises Huck to hurry back before his absence is noticed.

Jim sneaks away from his hiding spot, bringing with him a pistol that he took from the overseer. He quietly enters Judge Thatcher’s house through the back door. While he is looking for a bill of sale for his wife and daughter in the Judge’s office, Judge Thatcher enters, calls Jim a racial slur, and asks what he is doing there. Jim pulls out the gun and begins to calmly speak to Judge Thatcher in standard English. The judge is confused by his elocution and obvious intellect and appears angry as Jim begins to question him about the location of the Graham farm. After finding out from the Judge where it is located, he forces the man to take him there. On the way, Jim lets slip that he killed the overseer. The Judge is obviously frightened, but he is also upset because he perceives himself to have been a “kind master.” Jim disabuses him of the notion that any enslaver can be kind. He also tells the man that his name is not Jim, but James.

After James forces the Judge to row for a while, he pulls onto a bank and leaves the man tied to a tree. The Judge questions him about a satchel of books that he has taken and appears baffled that James has such erudite reading tastes (and indeed can read at all). James sets off on his own for the Graham farm.

James arrives at the Graham farm and finds a group of men shackled to a pole. He learns that the women are kept in a separate camp and that the purpose of the farm is “breeding.” Graham treats enslaved people on his property like animals, the men explain, so that they will breed like animals. Disgusted, James offers to set the men free. He makes sure to call them men to their faces so that they understand that they are men and that they are worthy of respect. They want to escape, so James unshackles them and they proceed to the women’s camp together. On the way, one of the men shows James how to use the pistol that he stole from the overseer.

Near the women’s quarters, James sets a dry cornfield on fire. The overseer runs out of the main house, and James’s wife, Sadie, runs out of her cabin. The overseer sees James and the pistol in James’s hand and appears confused. He asks who James is. James responds that he is the man’s “future” and that his name is James. He fatally wounds the overseer and flees with Sadie, his daughter, Lizzie, and the rest of the enslaved people gathered.

The enslaved people scatter. James and his family make it all the way to Iowa, where they settle despite a frosty reception from the townspeople and the sheriff. The sheriff asks whether any of their party is named Jim, and James introduces his wife, daughter, and the two men who have traveled with them. His name, he tells the sheriff, is James.