Jubilee

Randall Ware greets Jim, who tells Ware about young Marster Johnny’s lung wound. Ware was in Missouri or Alabama during the Battle of Chickamauga. Ware then asks about Vyry, whom Jim reports as being fine; Ware’s children are growing well, too, he adds. Ware tells Jim that Brother Ezekiel is at the Union Army’s winter camp, sick in the hospital and liable not to make it out alive. Jim recalls seeing Brother Zeke behind the Confederate lines, pretending not to recognize him. Ware says that this is because Brother Zeke was working as a spy and was afraid that Jim might have unwittingly revealed his secret to the rebels.

When they go in to see Brother Zeke, he tells them that he’s glad to see “the year of Jubilee” (276), alas, when his people will be freed. He asserts that President Lincoln is the Moses for whom they have been waiting. Ware reminds Brother Zeke that black people still aren’t yet free. When Brother Zeke dies, Jim and Ware dig his grave and “[beg] the army preacher to read the Bible and pray and say a few words over him” (276).