Copper Sun

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006

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Chapters 25-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part Six: Polly

Chapter 25 Summary: Birth of the Baby

Two weeks have passed, and Mr. Derby comes to Teenie’s home to ask where Lena or Flora is. Mrs. Derby is about ready to give birth and needs some assistance. Derby orders Polly and Amari to come along. Polly has no experience (although she doesn’t let Derby know), but Amari does. Noah has already been sent to fetch the doctor.

When they arrive, Mrs. Derby is in a lot of pain. Alone, she tells the girls that she “will die, but [they] must save the baby” (167). They try to make Isabelle comfortable and prepare blankets and hot water. Amari and Polly are in for a shock when the baby girl, “with bright green eyes like her mother,” is black (168).

Chapter 26 Summary: Facing Mr. Derby

All Amari can say is “Black baby. White mama. Big trouble!” (169) Mrs. Derby passes out, and Amari and Polly struggle with what to do. Polly “felt…mild disgust, at the very least” about the whole situation (169). She runs to Teenie for help.

As soon as Teenie sees the baby girl she knows “it be Noah” (170). Mrs. Derby revives to ask about her baby and is happy at the baby’s health and beauty, but she says she needs to try and explain something before she dies because “[her] husband will kill [her]” (170). She explains: “even though [Percival] married me for my money, I know he really has come to feel real affection for me. But I love Noah—I have for many years. And he loves me. But now Noah will die, and so will I. My husband is going to kill us both—and our baby” (171). Even though Teenie and Amari don’t believe he would do such a thing, Mrs. Derby is convinced and so urges the girls to tell Mr. Derby (when he returns) that the baby has died or that she is deformed and they must take her away to safety. Teenie takes the new baby to Sara Jane, who just had a baby so “That’s where [they’ll] hide her for now” (172). Tidbit runs into the house, and Teenie orders him to take the girls and the baby to Sara Jane’s. Then they run back to Mrs. Derby.

When Mr. Derby returns he demands to see the baby; Polly is pretending to cry. She lies and tells him the baby was stillborn and deformed and that they were going to bury her immediately. Mr. Derby is struggling with disbelief: “I could not have fathered an imperfect child” (174). Mrs. Derby and Polly devise a plan to get to Noah and delay the doctor’s visit. Polly “realized then how deeply her life was entangled with those of the slaves she had once so despised” (176).

Chapter 27 Summary: Death in the Dust

Because Polly is white, it is decided that she is the one to meet with Noah and the doctor on the road. When she reaches the wagon she lies and tells the doctor that all is well and that he can return back. “Noah seemed to understand immediately” and offers to drive him back (178). However, Dr. Hoskins refuses, as he is almost there, and “shall eat a fine meal prepared by Derby’s servants…and return refreshed to Charles Town in the morning” (178).

When Dr. Hoskins arrives, Mr. Derby tells him the baby was stillborn, but Hoskins brings up Polly’s lie that everyone is well. Isabelle faints to distract them all for the moment. Amari tells Noah that the baby is a black, “pretty girl child” (180). Sensing trouble, Teenie tells Tidbit to hide immediately. Teenie admonishes Noah and tells him he needs to run away, but he refuses because he loves Isabelle. “Love don’t mean pig spit round here” (181). Mr. Derby enters the room with a “weak and sobbing Mrs. Derby” and with a gun in his right hand (181). Clay comes in the house with the baby; he retrieved her from Sara Jane’s place and lays her on the floor in front of them. Mr. Derby tells Isabelle that she is “not even worthy of [his] vomit” (182). Percival puts Isabelle beside Noah and then shoots him in the chest. He then promptly shoots the baby.

Chapters 25-27 Analysis

Arguably, we have reached the novel’s climax, as the prejudice and hatred of the Derbys is at its most intense. It even drives them to commit murder. Their vile racism is so severe that the “affection” that Percival may have felt for Isabelle is swiftly forgotten and is replaced with abject disgust. This is central to Teenie’s point, that “love don’t mean pig spit round here”—there is no compassion, humility, or decency in Percival or Clay (181). In fact, when Clay finds the baby, he jokes about what he has found, as though this situation is as entertaining and enjoyable as watching a young, child frantically swim for his life while an alligator comes near.

The relationship between Isabelle and Noah is a testament to the possibility of love between races and proof that the evil, racist attitudes of the Derbys are, in fact, what’s unnatural. More sympathy is developed for Isabelle Derby when she is forced to watch her loved one and her only child be murdered right in front of her eyes. Furthermore, she has nowhere else to go and is essentially imprisoned at Derbyshire Farms.