Let The Circle Be Unbroken

As the summer wears on, Cassie feels like Stacey is growing away from her. His voice has changed, and he seems more rebellious. He also doesn’t want his little sister following him around. One day, Cassie overhears Stacey talking to his friend Moe about Jacey Peters, the girl he likes. She’s been seen talking to the rich white boys, Stuart Walker and Joe Billy. Their conversation is interrupted by the news that Bud has returned and has brought his daughter Suzella. When the family assembles to meet the new arrival, all the men are struck by Suzella’s beauty. She is tall and slender with gray eyes, a creamy skin tone, and auburn hair. Her father has already reconciled with his wife, and Bud has only come to drop off Suzella for the summer.

Even though Suzella is kind to Cassie, the latter is jealous of all the attention the new arrival is getting. One afternoon, the Logan children and their guest go fishing. Since Suzella lives in New York, this experience is new for her. Cassie thinks, “I wanted things to be as they had been, but Suzella was just making things worse, and I looked forward to the day when she was packed and gone” (223).

One day, after her reading lesson with Lee Annie, Cassie finds Wordell playing the harmonica in the woods near the stream where Suzella is frolicking with the Logan children. In frustration, Cassie pours out her resentment to Wordell. His only comment is, “Ya wrong and ya know it” (228). After Sunday school, Cassie notes bitterly that Suzella is at the center of an admiring throng of churchgoers. Cassie also notices Jake Willis eyeing Suzella even though he is as old as David. Back at home, Suzella asks Cassie why she doesn’t like her and concludes it’s because she is part white, which she says isn’t her fault.

The family learns that Moe’s sharecropper family is now in worse shape because their milk cow just died. Big Ma takes one of the Logan cows to them so their children can have fresh milk, and the Turners receive the loan of the cow with gratitude. Mr. Turner and Moe show the Logans their bumper cotton crop, and Moe has big plans of cashing himself out as a sharecropper. Just then, Deputy Haynes and Mr. Peck arrive. Peck has some bad news. Apparently, there was a miscalculation in how much cotton was to be planted. He instructs the Turners to plow up a large percentage of their cotton field. Moe is extremely upset and challenges the order until the deputy strikes him. Peck sadly says, “I know how y’all feel and I don’t like this no more’n y’all do. But it’s gotta be done. Ain’t nothin’ ‘gainst y’all. This here’s happening to colored and white alike, and plenty of other folks gonna come under the same hardship” (239).

In the days to come, many other sharecropper families are forced to plow up their cotton. Luckily, the Logans own their land and aren’t subject to the same rule. By July, many white and Black sharecroppers grow angry at their losses and consider organizing a union. Wheeler has returned from Washington and claims the plow-up order didn’t come from the government. Apparently, the big plantation owners had overplanted their own acreage. Because they were over quota, they forced their sharecroppers to reduce their crops to compensate. The wealthy owners will still pocket more for their cotton crop, leaving their sharecroppers with nothing.

On their way home from a summer bible class, the Logans and Suzella cross paths with Stuart Walker, driving his Hudson. He stops the car and starts to address Suzella courteously, thinking she is white. She fails to tell him that the Logans are her cousins. He expresses a desire to call on her, but she deflects the request and walks on. At home later in the day, Cassie tells her mother about Suzella’s encounter. Mary lectures Suzella about the need to avoid white boys. Afterward, Cassie accuses Suzella of thinking she’s better than anybody else. For her part, Suzella explains how isolated her life in New York is. Her parents can’t socialize with people of either race because everybody excludes them. Suzella and her mother find it easier to pass as white when they’re in public. She wishes she had a support group of family and friends like Cassie does. The latter still can’t see what Suzella has to complain about.

A few days later, Cassie learns that the white boys have been asking where Suzella is staying. Someone told them she is a Logan cousin, and Stuart isn’t pleased to hear that news. At the same time, Cassie finds out that Jacey Peters is pregnant and that Stuart is the father. She thinks, “Had the father been Black, Mr. Peters could have seen to it that the boy married Jacey and Jacey’s future could have been saved, but with a white boy there was no recourse” (262). Stacey is furious because he has a crush on Jacey and would like to kill Stuart.

Late that same night, neighbors come to tell the Logans that some white men burned down the house where the union organizers were staying. John Moses was killed, but the rest got away. Without Wheeler and Moses’s leadership, the interest in unionizing fades, and the integrated meeting does not occur. In the middle of the summer, the cotton crop looks good, but Stacey confides to Cassie that the money they get won’t be enough to cover all their bills. He plans to leave town and get a job but promises to talk the matter over with David, who is due to come home for a visit in August.

Unfortunately, the family receives a letter saying David must keep working and can’t return. By now, the cotton is ready to harvest and must be taken to the local gin. There, Mary talks with Granger. The top price for cotton is 11 cents a pound, which isn’t much. Granger offers to buy the Logan acreage, but Mary politely declines. After everyone has retired that night, Stacey calls Cassie to the porch, where he gives her his favorite knife. He and Moe are going to find work somewhere else. In the morning, the family finds a note from Stacey announcing that he’s found work for $8 per week.