DOWN RIVER

The sequel begins as a mulatto slave named Chambers, who had been raised as a white man is transported down river to be auctioned off in the Baton Rouge slave market. Chambers was despised by the other slaves on the Louisiana plantation and hated by his ignorant master, John Tibbets. Chamber’s is unable to make a daily quota of picked cotton, and endures multiple vicious beatings. Unfit for farming, he was made a “driver,” a slave who pushes the workers to produce up to levels demanded by the master. One of his duties was to deliver lashings to other slaves, an endeavor he performed with gusto. The slaves grew to despise him and conspired to murder him. He did not die, but was badly crippled and of no use on the plantation. His mother, Roxy, by then, a freed slave, bought her son’s freedom. They return to Dawson’s Landing. The remainder of the sequel is about the complex relationship between Chambers, Tom. and Roxy.