With Harriet back home on the Brodas plantation, Old Rit is anxious that she will be sold to another estate. She has heard that the slave trader is in town again and hates that he seems to be coming into town more frequently. Ben agrees that as the Brodas family wealth declines, conditions on the farm are becoming worse, and the chance of Harriet being sold to the slave trader is more likely, but he insists that he would never allow that to happen. Old Rit remembers how two of her other children were abruptly sold to plantations in the deep South and never seen again and fears that Harriet will be next.

Old Rit is relieved when Harriet is again hired out to another family. Now working as a child nurse, Harriet must help clean the house and care for the baby. The wife, Susan, mistreats Harriet for not knowing how to clean, while her sister Emily is more understanding and shows Harriet what to do. Susan also makes Harriet care for her baby; if the baby cries, Susan whips Harriet, who becomes sleep-deprived while caring for the baby throughout the night. While Harriet is tempted to run away, she does not know the way home.