Around dusk, several enslaved black people are “sitting on the steps of their cabins in the slave Quarters” (15). Grandpa Tom, the stable boy, and the house girl, May Liza, are looking toward Hetta’s cabin. The bedridden 29-year-old lay dying in her cabin. Eight days before, Hetta birthed a stillborn baby. Childbirth was always difficult for her. Granny Ticey, who looked after Hetta in childbirth, observed how Hetta’s “babies came too fast, tearing her flesh in shreds” (17). When Granny Ticey told Jake about Hetta’s troubles, he remained silent; Marster John “only laughed” (17). The last infant was stillborn, and the labor resulted in Hetta “having terrible fits and hemorrhaging” (18). Granny Ticey asked Marster John to send for a doctor, who took two days to arrive and was indifferent to Hetta’s pain. That day, after dinner, Marster John visits Hetta’s cabin. Granny Ticey is tending to her, while Hetta’s husband, Jake, works in the fields. John whispers to Hetta, asking if she recognizes him. She assures him that she does, then refuses his offer to do anything for her, telling him that she doesn’t need anything this close to death.

Caline, a middle-aged woman, stands beside Hetta’s bed and fans her with a large palmetto leaf.