logo

49 pages 1 hour read

Sadeqa Johnson

Yellow Wife

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Part 1, Chapters 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “Homecoming”

Everyone works tirelessly to prepare for Jacob’s return to the Bell plantation. Delphina oversees food preparation, house cleaning, and landscaping. On the day of his return, Delphina learns that wild horses startled the horses driving Jacob’s carriage. Jacob and Ruth are both badly hurt. When Pheby finds her mother, Ruth has a serious infection in her right leg. Delphina calls for Pheby to help her deliver her baby. Delphina refuses to allow Pheby to return to her mother and provide care.

Delphina writes a pass for Essex to visit the doctor’s house and obtain word on Jacob’s condition. Essex, knowing that he is out of time, uses the pass to escape the plantation. Pheby refuses to join him, knowing that she is needed at the plantation to care for her mother and to help Delphina safely deliver Essex’s child. When Ruth’s condition worsens, Delphina insists that no doctor is needed: “Your mama work roots, she will figure it out” (47). Delphina is so self-absorbed with her own worries and so filled with hatred for Ruth that she refuses to provide her with care.

Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary: “Delivery”

After two nights, Delphina delivers a baby boy in secret. Pheby notes the darkness of the infant’s skin and his resemblance to Essex. When Pheby is finally able to visit her mother, she is affronted by the smell of rotting flesh. Ruth dies in Pheby’s arms; with her last breaths, she reminds her daughter that she belongs to no one.

Although Pheby is overcome with grief, she does not have time to mourn. The plantation manager, Snitch, begins asking questions about Essex’s whereabouts, and Pheby works with a kitchen servant to evade his inquiry. When Snitch asks to speak to Delphina, Pheby tells him that she is not well. Pheby burns all of Essex’s belongings so the bloodhounds will not be able to trace him. As the fire dies down, Pheby notices someone by the river. She arrives in time to find Delphina emerging from the water with the lifeless body of her infant son in her arms.

Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary: “Snitch”

As Pheby grieves for the loss of her mother, the absence of Essex, and the death of his son, she must work to protect herself and Essex. Snitch barges into Delphina’s room, demanding to speak with her. He tells her that Essex is missing, and Delphina alerts the patroller. Pheby tells Delphina that her mother has passed, and Delphina responds insensitively by complaining about her own financial loss. Delphina allows Pheby to hold a small service for her mother on Saturday night after the workday is completed. She proclaims that no more rations will be given to enslaved workers until Essex is found.

That night, as Pheby sleeps, she is awoken by something wet on her face. She looks up to see Delphina standing over her with her chamber pot in her hands. Delphina accuses Pheby of helping Essex escape and moves to hit Pheby. Without thinking, Pheby grabs Delphina’s hand before she is struck and crushes it. Pheby reminds Delphina what she knows about her dead son.

Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary: “The Funeral”

Pheby tries to stay away from Delphina while completing her chores in the house. She goes through her mother’s room and remembers how Jacob’s sister, whom she called Aunt Sally, had taught Pheby to read when she was a child. Moved by the urge to record her mother’s wisdom, she writes down everything Ruth taught her about healing herbs and caring for the sick. When she notices her mother’s red calico dress, she decides to alter it and wear it to her mother’s funeral. When she puts it on, she can still smell Ruth’s scent in the fabric.

Pheby wears the dress to the funeral and feast held for her mother. She also wears the necklace Essex gave her and carries a journal where she has recorded her mother’s herbal knowledge in a secret pocket sewn into the dress.

Suddenly, Snitch appears at the feast, grabs Pheby, and loads her onto a wagon to be taken to Lapier’s jail, to be punished for assisting in Essex’s escape. When Pheby notices Delphina watching, she curses her.

Part 1, Chapters 6-9 Analysis

The brisk pacing of these chapters highlight how Pheby must stifle her own suffering to save herself and her loved ones. Suppressing painful emotions is a common response to trauma. However, for Pheby, it is a necessary one. If Pheby allows herself to fully feel the weight of her grief, she may not be able to function—and, in this setting, functioning is about survival. Pheby’s need to suppress her emotions and the potential impact that suppression might have on her health and well-being underscores the novel’s theme of The Pervasive Trauma of Enslavement.

Her deteriorating health as a result of trauma becomes evident in the next section when Pheby arrives at her destination and spends weeks ill in bed. For now, Pheby must keep moving. She loses her mother, says goodbye to the love of her life, and buries his son: “I carried the boy up to the storehouse, removed a shovel, and then went back to the spot where I had burned Essex’s clothes and started digging a grave for his son” (53). Pheby alone must carry the weight of everyone around her, another aspect of The Pervasive Trauma of Enslavement. The dehumanization Pheby experiences in the first chapters of the book shapes who she is for the rest of her life and contributes to the intergenerational trauma carried by her son Monroe.

However, Phoebe has moments of resistance and resilience. Defying laws about enslaved people and education, Pheby pockets a journal where she carefully records her mother’s knowledge. She proudly wears her mother’s dress and grooms herself in a way that declares her love and respect for herself. She works tirelessly to help others, even within a political and social structure that champions mistreatment. Conversely, Delphina—a woman who has allowed The Dehumanization of Slavery to render her cruel and inhuman—slaps Pheby, pours urine over her, and sends her away to be beaten. Pheby holds tightly to her mother’s message that her mind is her own, while the powerless Delphina sees cruelty and the domination of others as her only means to exercise strength.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text

Related Titles

By Sadeqa Johnson