Summary

Chapter 28, “Notes on a Curious Wagon Train,” is from Katherine's perspective. The chapter opens with a quote from Senator Jerimiah Springfield in which he talks about the need to rebuild America through westward expansion. Miss May says she is going to a black settlement near Sacramento called Haven. Katherine has a chance encounter with a cat that she imagines could be Jane reincarnated. She confides to the cat that she no longer wears a corset. Sue enters and reveals that she feels the mistakes of blacks “pile up faster and harder than anyone else's” (337). Katherine feels that is because so many people are waiting for blacks to fail. They talk about the prejudice against blacks, including that a white man in Louisiana might keep a black mistress, but is not allowed to marry her. Katherine and Sue worry they may not...