Summary

In the Prologue, a teacher encourages a girl who is wearing a hand-made calico dress to tell her story. She sees a scar on the girl’s wrist and considers asking from where it came, but she decides not to ask because everyone has scars. The teacher reminds the girl that if she does not tell her story, the people will not know what it is like to be stolen from family. They will also not know what it is like to write an advertisement in the hope of finding those lost family members. The teacher imagines her own scar, her lost love. The girl stands up and announces to the crowd: “I am Hannie Gossett” (5).

Chapter 1 is set in Louisiana in 1875. It is narrated by Hannie, who dreams she is a six-year-old girl, with her mother, Mittie, and little cousin, Mary...