Prologue Summary

As the prologue opens, Phebe, a teenage slave girl, comes running out of the basement kitchen, to meet her friend Psyche, who is more like her older sister. Phebe finds it amusing that Hector is standing on the porch of the plantation house, looking up at the second story. In the house, Amelia, the nearly-twenty year-old wife of the plantation owner, Louis, has just given birth to a half-black baby. The doctor tending her is horrified, especially at the prospect of the slaves hearing about the baby. Louis is enraged that the baby is not his, and tries to attack Amalia, but the doctor stops him. Amalia retorts that Louis seems to have no problem seducing slave girls.

Louis and the doctor discuss what to do; the doctor suggests selling the baby. Amalia won't hear of it. She says the only mistake in...