Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | |
| Author | Mildred D. Taylor |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jerry Pinkney |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical Fiction |
| Publisher | Dial Press (Now Penguin Group) |
Publication date | 1976 |
| Publication place | USA |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 276pp |
| ISBN | 0-590-98207-9 |
| Preceded by | Song of the Trees |
| Followed by | Let the Circle Be Unbroken |
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1976 novel by Mildred D. Taylor. The novel won the 1977 Newbery Medal.[1] Its sequel, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, was released in 1981. It also has a prequel in 1975, Song of the Trees. The Land tells the story of the Logan grandfather who purchased the land that is central to this novel.
This novel explores life in Depression-era Mississippi as lived by an African-American family, the Logans. The Logans are fortunate; they own their own land in a time and place when many--black and white--are living as sharecroppers on various plantations and racially-motivated crimes are common. The 'Berry Burnings' mentioned in chapter 1 and Mr Tatum who was tarred and feathered in chapter 4 are prime examples of lynch mobs and nightmen taking the law into their own hands, at the expense of the black population.
The novel focuses on the importance of owning land and the effects of racism. Focusing on Cassie Logan, (the narrator) the story also is a "coming of age" story as Cassie learns 'the way things are'.
Plot
Cassie and her brothers, Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man (Clayton Chester) walk to school. Cassie talks about the land on which the Logan family lives. At a difficult pass, the kids try to avoid getting sprayed with dust from the passing white students' school's school-bus. The kids get out of its way in time except Little Man, whose clothes become coated with dust kicked up by the bus. He was lagging behind so that he didn't get his clothes dirty. At school, Cassie and Little Man go to their classroom, where Cassie's teacher, Miss Crocker, gives them their textbooks, worn-out castoffs from the white school due to a chart containing the word "Nigra" printed inside. Ms. Crocker meets with their mother about their objections to this. When Mr. Morrison (a friend that Mr. Logan sends to stay at the Logan household) finds Stacey fighting T.J. at the Wallace store (which the Logans forbade their children to go to) and separates them. Instead of telling their mother, Morrison leaves Stacey to decide whether or not to do it himself. Stacey tells her, and she takes the children to visit the Berrys. Mr. Berry is badly burned and gruesomely disfigured; Mama explains that the Wallaces are responsible.
The next day, Mrs. Logan recruits people to boycott the Wallace Store because they are the cause of most of the trouble between the blacks and the whites, and are alleged to be members of the "night men". Big Ma, Cassie's grandmother, takes Stacey, Cassie and T.J. to Strawberry, a nearby town, and sells her goods at the market there. After lunch, they visit the office of Mr. Jamison, who is their white lawyer and the son of the man who sold them Harlan Granger's land. He is one of the few white men in the town who treats black people equally. T.J. takes Cassie and Stacey to the Barnett Mercantile to purchase items his family needs. T.J. admires a pearl-handled revolver on display, and says he would "sell his life to own that gun". Mr. Barnett begins serving T.J., but a white customer comes in and Mr. Barnett interrupts his business with T.J. to serve her. As he begins attending to T.J. again, a white girl comes in and Mr. Barnett again stops serving T.J. Cassie reminds Mr. Barnett that they have been waiting for an hour. He tells her to continue waiting. Cassie begins yelling at Mr. Barnett. Stacey tells her to be quiet, but Mr. Barnett kicks them out of the store.
When they get home, they find their uncle Hammer Logan from Chicago is visiting in a shiny silver Packard. Cassie tells him what happened and Hammer speeds away to take revenge. Mama tells Stacey to get Mr. Morrison to stop Hammer. She is worried that Hammer will get hanged, but she finds him alive and well. Before going to church, Hammer gives Stacey an early Christmas present, a wool coat. At church T.J. persuades Stacey to give him the wool coat because "it looks like a preacher's coat". Papa comes home for Christmas and is staying until spring. On Christmas night, Jeremy visits the Logans and gives them nuts and a handmade flute for Stacey. Papa warns Stacey to be careful about being friends with Jeremy, saying that eventually he will change, because the Simms are racist, and Jeremy might become prejudiced. The next day, Papa calls the children into the barn and whips them for visiting the Wallace store. Time passes and Papa starts leading the boycott against the store. Mr. Jamison visits and Big Ma signs papers giving the land to Papa and Hammer, requiring *both* their signatures to sell it. He also warns them to be careful, because they could lose their land if they continue their boycott. Mr. Granger asks for the land, but Papa refuses. Hammer returns to Chicago, and Papa continues the boycott.
Cassie makes peace with Lillian Jean, pretending to be her friend by carrying her books. As Lillian Jean begins trusting Cassie more, Cassie blackmails Lillian Jean into apologizing for what happened in Strawberry. T.J. tells Mr. John Wallace (father of Dewberry, Thurston, and Kaleb Wallace) about Mrs. Logan and how she does not teach from the county-issued textbook because she believes they contain biased falsehoods, and even tells about the boycott. Mr. Granger, a member of the school board, fires Mrs. Logan. Stacey blames T.J., although he denies it was his fault. After his friends shun him, T.J. begins associating with Melvin and R.W. Simms, brothers of the Logans' friend Jeremy. Papa, Mr. Morrison and Stacey go to Vicksburg, and on their way back, they find one of the wagon wheels was tampered with. As Papa is fixing it they are ambushed by the Wallace brothers. Papa is shot, and the wagon runs over his leg. He survives with a broken leg.
Soon, Granger forces the Logans to pay up on a loan they once took out from the bank. Uncle Hammer has to sell his car in order to make the payment. Meanwhile, T. J. has become a rogue, a thief, and he hangs out with two trouble-making white teenagers, Melvin and R. W.. One night, they bring him along on a murderous rampage and manage to frame him. Papa and L. T. go to stop the lynching that follows. Almost as soon as they leave, however, the cotton field catches fire, as if it was struck by lightning. The lynch mob and the local black farmers must band together in order to stop the fire. It turns out that Papa started the fire in order to stop the lynching.
T.J. has been arrested and might be executed for 'his' murder. In the sequel, T.J. Avery is sent to trial.
Characters
Logan family
The Logan family consists of David (Papa), Mary (Mama), Caroline (Big Ma, David's mother) and the four Logan children: Stacey is the oldest child, Cassie is the middle child, Christopher-John is the second youngest, and Clayton Chester – usually known as Little Man – is the fourth. The children are very close for they walk to school every day and often have to deal with the harsh world as one. They are one of the more privileged black families in the area; they own land themselves, therefore they are not forced into poverty like the many share-croppers (for example the Averys and the Laniers) by the white land-owners (like Harlan Granger, Montier and Harrison). Also, they are supported by David's brother Hammer Logan (Uncle Hammer to the Logan Children), who works in the somewhat less racist North (Chicago, Illinois), as he gives the necessary funds to pay their mortgage and offers valuable advice to the children (such as in chapter 7, when Stacey reveals he has given away his new coat to T.J because his friends(mostly T. J.) were calling him a 'fat preacher'). Mr.Morrison isn't an official family member but the Logans all grow to be attatched to him and sort of "adopt" him.
Secondary characters
Jeremy Simms
Jeremy is a ten year-old white boy whose family is very racist. Jeremy doesn't like or share his family's beliefs, and tries to be friends with Stacey and the other Logan children. Jeremy's family is very rich and lives in a huge manor near Rosa Lee. Stacey and the Logan children were told to stay away from him because he could turn on them for being black. For Christmas, Jeremy tries to be nice to Stacey and gives him a flute and Mama a bag of nuts. He lives in a tree house overlooking the neighborhood, in an attempt to be separated from his family, whom he detests.
Charlie Simms
Charlie Simms father of Lillian Jean, Jeremy, Melvin, R.W. Simms. He is the a member of the night-riders that Cassie sees one night . He is a very respected white man who is very racist and does not like colored people, or immigrants. He leads them to burning the Berry's but no charges were made against him. he isn't very fond of the Logan family. He knocks Cassie off the sidewalk because she would not apologize to Lillian Jean, his daughter, for bumping into her.When Uncle Hammer hears this news his anger gets the better of him and tries to go to the car and try killing Charlie Simms but Mama and Big Ma try to prevent him from doing something he will regret later on in life.
Lillian Jean Simms
Lillian (or "Miz" Lillian Jean) is the older sister of Jeremy but younger than R.W. and Melvin Simms. Cassie is humiliated by her in Strawberry, but later takes revenge by pretending to be her friend for several weeks, then secretly forcing her to apologize, but doesn't leave any visible signs of fighting. She has long blond hair which Cassie uses in revenge for getting her back in Strawberry.
Melvin and R.W. Simms
The older brothers of Jeremy and Lillian Jean. Melvin and R.W. pretend to be friends with T.J., but have ulterior motives for doing so. They just keep him around so that they can laugh at him behind his back. Although they murder a white man and injure a white woman while pretending to be black, no charges were made against them.
Mr. Wade Jamison
Mr. Jamison is a local lawyer who is also the Logan family's only other white friend. He places first his reputation, and in the end, his life, on the line to assist the black families in their struggle against racism. He protects T.J from white people who try to hurt him. He also backs up the credit for them.
Harlan Granger
Harlan Granger is the wealthiest landowner in the county, and the owner of the land surrounding the Logan farm. Originally, the Logan's land was part of the Granger plantation, and Harlan Granger attempts in various ways to regain ownership of it. '
Mr. Jim Lee Barnett
Mr. Barnett owns the Barnett Mercantile in Strawberry. Early in the book, he throws Cassie out of the store when she protests his favoritism towards white customers. Later, he is robbed and assaulted by the Simms brothers, R.W. and Melvin, which results in his death. T.J., after being tricked by the Simms brothers into helping with the robbery is blamed for this.
The Wallace Brothers
The Wallace Brothers (Kaleb Wallace, Dewberry Wallace, and Thurston Wallace) are three white brothers who are local businessmen who own stores. They are also antagonists of the Logans. Also the Wallaces are the men who burned the Berry's. Mr. Morison breaks Dewberry Wallaces back and Thurston's arm. They are also cousins to Lillian Jean, Jeremy, R.W., Melvin.
John Wallace
Mr. John Wallace is father to Kaleb, Dewberry, and Thurston Wallace. He and his brother Charlie Simms are KKK leaders in Mississippi.
T.J. Avery
T.J. was a close friend of the Logan's, who was later beaten and arrested for the murder of Mr. Jim Lee Barnett, when instead Melvin and R.W. Simms committed this crime [2] He tries to cheat on Mamas exam but passes the cheat notes to Stacey instead.
L.T. Morrison
L.T. Morrison (born 1870) is approximately 63 years old. He is extremely strong, showing the Logan children his astonishing strength by lifting a car. He works for zero payment for the Logans. He has greyish hair and was "bred" for strength. His parents were bred stock. All the white people are scared of him because he is so strong. he was a friend of the logans father and was with the logans to protect the logan family from danger of the white while their father was away.
Film adaption
The book has also been made into film and used music composed by Fred Karlin.
References
- School Library Journal
- [Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry - the book]