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Baby Suggs was mistreated by her previous white owners
"He made a hanging thing for Grandma Baby, so she could pull herself up from the floor when she woke up in the morning, and he made a step so when she stood up she was level." (246)
"She behaved and did everything right in front of her children because she didn't want them to see her knocked down." (246) -
Halle buys Baby Sugg's freedom
"Baby Sugg's eighth and last child, who rented himself out all over the county to buy her away from there." (27)
""A man ain't nothing but a man," said Baby Suggs. "But a son? Well now, that's somebody."" (27) -
The Clearing
"When warm weather came, Baby Suggs, holy, followed by every black man, woman and child who could make it through, took her greatheart to the Clearing--a wide-opened place cut deep in the woods nobody knew for what at the end of the path known only to deer and whoever cleared the land in the first place." (102)
""...in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard."" (103) -
The Celebration
"She had decided to do something with the fruit worthy of the man's labor and his love...From Denver's two thrilled eyes it grew to a feast for ninety people." (160-161)
"And then she knew. Her friends and neighbors were angry at her because she had overstepped, given too much, offended them by excess...Perhaps they were right." (163) -
The four horsemen come to 124
"When the four horsemen came--schoolteacher, one nephew, one slave catcher and a sheriff--the house on Bluestone Road was so quiet they thought they were too late...a nigger woman holding a blood-soaked child to her chest with one hand and an infant by the heels in the other." (174-175)"She tookthe shoes from him--high-topped and muddy--saying, "I beg your pardon. Lord, I beg your pardon. I sure do."" (180) -
Baby Suggs dies in bed with the only interest of color
"Her past had been like her present--intolerable--and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color." (4)
"It was as though she saw red baby blood, another day the pink gravestone chips, and that was the last of it." (47)
The image of the color represents safety. Baby Suggs retired to her bed and color as her security after "The Misery"
