Part 4
Ruth is sold away, Regan breaks his promise, and Isabel is branded for speaking the truth.
British SailsAt Sunday service in Trinity Church, a boy brings news that the British fleet has reached the harbor, and the church empties into an uproar — joy for the Loyalists, fury for the rebels. In the confusion Ruth freezes in a seizure and Madam sees it; Isabel says her sister is only tired. Over the next week Bellingham, Colonel Regan, and Curzon all drop out of sight.
The Drugged MilkOn July 9 the city hears that Congress has declared independence, and the crowd pulls down the lead statue of King George the Third to be melted into musket balls. That evening Madam turns unaccountably kind — gingerbread, spiced milk, an evening off. Isabel wakes to find Ruth gone. Becky says the milk was drugged; Madam says Ruth has been sold to the West Indies. Isabel speaks her mind and Madam smashes a painting over her head.
Regan RefusesIsabel runs to Colonel Regan's headquarters, shouts the password until they let her in, and asks him to honor their bargain. He refuses: the law forbids him to interfere with another household's property, and the property is Isabel. Madam arrives to collect her. Isabel goes for an open window and is dragged back. She is hauled through the streets behind a horse, beaten, and locked two days in the cell beneath City Hall.
The BrandBefore the magistrate, Madam gives her account and no one asks Isabel for hers; the court orders her branded on the cheek with the letter I for insolence, and on July 15 the sentence is carried out in the stocks. Isabel wakes six days later at Lady Seymour's, nursed and bandaged. Curzon saw her in the stocks and sent word; without him she would have died. Madam already wants her back at work.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | The language of court and punishment: magistrate, insolence, property, stocks, brand… |
| Literary Elements | Situational irony, juxtaposition of a celebration against a sentence, and a symbol whose meaning the novel refuses to settle |
| Cross-Curricular | Colonial law and punishment — what a magistrate could order in 1776, why a court called a runaway a thief, and how the law kept the enslaved from speaking |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapter 19 | Sunday, June 30 – Monday, July 1, 1776 — From the church gallery reserved for the enslaved, Isabel hears a boy shout that British warships have entered the harbor. The congregation breaks into cheers and threats. Ruth goes rigid in a seizure and cannot walk, Madam notices, and Isabel covers for her sister. Isabel decides she must force Bellingham or Colonel Regan to keep their side of the bargain. |
| Chapter 20 | Tuesday, July 2 – Tuesday, July 9, 1776 — The harbor fills with British ships and Madam’s temper worsens. Bellingham, Regan, and Curzon all vanish. On July 9 word arrives that the Congress has declared independence; the city celebrates and a crowd tears down the lead statue of the king to be melted into bullets. That night Madam is strangely generous with sweets and spiced milk, and Isabel falls asleep in the library. |
| Chapter 21 | Wednesday, July 10, 1776 — Isabel wakes to an empty bed. Becky admits the milk was drugged; Madam announces that Ruth has been sold away to the West Indies. Isabel confronts her and is struck with a framed painting. She runs to Colonel Regan’s headquarters and demands the freedom she was promised. Regan answers that the law will not let him touch another household’s property. Madam comes for her, and Isabel is pulled back from an open window. |
| Chapter 22 | Wednesday, July 10 – Monday, July 15, 1776 — Isabel is dragged through the streets behind a horse while onlookers mock her, beaten badly, and held two days in the cell under City Hall among rats and frightened prisoners. She is then brought before the magistrate. Madam’s account is the only one the court considers, and the sentence handed down is a brand on the cheek: the letter I, for insolence. |
| Chapter 23 | Monday, July 15, 1776 — Isabel is locked into the stocks in the open while a man heats the iron and a crowd gathers to watch, in the same city that had cheered a declaration of liberty six days earlier. She tries to hold on to Rhode Island, her mother, and Ruth, and the memories are not enough. Afterward, half out of her senses, she believes she sees her dead parents standing over her and weeping. |
| Chapter 24 | Monday, July 15 – Sunday, July 21, 1776 — Isabel wakes in Lady Seymour’s house after six days without sense, her cheek dressed and her fever breaking. Curzon saw her abandoned in the stocks and fetched help; she would not have lived otherwise. Lady Seymour has pressed the Locktons for Ruth’s whereabouts and been refused. Madam wants Isabel back at work as soon as she can stand. |
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
- Isabel wakes to find that Ruth has been sold away.
- Isabel wakes in Lady Seymour’s house six days later.
- New York hears that the Congress has declared independence.
- Colonel Regan refuses to honor his promise of freedom.
- A boy runs into the church shouting that British ships have come.
Picture the upstairs gallery of a New York church on the last Sunday in June, the narrow bench where the enslaved are seated, above and behind everybody else. A boy bursts in shouting that British ships have filled the harbor, and the whole congregation comes apart. In the middle of that noise a five-year-old goes still, her eyes empty, her teeth chattering, and her sister lies about it to keep her safe one more week. Nine days later the city hears that the Congress has declared independence. There are bonfires. A crowd hauls down the lead statue of the king to melt it into bullets. And in a quiet house on Wall Street, on the very evening the word liberty is being shouted in the street, a woman hands two girls gingerbread and sweetened milk and tells one of them to take the night off. Part 4 is what a free country looks like from the wrong side of the law.
In the thirteen British colonies the rules governing enslaved people were written by colonial assemblies and known as slave codes. Virginia passed its largest set in 1705, and New York tightened its own after the uprising of 1712. These laws did two things at once. They defined an enslaved person as property that could be taxed, willed, and sold, and they listed acts for which that person could be punished: traveling without a written pass, gathering in groups, showing insolence to a white person, and running away.
Most such cases never reached a grand jury. A magistrate — a local official with authority over smaller matters — could hear the complaint, decide it in an afternoon, and order the sentence carried out the same day. In most colonies an enslaved person could not sue, could not call witnesses, and could not testify against a white person, so the record of the event was usually the owner’s account and nothing more. The defendant stood in a room where the law had already settled that her word carried no weight.
Punishment was public because it was meant to be seen. Whipping was the common sentence, the stocks held a convicted person in the open where a crowd could gather, and for certain offenses a court could order a mark burned into the skin. Branding was not invented for slavery: English courts had marked felons for centuries, and the colonies inherited the practice. Running away, however, was prosecuted as a form of theft, on the reasoning that the runaway had stolen property and the property was herself. That logic explains the usual outcome, the seizure and return of the worker plus a permanent mark, rather than a prison term that would have cost the owner her labor.
“One official therefore held the roles that a judge, a jury, and an appeal court would ordinarily divide.”
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 4 “When the Rule Was the Problem”
Colonel Regan does not tell Isabel she is wrong. He tells her the law will not let him help, and about the law he is right. Write about a time you ran into a rule that was being followed correctly and was still unfair — at school, in a game, in a family, or anywhere else. Explain what the rule was, who it protected, who it cost, and what you did about it. 6–10 sentences. End by saying what you would change about the rule and why.
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 4 Complete!
You finished Chapters 19–24 of Chains.
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Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Laurie Halse Anderson. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Laurie Halse Anderson’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.