The Thread Collectors

Lily arrives in New Orleans, where she books a hotel room in the Garden District near the Union headquarters. As she gets ready for bed, she misses Jacob more than ever, recalling how it felt to sleep with him in the early days of their marriage. She feels that the war has hardened her.

In the morning, Lily enters the Union headquarters and reports Jacob missing. The supervising officer sympathizes with her plight but tells her that he cannot search for specific soldiers. Lily is only one of countless women who have come through looking for their husbands.

As Lily walks back toward the hotel, feeling utterly defeated, she spots several children playing outside a building branded “The Association for the Relief of Jewish Widows and War Orphans” (277). A young Black man is tending to the building’s garden, singing a melody that Lily recognizes as “Girl of Fire.” Shocked, Lily asks him where he heard the tune. The man says that he learned it from a man named William when he served in the Native Guard. Lily recognizes William’s name from Jacob’s letters and beseeches the man for more information on William’s whereabouts. On learning that he lives on Rampart Street, she sets out immediately.

Lily enters St. Anthony and asks a priest for help finding William, but he says that he doesn’t know anyone by that name. As Lily leaves the church, a young Black girl stops her to inform her that she knows where William lives. The girl leads Lily to Stella’s door. When she hesitates to knock, the girl says, “[S]ometimes you just gotta be brave” (281).

Stella answers Lily’s knock. Upon first seeing her, she is sure that the woman standing there is Frye’s wife, but Lily explains that she is looking for Jacob. Stella invites her inside, where Lily is overwhelmed by a flood of emotion at having finally found someone who knows Jacob. Stella introduces Lily to William, who shows her Stella’s map.

Lily resolves to set out the next day. William insists on going with her, but Stella refuses to give her blessing. Lily promises to pick William up the following day before heading out but secretly plans to leave him behind. She feels obligated to Stella by a mutual covenant to do no harm that exists between the women. 

The following morning, Stella is relieved when Lily fails to show up. She reassures William that they have prepared her as best they can. Stella visits Janie’s cottage to see Ammanee, whose illness is getting worse. Benjamin also stops by and encourages her to get well.

Lily hires a carriage to Iberia and asks the driver to drop her off at the edge of the woods marked on Stella and William’s map. She walks into the woods until she locates the old woman’s shack, where Jacob is sitting on the porch. They reunite joyfully, and Jacob advises her to play along with his captor’s delusions. Lily pretends to be “Johnny’s” wife, and the old woman allows them to leave together. On the way out, Lily grabs William’s flute off the table.

Ammanee’s fever persists, and Janie and Stella grow increasingly worried. Stella wonders if Ammanee picked up typhoid fever from her visit to the contraband camp in Algiers. She returns home from a visit to find that they have run out of cloth diapers for Wade; reluctantly, she wraps him in the embroidered swaddling cloth. William privately vows to find a job as soon as he can. His first purchase will be a can of paint to paint the ceiling of their bedroom in protective blue.

Jacob and Lily arrive back at Rampart Street. Jacob hands William back his flute, and the friends embrace.

Jacob produces the letter that he dictated for William in Port Hudson, fulfilling his promise of one day delivering it to Stella. He says that he and Lily must begin preparing for their journey back to New York. Before Jacob and Lily leave the house that day, they offer William a job at Lily’s father’s music shop.

Stella and William argue over the opportunity Jacob offered him. Stella doesn’t want to leave her mother and sister behind, but William wants to accept the offer. A move to the North would offer a greater opportunity to support Stella and Wade. He is not yet a free man in the South, and Black men are still subject to random acts of violence daily. The toll of this violence has been so high that William “[is] the only man left” on Rampart Street (299). After discussion, Stella reluctantly agrees to the move on the condition that Janie and Ammanee accompany them.

Stella visits Ammanee, whose condition continues to worsen. Ammanee slips in and out of lucidity. She believes that she and Benjamin have had a daughter named Mina and wants to get well so that she can see her. On returning home, Stella tells William that Jacob must buy one more ticket because Ammanee won’t leave New Orleans without Benjamin.

Jacob purchases five tickets for a steamboat ride up North, but Stella is too worried about Ammanee to commit to the trip. She and Benjamin visit Ammanee again. Ammanee frantically insists that their daughter, Mina, is in the room. Benjamin calms her by relating a memory of how they used to play together as children. When Stella looks up at Ammanee’s face, she realizes that her sister has died.

Stella grieves in William’s arms. Her wailing reminds him of his mother. He reassures her that Ammannee’s spirit is on its way to heaven, saying, “[N]o faster angel’s wings than hers” (73). Stella asks William to bring her the squares of fabric from the quilt she deconstructed to make Lily’s map. She pulls out the square of green fabric cut from Ammanee’s apron, remembering Ammanee’s insistence that “green [is] the color of hope” (205). William tells her that she carries many pieces of Ammanee inside her.

Because Ammanee was never officially emancipated, the law stipulates that she cannot be buried at St. Anthony’s but must instead be interred in a cemetery for enslaved people. Benjamin and the women of Rampart Street rally to raise funds for her funeral. Lily offers to contribute, but Stella declines, telling her, “[W]e take care of our own down here” (307). Her only request of Lily is new thread, which Stella uses to stitch the Rampart Street quilt back together. She replaces Ammanee’s square with a piece of blue fabric cut from her skirt. The next day, Ammanee is buried, wrapped in the Rampart Street quilt.

Stella and William prepare for the journey up North. Janie and Benjamin choose to remain in New Orleans, with Benjamin promising that he will look after Janie. Stella is nervous about the journey, but Janie reminds her that “a new beginning” is more than most Black Southerners are ever offered (309).

The next morning, Stella, William, Wade, Jacob, and Lily board the steamship to Chicago. Surrounded by her family and her new friends, Stella feels “full of hope” (309).