Gem of the Ocean

Black Mary and Eli are in the kitchen, preparing for Citizen’s departure. Solly enters. He is on his way to Alabama to retrieve his sister. Eli advises him to avoid cities, as there are angry white men actively trying to prevent Black people from fleeing north and they have congregated primarily in densely populated areas.

Citizen enters the kitchen. Solly greets him, saying he’s heard that Citizen is on his way to the City of Bones. He tells Citizen that he’s been there and is going to return when he dies. He shows Citizen a piece of broken chain link, calling it his lucky piece. It was part of the chains used to tie his ankles when he was enslaved, but it was unable to hold him, and he escaped north. He wasn’t sure what to do with himself as a free man, so he returned to the South 62 times to rescue people as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Eli was his partner. The two recount their journeys, telling Citizen of close calls, dog attacks, and the difficulty of ferrying people to safety. He and Eli subsequently acted as scouts for the Union Army during the Civil War.

They produce a bottle of whiskey, and the three men drink together and talk further about enslavement, freedom, and the way that the law is used against Black people, even though they are now free. Solly notes the endemic racism within the American legal system and decries the way that Black people are arrested and imprisoned often without cause. He argues that the difference between the United States and Canada, where it was safer to be Black before the Civil War, is that there are good white people in both countries, but in America, the laws themselves are racist, so even the white people who want to help their Black neighbors are unable to safely do so: The law works against them. The men condemn Caesar for his role in such a racist and unjust system.

Aunt Ester enters. She notes ruefully that Jilson was supposed to give Citizen a piece of iron, and that without it he will not be as strong. In its place, Solly gives Citizen his own lucky chain link. Aunt Ester shows Citizen her paper boat, which she tells him is named the Gem of the Ocean. Aunt Ester starts to talk about the wind, and Citizen cries that he can feel the boat moving; he is on his way to the City of Bones. Aunt Ester asks him what he can see, and he reports a mixed gray and blue sky. Aunt Ester tells him that the gray is a sign of trouble ahead and warns him not to drop the boat. She asks if he sees stairs, and he reports that he does. The two take the stairs into the bowels of the boat. It is dark. Solly, Eli, and Black Mary begin to sing. Solly and Eli put on European masks and symbolically chain Citizen to the boat.

Citizen reports the presence of other people, people who look like him and who are also chained to the boat. Aunt Ester tells him that the people need God but do not know how to call on him. She notes that God looks after his people, but that he looks after all of them, as a community. In the eyes of God, they are not merely individuals, but parts of a whole.

Agitated, Citizen throws the boat onto the floor. The storm, once distant, intensifies. Although Citizen tries to reach the boat, Solly and Eli, wearing their European masks, intercept him. They symbolically whip and brand him, then throw him into the bottom of the boat, where he is alone. He sings an African lullaby to himself and, thirsty, asks for water. Aunt Ester tells him that the captain of the Gem of the Ocean, a cruel man, abandoned his ship, taking all the water. There is none for Citizen to drink.

They arrive at the City of Bones and Citizen marvels at its beauty. Aunt Ester tells him to enter the city by paying a gatekeeper and having his name written down in a ledger. He is to use his two pennies. The gatekeeper, however, will not let him pass. Horrified, Citizen discovers that the gatekeeper is none other than Garret Brown. He admits to Brown that he stole the nails, and the gates open. He has been allowed into the City of Bones and his soul has been washed. Citizen Barlow is reborn as a “man of the people” (70).

He comes to in the kitchen and Aunt Ester tells him that he’s made it back from the City of Bones. Aunt Ester, Solly, Eli, Black Mary, and Citizen celebrate, but their party is soon interrupted by a knock on the door. It is Caesar. Solly has been identified as the mill’s arsonist, and Caesar has come to arrest him. Telling Caesar that he is “under God’s sky” (71), Solly hits Caesar on the leg with his walking stick and leaves. Caesar vows to apprehend him even if he has to travel all the way to Canada to do so.

Citizen and Black Mary are in the kitchen. Two hours have passed since the end of Scene 2. Citizen asks Black Mary if she believes that Solly burned down the mill. Black Mary tells him that the truth doesn’t matter—Caesar is dogged in his pursuits and once he becomes fixated on a goal, he does not stop until he’s attained it. Although Solly is capable of looking out for himself, Black Mary is sure that Caesar means to kill him, and she fears that he will be successful.

Citizen pauses to look at Mary and comments on her blue dress. He tells her a story about a woman he met once who also wore a blue dress. The two spent a night together, and she was despondent when he left. He still wonders what became of her.

Aunt Ester enters. She asks Citizen to go find Selig and bring him to her house. He agrees and leaves. Aunt Ester fusses at Black Mary about the stove. The two squabble and Black Mary loses her temper, yelling in frustration that Aunt Ester is never satisfied with her housework.

Black Mary is in the kitchen. Looking out the window, Eli sees Selig’s wagon approaching. When he arrives, Aunt Ester asks Selig to take Solly downriver in his wagon. Caesar and the rest of the police force have blocked off the roads and are searching for Solly. Aunt Ester says that she doesn’t know whether Solly lit the fire, but that she doesn’t care. She just wants him to get to safety. Solly enters and freely admits to the arson, shouting that “freedom got a high price” (77). Citizen volunteers to accompany Solly to Alabama and back and tells Black Mary that he will call on her when they return. They leave just before Caesar enters the house.

Aunt Ester greets Caesar. He informs her that he has a warrant for Solly’s arrest. She tells him that she has a piece of paper of her own that she’d like to show him and fetches the paper boat made out of her bill of sale. They read it, and she asks how much he thinks it is worth. He tells her that he wouldn’t give her 10 cents for it, and that she’s living in the past. They are all free now, and he is just doing his job. He means to arrest Solly, but he also has a warrant for Ester for aiding and abetting a fugitive. Although Eli raises his shotgun to shoot Caesar, Aunt Ester tells him to put it down and willingly leaves with the police officer.

Black Mary, Eli, and Aunt Ester enter the home. Without speaking, Aunt Ester goes straight to her room. She has been charged and released after paying a bond of $100. She is tired. Black Mary leaves to check on Aunt Ester, and Eli hears a loud noise. Citizen enters and tells him that Caesar shot Solly. They bring Solly inside. Aunt Ester directs them to put Solly on a table and fetch clean linens. She treats his wounds. Citizen tells everyone that the men made it as far as West Virginia before Solly decided to turn around. He wanted to help free the jailed mill workers; he didn’t feel right being free when his fellow men were not. Upon their return, Caesar recognized the men and shot Solly in the chest. Aunt Ester, Black Mary, and Eli begin to sing, but fall silent when they realize that Solly is dead. They place the two pennies in Solly’s hand, and Eli says that Solly never truly found his freedom, even after he fled north.

Caesar enters with a warrant for Citizen. Black Mary admonishes him. She tells him that she doesn’t recognize the man he’s become, and that although he has the law on his side, he is guilty of crimes against his people. She tells him that he is no longer her brother. Angry and stunned, Caesar storms out. Citizen returns. He takes Solly’s coat and walking stick and sets off to Alabama to save Solly’s sister Eliza, having agreed to reunite with Black Mary when he comes back.