We are currently reading chapters 6 and 7 of Underground to Canada. This week, we are trying to find places where we can make inferences. First of all, we can see that the characters Julilly and Liza are starting to become friends. Liza acts as a guide at this new plantation. She helps Julilly learn the ropes by telling her what to do. For example, she points out that the food Julilly was given was to be saved for lunch and tells her not to eat it right away. She also warns Julilly about fat Sims and tells her that he tends to whip elderly, crippled and people who aren't picking enough cotton. When working in the cotton fields, Julilly recognizes that Liza is having trouble picking the higher cotton, so she takes initiative to pick the higher cotton leaving the lower cotton for Liza. At the end of chapter 6, Julilly starts to open up to Liza about what her Mammy told her about Canada. We think this shows that Julilly trusts Liza and maybe that she is really wanting someone to talk to about the thoughts that keep going on in her mind.
Also, we stopped to chat about why this new character, Alexander Ross, stopped Fat Sims from whipping Julilly again in the cotton fields. The author doesn't exactly tell us why he stopped Sims, but we think perhaps he is an Abolitionist. An Abolitionist is someone who doesn't believe in slavery and is against it. This makes sense because we know that Alexander Ross has come from Canada, where slavery is not allowed. He probably felt sympathy for Julilly and wanted to do what he could to help her. Furthermore, he is a bird watcher, so he could have just been impatient and wanted to get going on his bird exploration.
By Monday, post your own blog entry to discuss points in your book where you can stop and think about the following prompts:
-In the story,_______ happened, but the author doesn't tell why. This is what I think...
-Why did the character________ do that?
-Why did the character _______ say that?
-These two characters became friends (or enemies) because...
-These two characters agreed (or disagreed) about________ because...