The River Between Us Race Quotes

A law on the books said that black people weren't allowed in Illinois. We paid no attention to that, of course. There were plenty of black people in the state. And they were all free. (4.5)

When the curtain rose again, it was a minstrel show with a line of men in chairs. The orchestra was black men. But the minstrels were white men who'd rubbed burnt cork on their faces to look black. You could see the white skin behind their ears. (8.26)

Another silence fell while the doctor saw he was in a room with too many women. She turned to him, showing us her hawk's profile. "Ah declare, Doctor, just see what you have brought me. A colored gal." (12.10)

"I am of the gens de couleur, madame," she said, calmly proud. "The free people of color, if you speak no French."

"I know what you are," our landlady snapped. "I've lived down in New Orleans."

"You have been in New Orleans, madame," Delphine said, "but you are not of it. Irish, are you, from the name?"

"And no quadroon wench is going to talk me down like shanty Irish. I know New Orleans better than what you think." (12.13-16)

The quiet went on and on until Delphine said, "They hate us, you know. The Irish. They come hungry and work cheap. The yellow fever lays them low. And we were there before them. Our roots are in New Orleans mud. We people of color make the city work. It is like no other place because of us. We were there from the earliest times. They despise us for our ease, for our silken lives. They don't understand how people of color can be free." She looked away from us. "Almost free." (12.30)

"Quadroon, octoroon. There are these names." She shrugged grandly. "I am a femme de couleur libre, a free woman of color. French blood flow through me and Spanish blood and African blood. It is the African blood they despise. Is it not curious?" (12.42)

She'd already made me see her maman in my mind's eye. Now I saw how much brighter the diamonds blazed on her mother's darker throat. I saw these two families, their faces lit from the brilliant stage of the opera house that I supposed was like a great showboat gone aground. (14.6)

We packed our traps to leave Cairo forever. On the day we went, Mrs. Hanrahan sent down her handyman to take the crockery out of the summer kitchen and break every piece over the pump outside because Delphine had eaten and drunk from it. (14.30)

I waited for more and then said, "Why did Calinda leave?"

"Well, she was too dark to stay, wasn't she? I always thought she was the color of honey at the bottom of the jar. I expect she thought people would put two and two together, and it would give Delphine away. You know how there was always rumors about them." (15.20-21)

"We never heard tell of Calinda again. I expect she prospered. She had all those talents, didn't she? But we never heard. They had a brother, too, remember. In Paris, France. But they were the free people of color. And after the war they had to find new selves. I suppose it was just better to cut their ties and go it alone. Think how many more there must be like them—perched very quiet up on people's family trees. Safe now from being called ugly names. (15.26)