The Underground Railroad

Chapter 1

The first time Caesar approached Cora about running north, she said no.

This was her grandmother talking. Cora s grandmother had never seen the ocean before that bright afternoon in the port of Ouidah and the water dazzled after her time in the fort s dungeon. The dungeon stored them until the ships arrived. Dahomeyan raiders kidnapped the men first, then returned to her village the next moon for the women and children, marching them in chains to the sea two by two. As she stared into the black doorway, Ajarry thought she d be reunited with her father, down there in the dark. The survivors from her village told her that when her father couldn t keep the pace of the long march, the slavers stove in his head and left his body by the trail. Her mother had died years before.

Cora s grandmother was sold a few times on the trek to the fort, passed between slavers for cowrie shells and glass beads. It was hard to say how much they paid for her in Ouidah as she was part of a bulk purchase, eighty-­eight human souls for sixty crates of rum and gunpowder, the price arrived upon after the standard haggling in Coast English. Able-­bodied men and childbearing women fetched more than juveniles, making an individual accounting difficult.

The Nanny was out of Liverpool and had made two previous stops along the Gold Coast. The captain staggered his purchases, rather than find himself with cargo of singular culture and disposition. Who knew what brand of mutiny his captives might cook up if they shared a common tongue. This was the ship s final port of call before they crossed the Atlantic. Two yellow-­haired sailors rowed Ajarry out to the ship, humming. White skin like bone.

The noxious air of the hold, the gloom of confinement, and the screams of those shackled to her contrived to drive Ajarry to madness. Because of her tender age, her captors did not immediately force their urges upon her, but eventually some of the more seasoned mates dragged her from

Colson Whitehead

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE, THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, THE ALA ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL AND THE HURSTON/WRIGHT AWARD

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, WASHINGTON POST, TIME, PEOPLE, NPR AND MORE

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A PARADE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

Terrific. Barack Obama
 
An American masterpiece. NPR
 
Stunningly daring. The New York Times Book Review

"A triumph." The Washington Post

Potent. . . .  Devastating. . . . Essential. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Whitehead's best work and an important American novel. The Boston Globe

Electrifying. . . . Tense, graphic, uplifting and informed, this is a story to share and remember. People

Heart-stopping. Oprah Winfrey

The Underground Railroad is inquiring into the very soul of American democracy. . . . A stirring exploration of the American experiment. The Wall Street Journal

A brilliant reimagining of antebellum America. The New Republic

Colson Whitehead s book blends the fanciful and the horrific, the deeply emotional and the coolly intellectual. Whathe comes up with is an American masterpiece. Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto

The Underground Railroad enters the pantheon of . . . the Great American Novels. . . . A wonderful reminder of whatgreat literature is supposed to do: open our eyes, challengeus, and leave us changed by the end. Esquire

[Whitehead] is the best living American novelist. Chicago Tribune

Masterful, urgent. . . . One of the finest novels written aboutour country s still unabsolved original sin. USA Today

Brilliant. . . . An instant classic that makes vivid the darkest, most horrific corners of America s history of brutality against black people. HuffPost

Singular, utterly riveting. .