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Poppa
Master Bellingham is a Patriot living in New York. He owns and enslaves Curzon and is supposedly desperate to arrest the Locktons. Curzon trusts Bellingham and convinces Isabel to spy for the Patriots because he believes that Bellingham will free Isabel and Ruth if Isabel can provide useful intelligence. But Isabel realizes that she and her information seem unreliable because she isn’t able to pass along certain details about the Locktons, so Bellingham never frees her. Though it’s never confirmed whether Bellingham would’ve kept his word if Isabel had given him more, later events call Bellingham’s commitment to enslaved people’s freedom and well-being into question. Though Curzon sees it as a kindness when Bellingham promises to free Curzon if Curzon signs up for military service in his place, for instance, other enslaved people insist this actually just guarantees that Curzon will die during the war.
Master Bellingham Quotes in Chains
The Chains quotes below are all either spoken by Master Bellingham or refer to Master Bellingham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6 Quotes
“They won’t say anything in front of me.”
“You are a small black girl, Country,” he said bitterly. “You are a slave, not a person. They’ll say things in front of you they won’t say in front of the white servants. ’Cause you don’t count to them. It happens all the time to me.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Chains LitChart as a printable PDF.
Master Bellingham Character Timeline in Chains
The timeline below shows where the character Master Bellingham appears in Chains. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...Lockton shouldn’t have come back at all, and then curses when he sees another man, Bellingham, coming. Following Bellingham is a tall, thin man and an enslaved boy in a red...
(full context)
Bellingham greets Lockton as Lockton hisses to his companions to act like “happy rebels.” The enslaved...
(full context)
Bellingham tells the soldiers to search the cargo and agrees that Lockton and Madam Lockton can...
(full context)
...enslaved boy, steps up and offers to help Isabel, since he’s running an errand for Bellingham in the same area. The Locktons agree and warn Isabel to not dawdle. When Isabel...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...silently asks Momma to protect her, opens the gate, and runs. She figures getting to Bellingham’s house and Curzon will be easy, but that’s not the case. Isabel dodges soldiers on...
(full context)
...Isabel tells him all about the Locktons’ trunk and asks if this is enough for Bellingham to be able to send her home. Curzon tells her to go home; he’ll pass...
(full context)
Chapter 11
...to finish and goes downstairs—and when she opens the door, Isabel’s heart sings. It’s Master Bellingham and patriot soldiers.
(full context)
Madam races downstairs, enraged, as Bellingham’s men start to remove the windows with metal bars. As Master Lockton appears, Bellingham explains...
(full context)
...Isabel knows there’s a false bottom to the chest, but she can’t say anything. Is Bellingham going to blow Isabel’s cover now that it looks like she lied? Bellingham instead arrests...
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Chapter 16
...Madam’s threat is serious—the girls have to get out of the city. Isabel knows that Bellingham won’t listen to her after the linen chest debacle; she’ll have to go straight to...
(full context)
...writing desk. When Isabel tells the man nobody can vouch for her except for Master Bellingham’s boy Curzon, he sends her away. Isabel struggles and says that she has proof the...
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Chapter 26
...and says that Curzon is enslaved, just like the rest of them. Curzon argues that Bellingham is going to free him in exchange for joining up in Bellingham’s place, but the...
(full context)
