Gilead

Jack Boughton has a wife and child. He showed John their picture for a moment. John wasn’t sure how to respond, and he could tell Jack was struggling not to be offended by this. The wife was a Black woman, and that did surprise John.

John had been sorting through papers in the church office when Jack suddenly came in wearing a suit and tie. After sitting there quietly for a moment, Jack said that he might have never returned to Gilead. He came back for a few reasons, chiefly to speak to his father. But he was shocked to find Boughton so aged and fragile. Instead of talking to Boughton, he said, he’s going to make a last attempt to talk to John. That’s when he took the picture out of his pocket and showed it to John. It was a portrait of himself, a Black woman, and a light-skinned Black boy of about five or six. In an almost bitter tone, he said, “You see, I also have a wife and child.”

John says they are a fine-looking family. He asks if Jack is afraid this revelation would kill Boughton. Jack says it nearly killed his wife’s parents. Jack says they’ve been “married in the eyes of God” for about eight years and have lived as such for 17 months, two weeks, and a day. John comments that they don’t have anti-miscegenation laws in Iowa and wonders if Jack came to Gilead to be married. Jack explains that his wife’s father, himself a minister, doesn’t want them to marry.

Jack goes on to explain that there’s a good Christian man in Tennessee who is willing to marry his wife and adopt their son. Her family all think this is a good idea, and he admits that he has had trouble looking after his family under the circumstances and doesn’t want to ask his wife to break from her parents. And the main thing Della’s father has against Jack is that he’s an atheist. (Her father believes that all white men are atheists and that only some are aware of it.)

John says he thought that Jack was an atheist. Jack says it’s more accurate to say that he’s “in a state of categorical unbelief”—that is, he doesn’t necessarily believe that God doesn’t exist. His wife worries about his lack of faith, too. At first, she’d mistaken him for a minister himself, as many do.

John is surprised to realize that he isn’t sure how Boughton would take this news. He and Boughton never talked about this—in all their discussion over the years, it never came up. Jack hasn’t even spoken to Glory about it, because he knows she’d be heartbroken over the situation. But he knows his father is worried. And during his time in Gilead, he’s written to his wife several times and gotten no reply.

Della was a teacher. One day Jack saw her walking home from school in a rainstorm with an armload of books and papers, and he picked up some papers for her that had gotten scattered by the wind. Her first words to him were, “Thank you, Reverend.” Without really thinking about it, he walked her to her door with his umbrella. Later, Della’s father said that if Jack were really a gentleman, he would have left her alone. He understands—Della had a good life, and he isn’t a gentleman. He won’t let John object to that.

Jack says that if they could find some way to live as a family, answering her parents’ biggest objections to him, then he believes Della would marry him. He explains that he met Della at a low point in his life. He had no intentions toward Della one way or another; they just greeted each other on the street sometimes. One day, Della invited him in for tea, and Jack revealed that he wasn’t actually a minister. At the time, it didn’t seem to matter much.

Later—Jack isn’t sure how it happened—Della invited him to Thanksgiving dinner. Jack was nervous about it and had a few drinks beforehand. When he finally showed up late, Della was sitting there alone and unhappy. She scolded him for showing up drunk, and he knew she was right not to respect him. He left, then realized she was following him. She told him not to feel so bad, and he ended up walking her home and having pumpkin pie with her and her roommate. Somehow her family in Tennessee found out about them, though, and her brothers took her back home with them after the school year ended.

Jack tracked down Della’s family; they were easy to find, since her father was the minister of a well-known African Methodist Episcopal church. When he showed up at the church, he was the only white man in attendance; everybody noticed. Her father certainly did: he preached about wolves in sheep’s clothing and whitewashed tombs.

But Jack still greeted him at the door afterwards. That’s when her father told him that if his intentions were truly honorable, he wouldn’t have befriended Della. Seeing that Della had a good life with her family, Jack immediately returned to St. Louis. Then, in the fall, he ran into Della again on the same street. When he tipped his hat to her, she began to cry. From that moment on, they considered themselves to be husband and wife.

Della’s family disowned her at this point, and when she got pregnant, her school fired her. Jack worked as a shoe salesman, and they lived in a hotel in a bad part of town. They were technically breaking cohabitation laws, and the hotel clerk charged Jack exorbitantly to turn a blind eye to them.

Eventually, Della’s father and brothers came to see Jack. Her father said Jack should be thankful that he was a Christian man. He persuaded Jack to send Della home with them to have her baby, so he did, both relieved and miserable. He promised to come to Memphis when he had enough money. Weeks later, after writing to Boughton for help, he had enough money. While he waited, he often wandered to a tent revival that took place by the river each night. One evening he watched a man undergo a dramatic conversion, and he knew that if he could experience that, his whole standing with Della’s family would change.

When Jack finally got to Memphis, the baby was a few days old. When Della’s father got home, he said that he understood that Jack was a descendant of John Ames of Kansas. It was clear this changed his perception of Jack, so he didn’t deny it. Della’s father explained that he’d heard some amazing stories from people whose families had been helped by Ames and the abolitionists. Treading carefully, Jack said that his family had become pacifists after the Civil War and didn’t discuss those days anymore—which of course was true.

Della’s father knew his name because it turned out that Della wanted to name the baby after Jack. Jack was happy to learn this. He sat with Della and the baby all day. Everyone was kind to them, but eventually, Jack figured out that they were “just being Christian.” Then Della’s father told him it would be best if Jack left. He left Della some money and went back to St. Louis to search for work. When Della came to St. Louis a few months later with the baby, she found him living in a nice, respectable room.

Ever since then, they have gone back and forth. Whenever things become too difficult in St. Louis, Della and their little boy go back to Memphis for a while. The little boy, Robert Boughton Miles, is a wonderful child, Jack says. He has a large, doting extended family and hasn’t lacked for anything. A couple years ago, Jack saved up enough to buy a house in a racially mixed neighborhood.

But after about eight months, the family went to a park together, and Jack’s boss saw them there. The next day he spoke to Jack and warned him that he had his good name to consider. In response, Jack hit him. That night, the police came by and warned them about the cohabiting law. Jack put Della and their son on a bus to Memphis, rented out the house, and came back to Gilead.

Jack had thought that maybe he could find a way to move his family to Gilead. He would have liked for Boughton to know that Jack finally had something to be proud of. Little Robert Boughton Miles is being raised in the church and even wants to be a preacher someday. But seeing how weak his father is, Jack is afraid to tell the truth. He tells John not to tell him that this is “divine retribution.” John assures him he wouldn’t. But he needs to reflect on this before he advises Jack in any way.

Jack remarks that John knows a little bit about being “the object of scandal,” having made an “unconventional marriage” himself. Then again, Della is an educated woman. Immediately, John is struck by Jack’s characteristic meanness. There was no need for Jack to put it that way. He’s never regarded his marriage as scandalous, and he sees Lila as a refined woman in her own way. If anybody ever made remarks about their marriage, John forgave them. And seeing Jack’s weariness, John forgives him, too.

John tells Jack that if he were Boughton, he would love to meet his child. He adds that Boughton certainly was fond of Jack’s other child. Jack turns very pale. John apologizes for saying such a foolish thing; he is tired and old.

When Jack gets up to leave, John embraces him. Jack even rests his head on John’s shoulder for a moment. He says he is tired, and John can feel his loneliness. He wants to say something to Jack about being a second father to him, but he’s too tired to think it through. Instead he tells Jack that he’s a good man, and he means it.

Jack asks John what he thinks about moving his family to Gilead. John doesn’t know what to say. There hasn’t even been a Black church in town for many years now. And while Jack is right that John has influence here, he’s not going to be around for much longer. They agree that it’s been a good conversation, but as Jack leaves, he says, “No matter, Papa. I believe I’ve lost them anyway.”

Afterward, John prays for a long time. When Lila comes looking for him, she seems to think he’s had another heart episode, and he lets her think it. He tells his son that it might seem indiscreet for him to have written down this whole conversation. But his son might never hear another good word about Jack Boughton, and he doesn’t know how else to let his son see the beauty in Jack.