“So what about us?” I asked. “What are we now?”
Sophia shifted Carrie off her bosom, so that the baby lay between the two of us, and turned on her side until she was facing me.
“We are what we always were,” she said. “Underground.”
For Chana
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THE STORY OF THE White family takes the real-life saga of William and Peter Still and their family as its inspiration. You can read more about their story—and the stories they collected from the formerly enslaved—in a new edition of William Still’s The Underground Railroad Records, edited by Quincy Mills (Modern Library).
BY TA-NEHISI COATES
The Water Dancer
We Were Eight Years in Power
Between the World and Me
The Beautiful Struggle
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TA-NEHISI COATES is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between the World and Me, which won the National Book Award in 2015. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Coates lives in New York City with his wife and son.
ta-nehisicoates.com
Instagram: @tanehisipcoates
To inquire about booking Ta-Nehisi Coates for a speaking engagement, please contact the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau at speakers@penguinrandomhouse.com.
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