This chapter-by-chapter summary contains plot spoilers!

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March by Geraldine Brooks:  Chapters 7 - 11

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Chapter 7: (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Mr. March remembers how he lost the fortune he had built up as a peddler and wise investor.  In the early days of his marriage, his only worry centered on Marmee's passionate temper which he found frightening and unseemly.  Then when the famous abolitionist John Brown comes to Concord to give a lecture, Mr. March backs Brown's cause financially to impress Marmee. Brown plans to buy land and establish a community of freed slaves in the Adirondacks.  But Brown mismanages the money over the years, spending it on caches of weapons.  Gradually the Marchs descend so far into poverty that Mr. March's rich aunt offers to adopt Jo to relieve them of "the burden of one more mouth to feed."  Mr. March has to physically restrain Marmee from attacking his aunt.  The Marchs move to a tiny cottage close to the Emersons, and Meg starts working as a governess to help the family finances.  In an amusing twist (which occurs in Little Women) Jo accepts a part-time paid position to be Aunt March's companion.

Chapter 8: With the Oak Landing cotton harvest in, the workers now have time to attend school taught by Mr. March; he writes Marmee about their progress. Some Union scouts trick a little black kid named Jimse into burning his hand on a kettle.  Mr. March tends to Jimse's burned hand, feeds him dinner, and then falls asleep with the kid in his lap.  He wakes to see Jimse's young mother Zannah watching him, and hands over Jimse. The next day, Zannah leaves him a woven hat as a thank-you. His curiosity about her grows and he tries to get her to speak up in class. His best student Jesse, who has become the freed slaves' unofficial leader, explains that Zannah can't speak because her tongue was cut out years ago by two white men who raped her.

Chapter 9: The cotton harvest gets sent north on the river, and another boat arrives full of donations gathered by Marmee for the freed slaves. They are thrilled and Canning allows them a night of celebration before planting the next crop. Canning receives the profits on the sale of the current crop and pays the workers though he's still in debt. Moved by the fact that Canning kept his promises, the workers hand over a surprise: some hidden bales of cotton from the previous year.  When the Crofts left the plantation, the rebels came in and ordered them to burn the cotton, but they managed to hide some.  Now they give it to Canning and he's so grateful that he might be able to avoid bankruptcy that he allows them another night of celebration.  Mr. March attends and gets carried away with drinking, singing, and dancing.

Chapter 10:  March wakes the next day with yellow fever, a serious recurring illness. Canning rides to the Union garrison to get him a doctor, but no one wants to help an abolitionist like March. The workers nurse March back to precarious health. Then the Union garrison withdraws, leaving only a token force for "protection" against the rebels.  March vows to stay on with Canning, but starts sleeping in a hiding place in a store-room in case rebels raid the place.

Chapter 11:  Mr. March remembers his life just after abolitionist John Brown's failed raid on the garrison at Harpers Ferry. The South demands prosecution of northerners who backed Brown, and March keeps a low profile while several of his acquaintances leave the country. Most Northerners such as Nathaniel Hawthorne condemn Brown's willingness to commit violence.  Henry David Thoreau is the only one to speak up in Brown's defense, comparing him in a passionate speech to Jesus.

At Marmee's insistence, March continues to help runaway slaves though he risks arrest under the newly passed Fugitive Slave Act. The Marchs shelter a slave girl named Flora. Once when they are out, the sheriff comes to the house and tries to bluster his way in without a search warrant.  Only meek little Beth is at home, and later March listens with astonishment as Beth tells him how she stood up to the sheriff and refused to let him in. The Marchs send Flora to safety in Canada.

That spring, war breaks out. The young men from Concord muster in the Cattle Show grounds and make speeches. Mr. March impulsively volunteers to join. Marmee, with tears in her eyes, reaches out to him and he interprets her emotion as pride in him and loving support. Later, she clutches his hand hard, and he interprets it the same way.  The whole town treats him like a hero.
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