Annie John

Annie has bested her schoolmates academically and is awarded a copy of Roman Britain. She dislikes the sexton’s daughter, Hilarene, for being too good, and though the minister’s daughter, Ruth, is a “dunce,” Annie likes Ruth because she has blond hair, comes from England, and turns bright pink when Annie sings bawdy songs.

Annie’s copy of A History of the West Indies is open on her desk, but she is distracted by her wish that Gwen’s father would contract leprosy so that he would be forced to move away and Gwen could do whatever she wants. Miss Edward, a very authoritarian instructor, quizzes Ruth about the year Columbus “discovered” Dominica, but Ruth cannot answer. Annie pities Ruth, believing that the girl must want to be back home in England rather than being constantly reminded “of the terrible things her ancestors had done” in colonizing and enslaving people (76). Annie thinks that Ruth must feel ashamed that her ancestors enslaved innocent Africans: the ancestors of Annie and the other Antiguan girls. Now, though, Annie reports, it’s hard for people to tell whether they belong with the “masters or the slaves” because it is all history and “everybody behave[s] differently now” (76). Annie, however, is certain that her ancestors would not have enslaved the Europeans if roles were reversed.