The chapter opens with a flashback to Ajarry’s capture in Ouidah, her sale to the Nanny, and the brutal Middle Passage that leaves her father dead and her mother dead before she arrives at the Randall plantation in Georgia. Ajarry, now called Cora, endures repeated sales, whippings, and the murder of her husband by Connelly. She befriends Lovey, Nag, and other women in the Hob, learns to tend a small garden, and resists a brutal attack by Blake on her doghouse. When Caesar, a free Black worker, proposes escape via the underground railroad, Cora initially refuses but later agrees after Caesar’s repeated attempts. They flee with Lovey, stealing food and hiding in the woods, pursued by Ridgeway’s slave‑catcher gang and local patrollers. Their flight takes them through swamp, backcountry, and finally to a secret underground tunnel operated by a station agent named Lumbly. They travel by hand‑car and boxcar, enduring harsh conditions, illness, and the loss of companions such as Jasper and Chester. After emerging in South Carolina, they encounter the town’s museums, hospitals, and a hostile community where doctors experiment on Black patients. Cora works in the museum, learns to read, and attends school, while Caesar works in a factory. The pair debate whether to board the next train; they decide to stay, attending local socials, but are later captured by Ridgeway’s men after a raid on the Valentine farm. The raid burns the farm, kills many, including the speaker Lander and Mingo’s followers, and forces Cora into a desperate escape through an old tunnel beneath the farmhouse. She discovers the tunnel’s darkness, struggles with chains, and ultimately emerges into a forest near a wagon convoy heading west, where a compassionate Black man offers her food and assistance. The chapter ends with Cora entering the tunnel alone, uncertain of its exit, hoping to reach freedom.