new stitches perhaps, decorative handwork or new clothes.
chippy a prostitute.
Wilberforce a black college in Wilberforce, Ohio, named for William Wilberforce (1759–1833), a noted abolitionist who moved the English government to end the slave trade in the British Caribbean.
normal school a teacher's college.
sweet thorny place was made up of paper scraps containing the handwritten names of others the symbolic nest at Lady Jones's house where Denver enters the sisterhood of other black women, who are providing ample food and bits of paper containing their identities so that Denver can return food containers to their owners.
a blackboy's mouth full of money a derogatory knickknack that depicts a black youth on his knees, his mouth spread as wide as a cup to hold loose change.
mouth harp a primitive monotonal metal musical instrument that is held by the lips and vibrated against the teeth.
a hairy white thing Ella's deformed child fathered by her white owner.
Society the Society of Friends or Quakers, prime movers in the abolitionist movement.
