The story of “Po’ Sandy” illustrates both Sandy’s humanity and the cost of being denied human rights. The story is driven by his desire to stay close to his second “wife.” Julius says that when Sandy was working at another plantation his master sold his wife and, “Wen Sandy come back, Mars Marrabo gin ’im a dollar en ’lowed he wuz monst’us sorry fer ter break up the fambly” (42). While enslaved people generally did not have marriage rights in the US, many slaveholders recognized the importance of connecting with another human being in an intimate way. Sandy’s master knew that he was taking such a person away from Sandy for financial reasons. He attempts to make reparation for his action by giving Sandy money.

Sandy’s new “wife,” Tenie, is the younger woman that Mars Marrabo purchased in exchange for Sandy’s first “wife.” When Sandy expresses his desire to stay with Tenie, she offers to “goopher” him into a tree. Enslaved, Sandy cannot satisfy the basic human need to be close to another person without changing into something that is not human, not even sentient.

Chesnutt uses Tenie to illustrate the human experience of grief. She tries to save Sandy several times when he is attacked while in the form of a tree, but once she knows he is sawed into boards, all she wants to do is to tell him how hard she tried to save him.