36 pages • 1 hour read
Dion BoucicaultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act IV starts on the Wharf, where Ratts and his men are loading his steamship and Scudder and Pete join them. As they’re preparing the ship, the slave Solon enters and reveals they’ve found Wahnotee, whom they still believe killed Paul. They ask him about Paul and he says that Paul was killed by a blow to the head; even though the group automatically assumes Wahnotee “got drunk, quarreled with [Paul], and killed him” (63), they still move to give him a trial before they lynch him. M’Closky tries to assert Wahnotee’s guilt, saying it’s “plain” to see that Wahnotee killed him, but M’Closky gets exposed when Pete looks at the camera and realizes there’s a photographic plate in there showing M’Closky standing over Paul’s body. The group realizes that it was M’Closky who killed Paul and move to give him a trial, when M’Closky pulls out a knife to “defend” (66) himself.