Chapter 11 (The Water is Wide)

“Their response was to initiate a petition to get me back on the island. Every black on the island signed the petition, although many of them had to enlist the help of friends to write their names.”

This sentence took place when Mr. Conroy was going to in front of the board to discuss the county giving him gas money for traveling to Yamacraw everyday. I chose this sentence because it shows what love and respect Mr. Conroy has earned from the people on Yamacraw. When he first came to the island the people thought of him as just another white man coming to rule and so call teach their children. This sentence shows that Mr. Conroy was so much more than what the people initially thought. It proves that he helped the students in many ways and the people of Yamacraw saw that and wanted him to be able to stay and continue to teach their children. They saw the love Mr. Conroy brought with his teaching along with the compassion for the children and the drive to educate them in the best possible way.

So many important events took place in this chapter. At the beginning there was graduation of the children. Then the big argument between Mr. Conroy and Mr. Piedmont took place. This led to the two going to the board to argue their points on why or why not Mr. Conroy should receive money for gas to continue traveling to Yamacraw everyday.  This was a tense and explosive meeting and Mr. Conroy came out on top. He was granted the money for the gas. But, it was not without the help of the Yamacraw people and some of the parents of the children. The next school year began and Mr. Conroy knew it would be his last so he wanted to treat the children to an excellent and exciting year. Mary, Top Cat, and Frank’s parents wrote letters to Mr. Conroy and his wife Barbara pleading with them to let their children stay with them in Beaufort for the next year of high school. They agreed so now they were being faced with hash treatment for letting three black children stay with them.

Then Mr. Conroy found out that Mr. Piedmont and Mr. Bennington was out to get him. Sure enough they fired him for some crazy reason of being late. He went to court to try and fight it considering he traveled by boat everyday to the school in any kind of weather. He had parents supporting him and the Yamacraw people wanting to go on strike by not sending their children to school. Ultimately he lost the case and had to stop teaching the children. He went back in his home in Beaufort and reflected on the time he spent on Yamacraw.