A Story of Grace & Forgiveness

Sycamore Row, by John Grisham, takes place in rural Missisippi in the late 1980s.  (Spoiler Warning: this column tells how this novel ends.  Do not read if you do not want to see how the plot unfolds.)  Seth Hubbard commits suicide by hanging himself from a sycamore tree.  Seth was 71 years old and had terminal lung cancer.  Seth was a very private person, and no one had any idea how wealthy he was.

In his last will, he leaves 90% of his estate to his housekeeper, a black woman named Lettie in her 40s, receives his house and 200 acres around his house.  His last will specifies that his ex-wives, children and grandchildren are to receive nothing.  He leaves 5% to his church, and 5% to his long lost brother Ancil who has not been seen in decades.

His estate is worth over $24 million.  So his last will is challenged in court by his children who were included in the previous will.  They suggest that the housekeeper was sleeping with Seth, which she denies.  She knew nothing about his lumber and furniture businesses, and had no idea of how wealthy he was.

As you might imagine, people start coming to Lettie Lang, the black housekeeper, in a very friendly way, as soon as they hear that she’s going to receive a lot of money.  The attorney representing Seth’s estate, Jake Brigance, discovers that at one time, Lettie’s family owned the 200 acres that Seth’s will gave to Lettie.  The land changed hands in 1930, but they cannot find out why her grand-father sold the land to Seth’s father, or why all of Lettie’s family left that part of Mississippi and moved to Chicago.

Jake hires a private investigator, to try to track down his long lost brother, Ancil.  Finally, they find him living in Juneau, Alaska, where he’s a bartender who gets paid in cash under the table.  Ancil gives a videotaped deposition in which he tells his story:

When Ancil and Seth were children, their father required them to work hard picking cotton, taking care of the farm animals and other chores.  Late one night, they heard their father leave the house and drive up the road.  They sneak out of the house & follow him on their bicycles.  They hide in the woods, and see their father and other white men beat up a black man named Sylvester Rinds.  Then the white men hang Sylvester from a sycamore tree.  A few days later, their father buys the 200 acres from Sylvester’s widow.  But Sylvester’s family still lived at the edge of the land, near the river, until the sheriff and Seth’s father kick them off, and burn the houses of the black families.  So Sylvester’s family all leave the area, except for a baby girl who was adopted by another black family. 

This girl grows up knowing she was adopted, but knowing nothing about her real family or why they left Mississippi.  Years later, the girl, now a young woman, gets married & has a daughter, named Lettie – the same Lettie who eventually is hired by Seth to be his housekeeper.  Remember that Lettie did not know the story of what happened to her grandfather Sylvester.

When this all comes out in the trial, the jury rules in favor of Seth’s last will, the will that leaves 90% of his estate to Lettie.  After the trial, Ancil returns to the place where he grew up, and shows them the sycamore tree where Sylvester was hung –the same sycamore tree that Seth used to hang himself. 

Ancil attends a picnic on the grounds near the sycamore tree, where he meets Lettie and her family.  Ancil tells Lettie that he’s very sorry for what his father & the other white men did when they killed Lettie’s grand-father Sylvester.  Lettie says, That happened a long time ago, and we should leave that all in the past.  In other words, she forgives Ancil and his family for hanging her grandfather.  Ancil meets Lettie’s children who express the same sentiment.

Jesus said, For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  (Matthew 6:14-15)  Jesus also told the story of the prodigal son who was forgiven by his father. 

In Sycamore Row, Seth’s will was his attempt to make amends for his father’s role in the lynching of Lettie’s grandfather.  Ancil apologized when he met Lettie and her family.  Lettie and her family responded graciously.  It’s a tremendous story of grace and forgiveness.