The story begins with an auction where slaves are sold to new owners.

At this auction Martha is separated

from her daughter Eliza Mae, as well as Eliza Maes father Lucas. This separation is something Martha cannot
forget and she wants to find her daughter. Martha decides to leave her owner and heads for Dodge where she
establishes herself cleaning clothes and cooking food. When the man she falls in love with is killed, Martha
decides to leave Dodge. Her longing for a reunion with her daughter pushes Martha into the decision to head
for California, where Eliza Mae might be. Martha travels with a group of other black people. However, at this
point her age becomes a problem and this affects the travellers. The travellers therefore leave Martha in
Denver, Colorado where she soon dies.
There are some examples of the negative aspects of slavery in West. The auction is perhaps the strongest
example. Martha gives a very detailed account of the auction and also shows that she has some knowledge
about slave trade auctions. The auctioneer beckons forward the traders. They look firstly at the men. A trader
prods Lucass biceps with a stick. If a trader buys a man, it is down the river. To die (Phillips 77). The
importance of the auction for Marthas life is illustrated by the fact that she returns to it in her memories after a
short visit to the present. The trader who had prodded Lucas with a stick bought him for a princely
sum Eliza Mae was sold after Martha (Phillips 78). Martha returns to the auction in order to give the readers
the conclusion of what happened there, but for Martha herself the memory of the auction rather is a memory of
how her journey began. As with the disembodied father in the introduction of Crossing the River, the memory
of the tragic event has an important role and therefore neither cannot nor must not be forgotten.
Another example of the negative sides of slavery occurs during Marthas time as a slave belonging to the
Hoffman family. The good times end for the family and this means they have to move. Instead of releasing
Martha and making her a free person, Mr. Hoffman has other intentions. He paused. We are going to
California, but we shall have to sell you back across the river in order that we can make this journey. Marthas
heart fell like a stone (Phillips 80). Martha is prepared for the news that her master has to get rid of her but
she does not want to be sold to a new master, Martha wants freedom. The news that she is going to be sold to
a new master pushes Martha into the decision to run away from the Hoffman family. The example
demonstrates the aspect of slavery where the power over a slaves body always lies in the hands of the slaves
master. Of convenience, the Hoffmann family decides to get rid of Martha rather than taking her with them. She
has only two choices: to be sold to a new master or run away from the existing one.
Another example of slaves without power over their own bodies can be read in the last sentence of West,
where Martha has died, They would have to choose a name for her if she was going to receive a Christian
burial (Phillips 94). Even as dead, Martha has no power over her own body and identity. West demonstrates
that the complexity of slavery lies in the fact that the consequences of it live longer than the persons involved in
it do. Martha goes from being a slave to being a former slave, but she cannot change her social position in
society.
Martha wants freedom. The news that she is going to be sold to a new master pushes Martha into the decision
to run away from the Hoffman family. The example demonstrates the aspect of slavery where the power over a
slaves body always lies in the hands of the slaves master. Of convenience, the Hoffmann family decides to
get rid of Martha rather than taking her with them. She has only two choices: to be sold to a new master or run
away from the existing one.
Another example of slaves without power over their own bodies can be read in the last sentence of West,
where Martha has died, They would have to choose a name for her if she was going to receive a Christian
burial (Phillips 94). Even as dead, Martha has no power over her own body and identity. West demonstrates
that the complexity of slavery lies in the fact that the consequences of it live longer than the persons involved in
it do. Martha goes from being a slave to being a former slave, but she cannot change her social position in
society.








The second work in the collection, "West," is a short vignette involving an old escaped slave named Martha,
who is abandoned by fellow blacks in a doorway in Denver, Colorado during a winter blizzard. The
abandonment is not an act of cruelty, but necessity. She was attached to a wagon train of blacks headed for
California in the mid-1800s and grew too ill to continue. Martha is near death, and in her fevered hallucinations,
she relives segments of her past. She, her husband and their only child, a daughter, are sold to different
owners when their original master dies. Martha escapes from her new owners and flees to Dodge City,
Kansas. There, as a free black, she falls in love with a black cowboy and opens a restaurant. When her
cowboy is killed in a gunfight, she moves to Leavenworth, Kansas and opens a laundry. There she meets the
wagon master, who agrees to take her west with his train. While she is shivering in the Denver doorway, a
mysterious white woman discovers her and takes her to an unheated cabin, where Martha dies in the night.
When the white woman returns to find the corpse in the morning, she realizes that she never asked Martha's
name, and she frets over the necessity to give her a Christian name, so that she might receive a Christian
burial.

____

The story then switches to Martha, an old woman who, after losing her husband and daughter at a slave
auction, decides to run away from her owners in Kansas and seek freedom in California. She only makes it
to Colorado, however, where the group she is traveling with leaves her because she is slowing down the party.
A white woman offers Martha a place to room for the night out of the bitter cold, but it is not enough. When the
woman returns to Martha the next day, Martha is dead. The white woman decides that she is going to have to
choose a name for her if she was going to receive a Christian burial (p. 94), which is ironic since Martha
hated receiving a new name each time she was passed to a different owner and because Martha didnt believe
in God.
__
Dislocation and restoration
The feeling of loss and pain in the novel stems from one main thing: dislocation. Dislocation is the one thing
that creates all the painful stories. One wonders what would have happened to these characters if slave
traders hadnt torn them from their homeland.
Nash never would have become Edwards pet in America and never would have journeyed back to Africa to
unsuccessfully fend off disease and later die. Martha never would have lost her husband and daughter. And
Travis never would have died in Italy. All of these characters died in lands that were strange to them,
suggesting that the characters were ill at ease in their new environments ever since they were taken from
Africa. The narrator at the beginning and end of the text, however, is still optimistic, reasoning that his children
will still reach the other side of the river their true home if they are determined and willing to survive.
Nash, Martha, and Travis all struggled and defied what was expected of them; they didnt meekly accept their
situations. Nash became so delusional in Africa as a missionary that he was almost like a white slave driver
himself, forcing the natives to work for him and scoffing at their ideas of religion and cultural practices. Martha,
on the other hand, looked for freedom on the West Coast, and Travis fell in love with a white woman. All of
these characters defied the expectation that blacks would live low, submissive lives and fulfill the desires of the
white man. In this way, they were able to find the other side of the river and become rooted as the seeds of
new trees (p. 2).

Contradiction of emancipation and restriction
The irony in Crossing the River is that though Nash, Martha, and Travis are all free, they still are restricted in
many ways. They each deal with their newly found freedom in different ways: Nash agrees to go to Africa as
one in few educated and freed black men. Later, however, he becomes limited and restricted in his own view of
the world he sees things as a slave owner might toward the end of the novel. Freedom for Martha comes at
the cost of her life as she escapes the Hoffmans in Kansas. Travis, whose story occurs after the Emancipation
Proclamation, is technically free but is still bound by a white culture that refuses to accept his relationship with
a white woman. Instead of freedom enhancing their world view, freedom impedes them and is one more
obstacle that they must overcome before they can reach the far side of the river.
Christianity and its relation to morality and hypocrisy
Christians in Crossing the River are presented somewhat negatively. Many of Phillips' characters lack faith,
and the majority of those that do believe act hypocritically.
For example, one of the main characters, Martha, gave up believing in God because she couldnt sympathize
with the sufferings of the son of God when set against her own private misery (p. 79). Martha, having lost her
husband and daughter and everything worthwhile in her life, completely lost faith in everything, including
religion. Marthas owners the Hoffmans, on the other hand, were devout Christians and tried to get Martha to
go to a revival by the river, where a minister tried to cast light on Marthas dark soul (p. 79). Interestingly
enough, the Hoffmans try to sell Martha when the family decides they want to move to California. They dont
even think twice about sending her back to Missouri, where racism and evil slave traders flourish. Their
decision demonstrates a lack of strong morals despite their religion.
Joyce, Travis love interest, also does not believe in God. She expected God to listen to her after getting
an abortion, and when he didnt, she left Christ (p. 194). Joyce seemed to want some sort of reconciliation
with her cold, distanced mother and hoped that religion could fill the gap between them. But when Joyce left
church, her mother left (her) (p. 194).
The Hoffmans and Joyces mother (as well as Hamilton and Nash) all had the pretense of being good
Christians. In reality, however, these characters' morals were anything but good. They all tried to force their
beliefs on people that they deemed were below them. Phillips seems to say that its wrong to transplant people
from their native country and then force a belief system on them that the so-called Christians dont even follow
themselves. The Hoffmans, Joyces mother, Hamilton, and Nash are all hypocrites. Martha and Joyce struggle
to find their place in this forced system of beliefs, just like the Africans struggle to find their way in America or
any other place they were forced to go once theyd been uprooted from their native land. Travis alone seems to
be the one person who maintains Christian beliefs without becoming a hypocrite. When Joyces mother dies,
he asks if he can say a prayer, and Joyce lets him. He never pushes Joyce to accept his religion. Travis is
obviously flawed as demonstrated by his affair with Joyce but at least he never pretends to be something
hes not.