All the slave women band together in an attempt to hide the truth from Mr. Derby admits to the girls that she and Noah are deeply in love, and she begs them to help her save her baby. Derby, but is a beautiful caramel brown, the same color as Noah's skin. Derby's baby does not share the white skin of Mr. Amari is horrified when she sees that Mrs. Derby goes into labor on the plantations, the slave women, including Amari, quickly rush to her aid.

Derby remarried after his first wife passed away, his teenage bride came to her new home with all her belongings and her favorite slave, Noah. Derby's eighteen-year-old second wife, who is nearly nine months pregnant. Derby's slave cook, Teenie, the unbreakable precociousness of Teenie's four-year-old son Tidbit, and the secret kindness of Mr. The only respite for the two young girls comes from the feisty humor of Mr. She realizes that blacks, even though they are slaves, have the same emotions, and are just as human, as their white slave holders. This bond strengthens after Clay begins raping Amari and Polly sees first-hand just how scare Amari is, which is the same reaction Polly would have to the treatment. Life on the Derby plantation is horrendous for both girls, and in time, they forge a bond based simply on their will to survive their terrible condition. Polly feels superior to Amari because Polly is a white girl who will eventually be free, while Amari is a black slave, no more than a beast of burden in many white people's eyes. When Polly first meets Amari, she doesn't want anything to do with her. Derby purchases the indenture of a seventeen-year-old girl named Polly, who has 14 years left on her service before she earns her freedom.

Percival Derby as a birthday present for his eldest son, Clay.

They chain and shackle the healthy youth and cram them into a slave ship set for America. The white men shoot and kill most of Amari's village before setting it aflame. When white men enter her village for the first time, her people welcome them with open arms, but the men are here for violence. When the novel opens, Amari is a happy teenager, engaged to the most handsome man in her African village, and beloved by her parents. Told from the modulating viewpoints of 15-year-old slave Amari, and 17-year-old indentured servant Polly, Copper Sun is a story of resilience in the face of human depravity, and a hope for freedom against all odds.

Copper sun sharon draper