Kunta spends four days in the hut, spread-eagle on the floor in chains. Each night he hears the black people singing and is bewildered again by their stupidity. Each morning, though, Kunta feels a special closeness to the sun, the same sun that rises in Africa. After praying as well as he can in that position, Kunta begins to inspect his chains and shackles. They cannot be broken. Kunta pays special attention to the small holes where “narrow metal things” are placed to make a “click” before the shackle opens. Desperately, Kunta tries to bite off his chains and cracks a tooth in the process.

Finally, the driver comes into the hut with a pair of shackles with a chain between them. These are meant to bind Kunta’s legs. As soon as Kunta gets onto his feet, he is beaten down again by the driver, who wants Kunta to know exactly who is in charge. When Kunta is finally made to walk, he realizes that he could never get away while wearing these leg shackles. They make him hobble along quite awkwardly.

The driver leads Kunta to another hut, where he is given some food. Then the driver tries for a long while to help Kunta learn his “name.” The driver points to himself and exclaims that his name is “Samson.” Then the driver points to Kunta and says the name “Toby.” It takes a while for Kunta to understand, but when he does, it takes all of his strength not to yell out his Kinte lineage and that he is Kunta, the proud son of Omoro Kinte from the village of Juffure. Kunta never says the name the master gives him. Instead, he is led to wash up, is given new clothes and a straw hat, and learns to use the outhouse. Kunta pays close attention to Samson and the ways of the toubob. He plans to use this wisdom to escape when it is time.

Kunta then admits to learning his first toubob animal: a “hoss.” As a horse is ridden by the overseer alongside the black people as they march to the fields, Kunta is shoved among them. Many of the people are carrying large knives to work the corn stalks. The driver beckons Kunta to walk behind them. As Kunta looks back to the slave huts, he can see they are positioned to be constantly monitored from the big, white house. Ahead of him, the black people work furiously, fearing the lash from the overseer. Kunta can feel them relax more when the overseer moves aside to monitor another group.

Kunta realizes that these are the people he hears singing in the evening. He hates these people who don’t know who they are or where they come from. Kunta hates seeing their African tribes within their faces. Still, Kunta becomes one of them as he picks up one corn stalk and then another. As he works, Kunta begins to memorize the landscape and notes his own mistakes that led him to be caught the first time.

That evening, Kunta prays again to Allah and hopes to find some crushed eggshells to add to a few rooster feathers to create a spiritual message for his family in Juffure. Then they would know he is alive. Kunta begins to get upset at himself for being captured when he finally admits that a man would not wallow in self-pity. Kunta Kinte intends to live up to his great heritage and be a man.