Kunta is a bit saddened that he doesn’t have quite the same relationship with Fiddler and the gardener as he did when he was single. Still, even though everyone is not as quick to share stories, Kunta does feel more accepted by the slaves of the plantation, almost as if his marriage to Bell makes Kunta a part of them at last.

One day, the gardener and Fiddler tell Kunta about the census the white people are having in Virginia. Fiddler says that the white people are participating just to make sure that the whites still outnumber the blacks. Fiddler tells Kunta about how in the West Indies, there are so many slaves on sugar plantations there that blacks outnumber the whites one thousand to one. Kunta is astounded at how much Fiddler knows even though he has never been beyond Virginia and North Carolina. Kunta isn’t as upset at his own ignorance as much as he is about how much more Kunta himself knows than any other slave on any plantation. “Most blacks literally didn’t even know where they were, let alone who they were.” In fact, most slaves never leave the plantations on which they are born.

Kunta is thinking about all that Fiddler and the gardener told him and is sharing the information with Bell when Bell surprises Kunta by asking if he would ever consider running away again. Kunta admits that he hasn’t thought about that for a long time. Bell shares her reverie about freedom with Kunta. She admits that she thinks about freedom a lot. It doesn’t matter if a slave has a “good” master; he or she has a master nonetheless. Bell admits that if she and Kunta were both a bit younger, she would ask him to run away with her that very night. She adds that she must be just too scared and too old now.

Bell’s last statement wounds Kunta to the core. Kunta Kinte is too old to run away again, and too scared as well. This depresses Kunta. In fact, Kunta continues in his depression even after ruminating quietly on all the horrors of escape: the gunshots, the dogs, the fear, the brambles, and the axe that took his foot. Bell is heartbroken for having brought on this depression. Poor Bell just gets up and goes to bed. Kunta feels bad for underestimating Bell and all of the other blacks on all of the plantations. Kunta has done this for years, never knowing that these people thought as much about freedom as he did. Kunta realizes now that slaves never show their true feelings about their condition except to the ones they love. Sometimes they never share their feelings about slavery. Kunta wishes he could find the words to tell Bell that he appreciates her love for him and that he feels the same pain that she feels. However, not being able to find the words, Kunta decides to show Bell through the act of making love both passionately and desperately.