Dread Nation

That night, Jane goes to the town meeting hall for dinner. She doesn’t see Jackson or Lily anywhere, and as she gets her meager food portion, she is approached by the preacher, Pastor Snyder. He informs her that he knows how to handle her and that there is a “divine order” (241) that everyone must follow. Jane decides to sit at the tables full of other Black townspeople, and she meets Ida, who is from the Lost States in the Deep South “where shamblers outnumber people” (242).

Ida explains that even though slavery is now technically illegal, there are “loopholes” and “different ways to pretty up the same old evils” (243) in the Southern states. Jane learns that the “good white folks” (244) live in a different part of town in big houses with more protection, and they don’t affiliate with the other citizens. The preacher interrupts dinner to discuss how “the Sinner’s Plague” is a result of Black “hubris” (246). He stresses how important it is for the Black members of town to “toil and labor for the good of those God has made in His image” (246), meaning white people. Jane is horrified to see most of the white people and some of the Black people nodding along, and she believes that The preacher “just be the most dangerous man in town” (247).