Part 2: A Battle in the Wilderness Summary

It’s late summer 1862, and the setting is now a wooded area in the South. A colonel—Boss-Master—sings a song called “Passing the Time” while guarding a wounded Union prisoner named Smith, who sits in a small wooden cage. The Colonel, who was separated from his troops, thinks aloud about how richly he’ll be rewarded for capturing a Union captain. The men discuss the different values of prisoners based on their ranks. Smith is a captain serving the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, meaning he leads an infantry of Black soldiers, whom Smith praises. The Colonel can’t understand why a man would rather lead Black soldiers than own them, claiming that “there’s nothing like” the feeling of owning another man.

Smith insists repeatedly that he has no desire to own slaves, which the Colonel doesn’t believe: “Underneath your blue coat you and me are more alike than different,” he says. The Colonel sent his valet, Hero, to collect water and firewood over an hour ago, and Smith antagonizes him by suggesting that Hero has run off. The Colonel explains that Hero is too loyal to ever leave him. On cue, Hero arrives carrying the firewood and water. The Yankees are closing in, he says, but the Rebels are nearby too. To pass the time, the Colonel goads Smith into discussing Hero’s value, promising that Smith can “win” Hero’s freedom with a correct guess. The Colonel floats many factors during the assessment: Hero’s original price, his skills, his obedience, and the quality of his teeth. When Smith gives a half-hearted answer, the Colonel orders Hero to remove his trousers so they can finish the inspection. When Smith objects, the Colonel strikes Hero hard across the face with his riding crop. Then he cries about how much he’ll miss Hero once he’s free and how grateful he is to have been born white: “No matter how low I fall… I will always be white.” Smith interrupts to ask the Colonel how much he thinks he (the Colonel) would fetch on the auction block, angering the Colonel. He puts his gun to Smith’s head and pretends to shoot him and then leaves to check on the progress of the Yankee forces.

When the Colonel leaves, Smith reveals to Hero that he’s actually a Black soldier and former slave who can “pass” as white. He describes his sense of pride in fighting for his cause and the wonderful feeling of being free. Hero doesn’t understand what his value would be if no one were willing to pay for him: “Where’s the beauty in not being worth nothing?” Smith encourages him to try on the Union jacket. Hero does but quickly takes it off when he hears the Colonel return. The Colonel orders Hero to tie a rope around Smith’s neck and bring him to the Rebel troops. As soon as the Colonel races ahead, Hero removes the rope from Smith’s neck and tells him he’s free. Smith pleads with Hero to wear the second jacket and join him, but Hero follows the Colonel.

The musician sings a reprise of the song “This Bright Wilderness,” about God up in heaven looking down at the people toiling “bravely down below.”

Part 2: A Battle in the Wilderness Analysis

In Part 2, audiences see the extent of Hero’s loyalty to Boss-Master, now the Colonel. Despite the Colonel’s cruel treatment and the danger of his wartime position, Hero rejects an offer to run away with Smith. Recalling his conversation with Homer, Hero’s motivation seems to be wanting the Colonel to “[make] good on what he promised.” Hero seems to believe that if he does a good enough job, or follows enough orders, he’ll earn his freedom. What this loyalty fails to realize is that the system is rigged to keep Hero oppressed. Justice, honor, and fairness cannot exist in the unbalanced system of slavery, which always objectifies the enslaved in ways similar to a master-dog relationship. During his conversation with Smith, the Colonel inspects Hero’s body as if he were inspecting an animal, checking his teeth and threatening to manually inspect his genitals. This scene strengthens the parallel between Hero the man and Odd-See the dog. Despite cruelty and abuse, Hero and Odd-See remain loyal to their masters.

Part 2 modernizes racial issues for contemporary audiences. During his conversation with Smith, when Hero imagines being stopped by a patroller, the stage directions say, “Hero holds up his hands. Reminiscent of ‘Hands up! Don’t Shoot!’” Hero’s struggle to understand self-worth and to convince a white patroller that his life has value takes on deeper meaning in Parks’ allusion to the discrimination, racial profiling, and police violence at the center of modern protests. Some directors take this a step further, such as the decision for actors to wear modern footwear (a brand of sneakers) in the 2014 Public Theater production or the decision for the slave characters to wear orange prison jumpsuits in the 2018 Goodman Theatre production. As characters in Part 2 question the monetary value of Hero’s life, the Colonel weighs various aspects of Hero’s character—his education, his trustworthiness, his physicality—to assign an arbitrary value. When placed in the context of prison reform, as with the Goodman Theatre production, or police violence, as with the “Don’t Shoot!” reference, audiences cannot ignore the parallels to modern times.