The disbarred Lucien, Jake's friend and ex-partner who is an alcoholic but when sober still a sharp legal mind, goes to Alaska and manages to obtain Ancil's testimony. Ancil explains why Seth left the money to his housekeeper and the significance of the sycamore tree from which he hanged himself.
In the 1920s, Lettie's grandfather Sylvester, whom she never knew, owned a considerable plot of land. His being a landowner was very much a rarity for a black person in the segregationist Deep South, and was greatly resented by racist whites in general and in particular by his neighbor, Cleon Hubbard, who laid a claim to Sylvester's land. Hubbard, an abusive man who was often violent toward his wife and two sons, Seth and Ancil, tried to go to court. However, Sylvester had an unassailable title to the land, registered by the family during the Reconstruction period when federal troops, present in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War, upheld the rights of blacks.
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disbar 변호사 자격을 박탈하다
legal mind 법의식
segregationist 인종 차별주의자.
laid a claim 주장하다
abusive 폭력적인, 욕하는
unassailable 난공불락의; 의심할 여지가 없는; 확고한
title (특히 부동산) 소유권[소유권 증서]
uphold (법·원칙 등을) 유지시키다[옹호하다]; (요구 사항의 타당성을) 인정하다
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Having failed in court, Hubbard resorted to the alternative method available at the time to whites in the Deep South, i.e. lynch law. Sylvester was falsely accused of "speaking rudely to white women", which, together with resentment at his being a black landowner, was enough to mobilize a lynch mob. Several men dragged Sylvester from his home and hanged him from a sycamore tree. His sons, Ancil and Seth, who did not share their father's prejudice and sometimes played with the black children, secretly observed this scene with great horror. Subsequently, Cleon Hubbard intimidated Esther, Lettie's grandmother, who had just seen her husband being murdered with impunity, and forced her to sign away the family's ownership for a pittance – with a promise that she could continue residing on the property.
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resort to 기대다[의지하다] (=have recourse to); recourse 의지
lynch law 사형(私刑); 사적 제제, 린치
lynch mob 린치를 행하는 무리
observe ... 을 보다[(보고) 알다/목격하다]
Subsequently 그 뒤에, 나중에
impunity 처벌을 받지 않음
pittance (먹고 살기에 턱없이 부족한) 아주 적은[얼마 안 되는] 돈
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However, the promise was promptly broken, and Cleon and the sheriff then expelled the entire extended family and set fire to their homes and small chapel, totally eradicating the small black community which had been known as "Sycamore Row". Esther, along with her five-year-old daughter (who would become Lettie's mother), had to escape with virtually no possessions. An older child, with whom the Hubbard boys sometimes played, drowned in a river during the final expulsion.
Years later, Seth Hubbard used the property gained by his father as collateral for a mortgage in order to build his lumber yard. Knowing that his success was partly owed to this mortgage and wanting to make up for the injustice caused by his father, he decided to give the majority of his capital to Lettie and in a final act hanged himself from the same tree from which Lettie's grandfather was hanged.
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virtually 사실상, 거의
expulsion 축출, 퇴학
collateral 담보물
mortgage 대출(금), 융자(금)
injustice 부당함
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After hearing Ancil Hubbard's testimony, the jury unanimously upholds the will and rejects the claims against its validity by Hubbard's children. However, an appeal seems very probable, which might last for years and consume a large part of the estate in legal fees. Moreover, the judge's decision to let the jury hear Ancil Hubbard's testimony might be challenged on procedural grounds (it was a recorded testimony and opposing counsel could not cross-examine him). Therefore, Judge Reuben Atlee suggests the parties settle the case with reasonable conditions. As the judge suggests, after Ancil Hubbard and the local church get their promised share, $5 million would be given to a fund providing college education to members of Lettie's family, all of whom share in the terrible legacy of the 1930 lynching and expulsion. Such a fund would also help Lettie get off her back numerous relatives who had shown up since the news spread that she would become rich.
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cross-examine 반대 심문하다
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Jake would be in charge of this fund, giving him steady employment but also a lot of headaches. The remaining $6 million would be divided equally between Lettie and Seth Hubbard's children.
The compromise is acceptable to everybody. Lettie is content to get back the land which belonged to her grandfather and build on it a nice house for herself, her children and grandchildren and does not mind Seth Hubbard's children getting at least some of his money. In the final scene, Ancil Hubbard arrives from Alaska and has an emotional meeting with Lettie and other protagonists under the sycamore tree, she asking him to let the past lie and look to a better future.
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protagonist 주인공, 참가자
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원문 출처; 위키미디어;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycamore_Row