Sarny is the sequel to Nightjohn

Nightjohn

Nightjohn is a young adult novel by Gary Paulsen, first published in 1993. It is about slavery in the American South shortly before the time of the American Civil War. It was later made into a movie of the same name.-Plot summary:...

 by Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen

Gary James Paulsen is an American writer who writes many young adult coming of age stories about the wilderness. He is the author of more than 200 books , 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for young adults and teens.-Biography:Gary Paulsen was born in...

. It was published on September 8, 1997 by Dell Books.

Plot introduction

Sarny has been released from the shackles of slavery during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 by United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 infantry bayonetting her owner, Mr. Waller.Eventually finding them in New Orleans with the help of a new friend named Miss Laura at the end of the war. Miss Laura pays Sarny and her friend Lucy $20 a month to help her around the house. Sarny then opens a school for blacks, only to have it burned down twice by the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

. Her husband Stanley, enraged, attacks one of them. The Klan lynches him. She lives her life until Miss Laura dies eight months later, leaving her 12 rental properties in New Orleans, and St. Louis; almost $125,000.00; and half interest in two steamships. She dies in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

in the 1930's at age 96.