That evening, James gathers Lizzie and six other enslaved children in his cabin for a language lesson, which he treats as necessary for survival. He teaches them the rules white people expect: avoid eye contact, never speak first, and use indirect speech with other enslaved people through signifying. Through examples about warning Mrs. Holiday about a fire, James shows that they must let white people name danger themselves and must never openly tell a white person that the white person is wrong.

As the lesson continues, James explains that even sounding confused or stumbling over words can be useful because white people enjoy feeling superior. Lizzie, Rachel, February, Virgil, and Glory all take part as James coaches them on how to translate clear speech into the submissive dialect whites expect. When Rachel asks why God made whites masters and Black people slaves, James bluntly says there is no white God and that religion is mainly a tool of control. He still teaches the children that, around whites, they must talk about God because making whites feel comforted makes enslaved people safer.

Later, while carrying chicken feed at the Widow Douglas's house, James is stopped by Huck, who is puzzling over prayer. James answers in dialect and tells Huck that prayer often serves the people nearby who want to hear it, especially Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas. He suggests that praying aloud for the kinds of things white adults approve of can make life easier, even if prayer itself changes nothing. But when Huck directly asks whether James believes in God, James gives the expected answer and sends Huck away, keeping his true views hidden.

After Huck leaves, Luke joins James and tells him about McIntosh, a light-skinned free Black man in St. Louis. Luke says police told McIntosh he would probably be hanged for a fight, so McIntosh cut both officers before being captured; later, a mob chained him to a tree and burned him alive. James and Luke repeatedly shift into exaggerated dialect whenever white men come near, using performance and humor to protect themselves. James is sickened by the story, and Luke adds that Judge Lawless refused to pursue indictments because the murder was done by a crowd, exposing how white law shields racial violence; afterward, the two men joke darkly about heaven, New Orleans, and irony while carefully hiding their real thoughts from another white passerby.