Character Analysis
If you managed to get through "The People Could Fly" without shedding a tear for poor Sarah's sake, then you must have a heart of stone.
Sarah's in rough shape from the get-go. Despite carrying a child on her back, she is as "hard worked and scorned" (5) as anyone else out working in the fields. She's so exhausted that she doesn't even have "the heart to croon" (8) to her child as it cries. In other words, we're witnessing a woman at the end of her rope, struggling between her need to protect her family and her desire to simply survive.
This is, of course, by design: Just as Toby represents the model leader, the man who can see more than meets the eye, Sarah represents the oppressive violence of slavery. As a woman working the fields with a child on her back, she is a symbol for powerlessness. Sarah and her baby make the violence of slavery crystal clear. Consider, for instance, when the Driver "cracked his whip across the babe" (8), sending it tearfully into the ground, then whips Sarah until she "couldn't get up" (14). It's pretty clear how terrible slavery is, right? Right.
Toby must've seen this interaction coming, though, because he's already prepared Sarah for this moment. We are told that he is her "father" (16), and whether this is meant literally or not, the meaning is still the same: Toby is doing what all good fathers do, protecting his family just as Sarah has protected hers.
And he succeeds: Sarah "flew like an eagle, until she was gone from sight" (20). Not only will she have the chance to start a new life, her child will have the chance to grow up outside the confines of slavery. For him, this whole ordeal will be nothing more than a hazy memory—that is, unless his mom thinks that this is a story worth telling.