Opening
The final chapter, “Lexington’s Historical Connections,” steps out of the novel’s narrative to function as an epilogue and research ledger. In a series of brisk biographical entries, it anchors the story’s people and events to the historical record, confirming fates, clarifying origins, and exposing the gaps that fiction must bridge.
What Happens
The chapter presents concise biographies of the real figures behind the 19th-century plotline. It confirms the prominence of Robert Aitcheson Alexander, catalogs the rise and fall of figures like Richard Ten Broeck (whose obituary headlines him “Forsaken and Alone”), and situates political actors such as Cassius Marcellus Clay and his daughter Mary Barr Clay, who emerges as a leader in the suffrage movement. These entries read as miniature obituaries, providing the public outcomes to the private dramas seen in the novel.
A major focus falls on the Black horsemen whose skill makes Lexington’s legend possible. The entry for Harry Lewis confirms that he purchases his own freedom and continues his career as a trainer—proof that talent and persistence carve out agency even within an oppressive system. Most centrally, the author addresses the novel’s pivotal groom, Jarret Lewis, admitting that while a groom named Jarret appears with Lexington in a period painting, the archive preserves almost nothing of his life. Jarret’s arc is therefore modeled on the achievements of Ansel Williamson and Edward D. Brown, a deliberately restorative act that makes space for a life history the record denies.
The chapter also corroborates events in the present-day storyline. One entry profiles Lexington’s painter as an itinerant artist who serves in the Civil War and, in 1878, visits the Smithsonian to view Lexington’s skeleton. In a recorded letter, he critiques the mount’s “inaccurate articulation,” a detail that validates the discovery made by Jess and Theo in the 21st century. By assembling dates, documents, and surviving artifacts, the chapter roots the novel’s revelations in verifiable fact and shows how careful research can correct the historical record.
Character Development
Although this chapter doesn’t advance the plot, it reframes characters through historical context, deepening the reader’s understanding of how the novel builds from and pushes against the archive.
- Jarret Lewis: Revealed as an intentional composite of under-recorded Black horsemen, his story becomes an act of reclamation that stands in for the many erased lives of enslaved experts.
- Thomas J. Scott: The painter’s biography underscores an observant, principled artist whose long attachment to Lexington fuels his later critique of the skeleton’s display.
- Richard Ten Broeck: His rise-and-fall arc concludes with “Forsaken and Alone,” adding tragic irony to a career driven by ambition and ruthless calculation.
- Harry Lewis: His documented self-purchase and continued success affirm the novel’s investment in Freedom and Agency.
- Mary Barr Clay: Her leadership in suffrage translates a family history of public struggle into organized political activism.
Themes & Symbols
The chapter crystallizes the novel’s commitment to Hidden Histories and Erased Narratives. By naming Jarret as a necessary invention built from the achievements of Ansel Williamson and Edward D. Brown, the author confronts the racist mechanics of the archive, where the lives of enslaved professionals go unrecorded even as their labor builds national legends. The entry format itself becomes commentary: the well-documented lives of wealthy white men stand beside the fragmentary traces of Black horsemen, revealing how power determines who is remembered.
As a bridge between fiction and documentation, the epilogue also embodies Art, History, and Memory. Paintings, letters, and obituaries don’t just inspire the story; they become instruments of correction. The painter’s letter about Lexington’s skeleton literally revises an institutional display, linking art to forensic truth-telling and showing how narrative can restore accuracy where the record—and even museums—go wrong.
Key Quotes
“Though a groom named Jarret was painted with Lexington by Thomas J. Scott at Woodburn, I was not able to learn details of his life, so I have modeled the career of my fictional character on these two accomplished horsemen.”
This admission lays bare the novel’s method: when the archive is silent, fiction speaks on behalf of the silenced. By naming the gap and the model, the author turns Jarret’s story into an ethical project of restoration.
“Forsaken and Alone.”
The obituary phrase attached to Richard Ten Broeck punctures the glamour of his earlier success. It frames his end as moral and social isolation, underscoring the emptiness of triumph built on exploitation.
“the skeleton’s inaccurate articulation”
In criticizing the Smithsonian mount, the painter insists that how we display the past matters. The phrase becomes a symbol for the novel’s corrective mission: set the bones right so the story stands true.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
As a coda, this chapter grounds the novel’s imagination in documented reality, assuring readers that its world rests on careful research while acknowledging where records fail. The author’s direct address breaks the fourth wall to reveal process and purpose, reframing the book as an inquiry into how history is made—and unmade—in the archive.
By culminating the themes of erasure and recovery, the chapter turns Jarret’s narrative from a moving story into a statement about justice: when systems deny people their histories, storytelling can restore dignity and truth. The biographical entries deliver closure on individual fates and weave the 19th-century and contemporary timelines together, showing how art, science, and memory collaborate to correct the record and keep Lexington’s legacy—and the lives entwined with it—intact.