Heartwarming / Benjamin January

• At the end of The Shirt On His Back, January asks Abishag Shaw's permission to name January's new son after Abishag's dead brother. This is heartwarming enough—especially from a black Creole to a white American—but the implied familial affection makes it especially touching, since Shaw's kin have all died or disowned him.

• One of the final scenes in Sold Down the River, when January finally learns what happened to his father after he (January) was sold to St-Denis Janvier along with his mother and sister. Jumah, as his name was, didn't abandon them - he sneaked away from the plantation as often as he could to go and see his family. But only from a distance, since January had to learn to act like a free man, and he couldn't learn that from a father who was a slave.