The author uses Tough Questions in paragraph 4 to show — Standing by the wooden rail on a ship bound for Nova Scotia, crammed with strangers fleeing the collapse of their colonial world—women and children, whites and blacks, whose names appear in Brigadier General Samuel Birch’s Book of Negroes—you pull a long-shanked pipe from your red-tinted coat, pack the bowl with tobacco, and strike a friction match against a nail in your bootheel. You know you are fortunate to be on board. Now that the Continental Army is victorious, blacks who fought for the crown are struggling desperately to leave on His Majesty’s ships departing from New York harbor. Even as your boat eased away from the harbor, some leaped from the docks into the water, swimming toward the ship for this last chance to escape slavery. Seeing them, you’d thought, That might have been me. But it wasn’t; you’ve always been lucky that way, at taking risks. Running away from bondage. Taking on new identities. Yet you wonder what to call yourself now. A loyalist? A traitor? A man without a country? As the harbor shrinks, growing fainter in the distance, severing you forever from this strange, newly formed nation called the United States, you haven’t the slightest idea after years of war which of these names fits, or what the future holds, though on one matter you are clear:

a
how the main character made decisions about her escape
b
that the main character is content with her options
c
that the main character is still uncertain about her future
d
how the main character meticulously planned to escape