After hearing her master's threat to sell his slaves "DOWN THE RIVER," Roxy is seized by a "profound terror"; "crazed with horror," she thinks first of killing her baby (and herself) to save him such a fate, then conceives her plan to switch her for her master's infant. Chapter 3 tells the story of her actions on the first night of the novel with great power, keeping the reader's focus on Roxy's love for her child and despair at her circumstances. We are a long way from the "sleepy" and "contented" town of the opening description. On the other hand, the illustrator felt the margin of the first page of Chapter 3 was a fit place to introduce the (unauthorized) image of a slave chasing a butterfly.
The Barrett Collection, UVA PS 1317 .A1 1894