20131029 TC Lahure Carole Sylvie

Transcription

Reclaiming one’s own voice and identity
– the African American slave
narrative and its evolution
Par la ci-présente, je soussignée Carole Sylvie Lahure, déclare avoir réalisé ce
travail par mes propres moyens et sans l’aide illicite d’autrui.
Carole Sylvie Lahure
Professeur-Candidat au Lycée Josy Barthel à Mamer
Reclaiming one’s own voice and identity
– the African American slave
narrative and its evolution
Mamer, 2013
Summary
The trafficking of human beings for various purposes, such as forced labour
or prostitution, is an institution that originated centuries ago; however, it is still
of relevance today. Unfortunately, this atrocious phenomenon has not been
eradicated from the surface of the Earth and even nowadays people are traded
by others in order to increase their personal wealth and to exploit their peers.
The slave trade lies at the heart of the African American issue with slavery and
its repercussions can still be found in today’s society, with regard to race,
ethnicity, gender and the perception of self.
This dissertation will retrace the origins of the slave narratives, the first
literary attempts of African American slaves to deal with the issue at hand, and
its authors’ struggle to establish a voice and identity for themselves. In this part
of the dissertation, Olaudah Equiano’s work entitled The Interesting Narrative of
the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in
the life of a slave girl (1861) will be analysed, with regard to the retrieval of
voice and identity. In the second part the evolution of the slave narrative will be
outlined, starting with the slave fiction, which is the subsequent step from the
narratives, by looking at Frederick Douglass’ The Heroic Slave (1853), William
Wells Brown’s Clotel (1853) and Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig: Sketches from the
Life of a Free Black (1859). Following this, a closer look will be shed upon the
literary and ethical clash depicted in Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery
(1902) and W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903). Finally, Richard
Wright’s Native Son (1940) and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) will be used as
examples of how slavery still has an impact on modern novels.
These works will be viewed from different perspectives, by considering
them as products influenced by race, gender and ethnicity, as well as
connecting them to technologies of the self. This will be done in order to retrace
the evolution, which has taken place from the publication of the slave narratives
to modern works of African American fiction.
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 7
Part One ................................................................................................................................................ 13
The Slave Narratives ......................................................................................................................... 13
Olaudah Equiano ........................................................................................................................... 19
Frederick Douglass ........................................................................................................................ 33
Harriet Jacobs................................................................................................................................ 51
Part Two: The evolution of the slave narratives ................................................................................... 71
The Slave Fiction, or the first African American novels .................................................................... 71
The Heroic Slave by Frederick Douglass ........................................................................................ 75
Clotel, or, The President’s Daughter by William Wells Brown ...................................................... 87
Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E. Wilson .................................... 105
The works of the Reconstruction Era – dealing with the immediate aftermath of slavery............ 123
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington................................................................................. 127
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois................................................................................... 141
The Protest Novel and Urban Realism – depicting segregation in the city .................................... 153
Native Son by Richard Wright ..................................................................................................... 155
The late twentieth-century and the Neo-slave narrative - revisiting the plantation ..................... 181
Beloved by Toni Morrison ........................................................................................................... 183
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 207
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 211
6
Introduction
“Bit by bit … she [Sethe] had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one
thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”1
The search for an identity is an ever going process in the life of a human
being and is not only influenced by the person’s self, but also by the boundaries
and limitations set up by society, with regard to race, gender and ethnicity. The
concept of voice is clearly linked to this process as it is strongly affected by the
self. While we present an outside appearance adapted to the expectations
society requires from us, our inner self does not necessarily correspond to our
public persona. The way in which we are perceived by others, might or might
not have an impact on the creation of identity, depending on the strength of
character we possess and the circumstances in which we find ourselves. As a
consequence, an individual can be categorised according to certain rules
society established and can still be seen differently by others and him/herself.
This is particularly the case in America where “most white Americans do not
experience race or ethnicity as defining elements of their lives. They assume
that “whiteness” is normal and synonymous with “American” and that members
of other racial groups are abnormal exceptions.”2 White Americans established
themselves as a superior majority, which can decide to see others as
“exceptions”, according to this quote by Joseph T. Skerrett. How a person
reacts to this categorisation remains entirely up to himself / herself; however,
even within a race problems concerning identity and its perception can occur.
This conflict is expressed in the dilemma surrounding Booker T.
Washington’s persona and stands as the prime example of how slavery
induced the search for voice and identity in an entire race. When Washington
published his book Up From Slavery in 1902, he became well-known as a writer
and an orator, both to the black and white community. His ideas and notions
were only welcomed by certain people who believed that he was trying to help
1
Toni Morrison, Beloved (London: Vintage Random House, 1997), p.95
Joseph T. Skerrett JR., Literature, Race and Ethnicity: Contesting American Identities (Virginia: Longman,
2002), p.1
2
further the African American race, while for others he became the stereotypical
new “Uncle Tom” who adheres to the beliefs promoted by the white majority
which stated that the black minority should occupy their time by educating
themselves, rather than attempting to acquire civic rights and pursue political
goals. This dichotomy of the African American community with regard to one of
their own lies at the heart of the struggle which an entire race has gone
through, in search of a way to see themselves and how they are looked upon
by others. “Washington was an “Uncle Tom” … It is a curious notion, as the
Uncle Tom stereotype has become primarily qualified by a passive nature, if
also by an eagerness to please white people.”3 Even within a particular
community one person can be identified as belonging to a certain group, while
others see him/her differently. This perception does not only depend on the eye
of the beholder, but also on the period in time during which a person is paid
heed to. This is again exemplified by the various views that are reported on
Booker T. Washington.
But over the years passive became house nigger became spinless and
finally became sellout. In some ways it seems there is a kind of involuntary
reflex among African Americans, particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries, to brand one of our own-usually one of our famed own-as an
unforgivable sellout.4
When Washington was composing his work, he met with an opponent,
namely W.E.B. Du Bois, who attacked him for his work and thought he was
deficient in his writing regarding the needs of the black community. Both
authors will be looked at in greater detail during this work as they highlight the
issues revolving around the search of identity and voice. The source of this
issue can be retraced to the roots of slavery. “The struggle of the Native
peoples and the African slaves for human equality within the societies of
colonial America is thus the first story of contested American identity.”5
3
Rebecca Carroll, ed. Uncle Tom or New Negro? African Americans reflect on Booker T. Washington and Up
From Slavery 100 Years Later (New York: Harlem Moon, 2006), p.3
4
Carroll, p.3
5
Skerett JR, p.2
8
The African American slaves, who found themselves trapped in a system
which deprived them of the means to take decisions about their freedom,
personal life and future, suffered from a cultural trauma, as they were subdued
by others and consequently, they needed to restore themselves as an entire
race and as individuals. “From the perspective of the twenty-first century, we
can see that racial difference was – and remains – a social construction, an
idea manipulated by various forces and institutions to maintain the hierarchy
established by conquest, enslavement, and colonization.”6 In order to
understand why people like Washington and Du Bois criticised one another in
their writings and in how far African Americans were influenced by slavery in
their search for voice and identity, a closer look at this institution, which lies at
the source of these issues, will be taken.
The slave trade of Africans that raged and thrived around the globe for
centuries was identified as an incredibly lucrative business by its supporters at
the time; while today we have realised without a doubt that it was and still is a
despicable venture that resulted in the shameful degrading and exploitation of
others. Through the act of buying human beings and using them for their
personal advantage the masters themselves lost a part of their humanity,
therefore altering both parties’ lives. Consequently, the African American slave
trade was not only the cause of the deterioration of the slaves’ condition but
also brought about a change in the state of mind and moral behaviour on the
masters’ side. In order to uphold their power and property, they had to demean
the slaves and perceive them as lesser beings, by putting them on the same
level as cattle and by treating them as an emotionless asset that could be used
in whichever way the master saw fit.
By the late 1600s, however, hereditary slavery had become the rule and
African Americans were degraded to the status of property. Some owners
treated their slaves better than others, but all had ultimate power over what was
theirs. For black people, slavery meant hard work, poor living conditions and
humiliation.7
6
7
Skerett JR, p.5
David Mauk and John Oakland, eds. American Civilization: An introduction (New York: Routledge, 2009), p.94
9
As a result, the masters nudged society in the direction of extreme
prejudice towards slaves and imposed fear upon those who were subjugated.
These beliefs were anchored within society and firmly established through laws
that ensured that the masters were legally sanctioned in their doings and could
not be punished for their merciless behaviour towards their “subjects”. Their
supremacy was furthermore enforced by additional rules and regulations later
on, such as the new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, “which put the matter of
retrieving runaways wholly under federal jurisdiction and stacked the cards in
favour of slave-catchers.”8 This law made sure that runaway slaves could even
be recovered from states that did not believe nor support slavery within their
jurisdiction or their geographical boundaries. In addition, the legislation ensured
that the racial discrimination concocted and established by the masters would
be passed onto future generations. “The law offered a strong temptation to
kidnap free blacks by denying alleged fugitives a jury trial and by providing a
fee of $10 for each fugitive delivered to federal authorities. In addition, federal
marshals could require citizens to help in its enforcement …”9
One quintessential repercussion of slavery that permitted to open society’s
eyes to this heinous business and to force a change was the production and
the publication of slave narratives. As the history books of the time ignored and
left out events and the facts attached to them, such as the horrible lives of the
slaves and the despicable conduct of the masters, these narratives were
means to an end, namely to abolish slavery and to bring about a remodelling of
society. “The slave narrative is a key artefact in the global campaign to end first
the slave trade (the practice of transporting slaves across international waters),
then colonial slavery (in British Caribbean colonies like Jamaica), and finally US
slavery.”10 The concepts of voice and identity, in connection to the slave
narratives, surface and are closely linked to them.
8
George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi, eds. America: a narrative history (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000),
p.517-518
9
Tindall and Shi, p.518
10
Audrey Fisch, ed. The Cambridge Companion to The African American Slave Narrative (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007), p.2
10
As a concept, identity can be defined as the search for self and its
relationship to social contexts and realities. The problems of biological,
psychological, cultural, and social self-definition have been treated in various
forms of African American literature. … Themes of self-awareness and selfdefinition appear in the first conscious form of African American literature – the
slave narrative.11
In the first part of my dissertation, following the study of Oldaudah
Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)
Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American
Slave (1845) and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the life of a slave girl (1861) will
be examined, as they were capable of freeing themselves from their mental and
physical bonds by voicing their personal experiences in connection to slavery.
The opportunity that they gained by leaving their illiteracy and their former
struggles behind, gave them the means to explore their environment and
themselves as individuals and provided them with a voice and the possibility to
create a personal identity and consequently to become a part of society and to
flee slavery. Their ultimate goals are their physical and mental freedom and this
is expressed in these narratives. However, they do not go into many details,
concerning their own individuality and their personal self, as they are occupied
with the depiction of their life stories and the opening of their audience’s eyes to
the atrocities of slavery.
The slave narratives cleared the path for a new literary genre to emerge,
the slave fiction. After being offered the chance to publish their own stories, the
former slaves were eager to show their creativity and their potential. These
works highlight the fact that the authors are trying to voice their ideas and to
find an identity for their fictional characters. In the second part of my
dissertation, which will concern itself with the evolution of the slave narratives in
African American literature, I will investigate three works of slave fiction, namely
Frederick Douglass’ The Heroic Slave (1853), William Wells Brown’s Clotel
(1853) and Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig (1859) and I will concentrate on the
topics of voice and identity yet again.
11
William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris, eds. The Oxford Companion to African American
Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) p.379
11
The search for identity, as an aftermath of slavery, is a common topic to be
found in the African American works that will be considered in the second part
of my dissertation. After dealing with the slave fiction, particular attention will be
paid to Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery (1902) and W.E.B Du Bois’
The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and their dichotomy as mentioned before.
These works attempt to find a voice and an identity for an entire race, by
following different paths and by ending up in conflicting situations. The myth of
the American “melting pot” might be questioned at this precise point. Neil
Campbell and Alasdair Kean highlight this issue of identity by pointing out that
“Traditionally, in America, male, white heterosexual stories and versions of
history have emerged as prominent and have therefore formed what we might
term the dominant regime of representation or dominant ideological culture.
These have tended to define American ‘national identity’.”12 So, how can
several different races with disparate origins and traditions grow together as
one nation, especially if one was subjugated by the other for centuries? And in
how far can these blend together as one nation? The problematic nature of this
issue is highlighted in the works that I will consider in the second part of my
dissertation by paying particular attention to Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940)
and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), in which the authors are trying to either
point out the horrible repercussions of slavery or attempt to overcome them and
by doing so to incorporate their own voice within their writing.
12
Neil Campbell and Alasdair Kean, eds. American Cultural Studies: An introduction to American culture (New
York: Routledge, 2012), p.26
12
Part One
The Slave Narratives
The reason why slave narratives actually saw the light of day was mainly
due to the fact that slavery found its way into society as means of acquiring
cheap labour and wealth for the white majority in power and even managed to
find a legal grounding in it, through laws that were established in favour of it. As
Michael Foucault puts it, the government reigning at the time (in this case
during slavery) needed a racist discourse for its own apparent survival.
At this point, we have all those biological-racist discourses of degeneracy,
but also all those institutions within the social body which make the discourse of
race struggle function as a principle of exclusion and segregation and,
ultimately, as a way of normalizing society. … It is no longer: “We have to
defend ourselves against society,” but “We have to defend society against all
the biological threats posed by the other race, the subrace, the counterrace that
we are, despite ourselves, bringing into existence.” At this point, the racist
thematic is no longer a moment in the struggle between one social group and
another; it will promote the global strategy of social conservatisms. At this point
– and this is s paradox, given the goals and the first form of the discourse I
have been talking about - we see the appearance of a State racism: a racism
that society will direct against itself, against its own elements and its own
products.13
Owing to the fact that this discourse became predominant in society and
that the white majority in power was able to use it for its own benefit, slavery
could establish itself legally and at the same time corrupt the moral views of its
citizens. In his work, Foucault illustrates to his readers how power works
through discourses and in how far they shape our reality. He is also a pessimist
thinker, as he believes that the individual is trapped in these power systems
and even if someone is able to free him/herself of these bonds, he/she will
immediately end up in the next power discourse.
13
Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended (London: Penguin Books, 2003), p.61-62
While his theory might explain how the concept of slavery was capable of
negatively influencing and morally leading entire societies astray, he does not
mention to what extent individuals have managed to escape the power
discourse which held them captive. In this precise case, the slave narratives
were a major aid in the struggle to abolish slavery and to start their exit from the
racist power system in place, even if racist beliefs and thoughts are still
anchored in society at this point in time and the power discourse has not been
completely suppressed.
If someone is forcefully taken away from one’s accustomed environment
and thrown into an alien surrounding, it is essential for a person’s survival to
adapt and reclaim a personal identity. Consequently, slaves, who had to leave
their persona behind, in order to fit their masters’ requirements, struggled to
find their place in the world and had to fight for their rights and their freedom as
individuals. However, identity is not the only major concept that is linked to the
slave narratives, as voice also plays a crucial role. Clearly, a voice in this
context does not only relate to one’s ability to speak, but also to the opportunity
and the way of expressing one’s own opinion or attitude. In order for this to
happen, however, one has to be allowed to articulate one’s thoughts openly,
which was not a given circumstance for the slaves in this particular era.
… speech in American culture is clearly perceived to be one of the
definitive markers of race, culture, education, and civilization. It also serves to
mark character, place, class, substance, and value. Standard English was
looked upon as the purview of white American speakers, and blacks who
attempted to master English were viewed as interlopers, usually humorous
interlopers. The breeding, education, and culture that were to separate white
Americans from those whom they enslaved were among the sites, therefore, on
which language served as warrior. Standard English meant good breeding and
class, which in turn meant whiteness; dialect meant second-class citizenship
and the place of subservience designated for black people.14
Without the right linguistic skills that the slaves were deprived of from the
start, due to a lack of education, it was incredibly hard for them to be heard. If
someone is speechless, without words, they cannot voice themselves and this
is precisely the case for the first generation of African American slaves, who
were dragged from their native lands, deported by ship and forced into manual
14
Andrews, Foster, Harris, p.688
14
labour without being able to convey their indignation and pain in a foreign
language. They ended up in unknown territory, often separated from their
countrymen, in a situation in which they were unable to communicate. Of
course this inability induced the masters to create and reinforce the prejudice of
the “dumb slave”, who needed guidance to live and who was unable to earn a
living for him or herself. Naturally, the prejudice against race also played into
the masters’ hands. “Since at least the early nineteenth century, race had
served as a cornerstone for slavery’s defenders, who argued that people of
African descent were intellectually and morally inferior to Europeans and EuroAmericans and were, therefore, fit only for slavery.” 15
In the same way as this first generation of African slaves was speechless, it
was also stripped of its identity and all the elements that flow into it. The slaves
were deprived of it and of all the characteristics that determine it, such as for
example their social background and their familiar environment, as soon as
they were loaded and bunked into the ships that took them away from their
home. Their names were taken from them, as well as their traditions and
everything that linked them to their origins. Precisely this situation is depicted in
Olaudah Equiano’s work entitled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano (1789). The following generations of African American slaves
had to deal with different issues as their situation had evolved in comparison
with their predecessors, even though their basic living conditions had not
improved. These slaves were in fact still degraded to the status of cattle and as
such they were sold and bought, used for their labour and were only given an
absolute minimum of resources to live on. However, in addition, a multitude of
these “new” slaves had been conceived through the violent and rapist relations
between the master and his female slave.
15
Fisch, p.29
15
Narrators also commonly pointed out one of the uglier possibilities created
when slaveholders fathered slave children. These were children, in J.W.C.
Pennington’s words, “held at such a price, even to their own father, that they
could be sold to any interested party.” This could even entail, as in a case
Pennington described, the selling of one’s own daughters into prostitution.
Such stories stressed slavery’s power to corrupt everyone it touched, including
slaveholders.16
The law that dictated that the children of a female slave automatically
inherited the mother’s blood and social status enabled the master to simply
increase his property and wealth. These slaves, born and bred in the United
States, understood the language spoken around them and could not remember
their roots as they were not physically ripped from their native country.
Nonetheless, their situation with regard to voice and identity had not changed,
as they were forbidden to learn to read and write and therefore they were not
really able to publically express their thoughts and emotions. “Slaveholder
opposition to slave literacy was well known; several Southern states even made
it a crime for slaves to learn to read and write.”17 By implementing this law
which left the slaves uneducated and ignorant, the masters were able to
oppress them further and keep them in a state of illiteracy, thus enforcing the
prejudice of the slaves’ lack of intelligence.
The composition of the slave narratives which emerged during the 1770s
and 1780s18 did not only take a huge amount of courage, but other factors were
also relevant to make them see the light of day. First of all, these slave
narratives had to be supported by a mentor to gain a certain credibility and to
be accepted by the public. “Most of the narratives included introductions and
other testimony from established abolitionist leaders – often white, but
sometimes African American – stressing their authors’ accomplishments and
ability.”19 Clearly, the ability to express oneself, even the faculty of reading and
writing were not the only necessary elements for its creation. After its
publication, one also needs an actual writer to complete this project. Even
though someone can dictate his/her autobiography to someone else, in order
for it to be written down, it goes without saying that it would be beneficial for
16
Fisch, p.33
Fisch, p.31
18
Fisch, p.11
19
Fisch, p.30
17
16
both parties and the reader if the author could be able to double-check and
proof-read what had been composed in his or her name.
The slave narratives gave its authors the possibility to express their
thoughts and emotions, to uncover the atrocities of slavery and to reveal them
to his/her readers. Furthermore, “… [Abolitionists] saw the narratives as a
powerful means for asserting an African American voice into American public
life.”20 However, before this literary genre was able to stand up for itself, as one
of the ground-breaking tools for the abolition of the afore-mentioned
phenomenon, a great amount of work, sweat and tears went into it. While most
slaves were illiterate and unable to voice themselves, a few lucky ones were
given the opportunity or rather took their chance to educate themselves or to
receive lessons from those willing to offer them. These were usually those
authors who had the possibility to see their life story published, even though
this often had to be done under a pseudonym, as in the case of Harriet Jacobs’
work, out of fear of retributions handed out by the authorities, the masters and
their henchmen. Anonymity guaranteed the prosecuted and their families a
certain level of protection from the cruelties that vengeful masters could devise
and employ. Nevertheless, there were other examples such as Frederick
Douglass, who could publically denounce society’s wrongdoings and who was
even provided with the possibility to hold conferences in order to share his
experiences and to enlighten his audience. This was of course only possible if
the slave had been freed, either by buying himself/herself out from under
his/her master’s grasp or through the goodwill of his/her master, who decided to
allow his slave to spend the remaining of his/her life in freedom.
None of the fugitive slaves who wrote a narrative was ever simply given his
or her freedom, and a key element in every narrative was a story of freedom
valued and achieved despite the most intense opposition and despite the most
formidable barriers. … No less significantly, the ex-slaves also emphasized
their willingness to take risks for freedom.21
20
21
Fisch, p.35
Fisch, p.40
17
The social status of the former slave (freed or not) does not matter,
however, as far as its legitimacy in the eyes of society is concerned. Even
though the slave narrative might reveal its author’s voice and depict his/her
struggle for identity, they all have one major aspect in common: the texts had to
be authenticated by at least one white witness, who could testify to the author’s
truthfulness and reliability. At the same time this testifier could declare that the
piece of work that the reader held in his/her hand was composed in order to
depict the author’s real life experience and his/her intentions. Consequently,
the slave narratives might have been a first step towards a certain literary
independence for African American literature, but it was still entrapped by the
social confines established at the time.
18
Olaudah Equiano
[…] that I might be in that place
Where slaves are free, and men oppress no more.
Fool that I was, inur’d so long to pain,
To trust to hope, or dream of joy again.22
Equiano’s narrative “… is widely regarded as the prototype of the slave
narrative, a form of autobiography that in the early nineteenth century gained a
wide international readership because of its compelling first-hand testimony
against slavery.”23 Clearly, his piece of work was a major influence on other
freed slaves who followed in his footsteps and it had a huge impact on their
fight for freedom. While Equiano was not the first former slave to depict the
struggles of his life, “… he was the first to write the story of his life himself,
without the aid or direction of white ghostwriters or editors, such as his
predecessors in the slave narrative relied on.”24 Nonetheless, certain problems
have arisen with regard to the authenticity of his story. “Recent biographical
discoveries have cast doubt on Equiano’s story of his birth and early years. The
available evidence suggests that the author of the Interesting Narrative may
have invented rather than reclaimed an African identity.” 25 However, not all
researchers tend to agree with these newly uncovered facts. “In the absence of
scholarly consensus on these controversial matters, readers of Equiano’s
autobiography recognize, nevertheless, the crucial rhetorical function that
Equiano’s rendition of his early boyhood and enslavement has in establishing
his moral authority.”26
22
Shelley Eversley, ed. The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano – or, Gustav Vassa, the African
(New York: The Modern Library Edition, 2004), p.86
23
Henry Louis Gates JR and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (New
York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), p.187
24
Gates JR and McKay, p.187
25
Fisch, p.46
26
As mentioned scholars worldwide are unable to agree on the question of
the authenticity of Equiano’s work and the complexity of this issue can be
pinpointed in Audrey Fisch’s edition of The Cambridge Companion to the
African American Slave Narrative for example, in which two different authors
disagree on the question.27
Consequently, Equiano might have presented us with the actual truth in his
narrative or he might have been influenced by the accounts of other slaves
whom he met while he was travelling around the globe.28 As long as we cannot
be absolutely certain that Equiano, as the narrator, in fact used his literary
freedom and/or the first-hand accounts or testimonies of his peers, we will
adhere to the following thesis: “Every autobiography is an act of re-creation,
and autobiographies are not under oath when they are reconstructing their
lives.”29 Especially, as this controversy has not been solved yet and the literary
world has not been able to agree upon a common ground, Equiano’s work shall
be analysed as a matter of fact in this dissertation, therefore using the author’s
words at face value. Even if Equiano created or invented an identity for himself,
with the help of his peers’ experiences, he used it for a literary purpose, namely
to highlight the atrocities of slavery to a mainly male white abolitionist audience,
who would have the power to change the current state of affairs.
In order to be able to reclaim one’s own voice, an individual first of all has
to lose it by some means. This is exactly what happens in Equiano’s case; he is
rendered speechless through circumstances which he can neither control nor
influence. In fact, political issues are at the heart of his sufferings and the
crucial changes that occur in his life: he (as well as one of his sisters) is
kidnapped by a neighbouring tribe, which is at war with their own and both of
them are sold into slavery, as valuable possession, due to the fact that they
were the children of the clan’s chief. In a first instance, he is not completely
helpless because he can communicate with his new master and the
27
Vincent Carretta shares the recent opinion that Equiano’s origins are not to be found in Africa but can rather
be traced back to the United States or to the United Kingdom [Fisch, p.46], while Robert F. Rheid-Pharr
believes that Equiano was born and breed, until the age of eleven, at which point he was kidnapped and sold
into slavery, in West Africa [Fisch, p.138].
28
Fisch, p.47
29
Fisch, p.46
20
environment into which he is submerged, as their language is not completely
different from his mother tongue. Consequently, he is even capable of further
educating himself at the beginning of his captivity.
From the time I left my own nation I always found somebody that
understood me till I came to the sea coast. The languages of different nations
did not totally differ, nor were they so copious as those of the Europeans,
particularly the English. They were therefore easily learned; and, while I was
journeying thus through Africa, I acquired two or three different tongues.30
While he does not embrace his new condition in life, as he is not free to do
what he wants, he is not ill-treated by his new “family”. Unfortunately, fate
decides to change his situation yet again and after a few more sales, he ends
up with a widow and a son, who regard him as one of their own. Again there
are no significant issues with voice, as “the language of these people
resembled ours so nearly, that we understood each other perfectly.”31
Alas, Equiano is not destined to remain in this situation, as yet again he is
abducted; however, this time he is made speechless and ends up without a
voice. He is taken on board a slave ship and he is surrounded by foreigners
who do not care about him as a human being and therefore are not interested
in understanding what he has to say. He loses total control over his life as he is
unable to express his own desires or even his needs. As a matter of fact, he
has been deprived of everything that is essential to an individual: his family, his
home, his freedom and finally his voice. This is made clear by the first
statement which he gives about his impressions aboard the slave ship.
… I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits, and that
they were going to kill me. Their complexions too differing so much from ours,
their long hair, and the language they spoke, which was very different from any
I had ever heard, united to confirm me in this belief.32
30
Eversley, p.29
Eversely, p.31
32
Eversley, p.34
31
21
Unable to grasp the events that are taking place around him, mainly due to
the fact that he cannot understand the language spoken, young Equiano copes
with the situation in his personal manner, by identifying his handlers as “bad
spirits”. This is the typical reaction of a child who cannot handle the new events,
but rather demonizes the people whom he perceives as the evil ones.
While he gradually throws off his fearful views and beliefs as times passes
and he becomes more and more accustomed to his altered environment, he
still feels lonely and misplaced, as he cannot utter his thoughts to other people
aboard ship. “I had been some time in this miserable, forlorn and much
dejected state, without having any one to talk to, which made my life a
burden.”33
Fortunately, his intellect makes him realise that he has to learn English in
order to communicate and so he launches himself into that project. After a while
he can “… smatter a little imperfect English”34. Soon afterwards the reader is
also made aware of the fact that Equiano has a thirst for knowledge, which he
wants or is even under a personal obligation to satisfy. He becomes conscious
of the connection between his need to learn the foreign language and his ability
to express himself. His first encounter with books therefore turns into a crucial
event and for informed readers quite a comical one.
… I had great curiosity to talk to the books, as I thought they [his master
and his friend] did; and so to learn how all things had a beginning: for that
purpose I have often taken up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my
ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very
much concerned when I found it remained silent.35
While this example has a hilarious component, it also highlights the desire
and necessity that drives Equiano to educate himself in order to find a place in
this new world and to ultimately break the bonds that are attached to him. After
having spent three or four years in the United Kingdom, he has achieved his
first goal as he states that “I could now speak English tolerably well, and I
33
Eversley, p.44
Eversley, p.46
35
Eversley, p.50-51
34
22
perfectly understood every thing that was said.”36 Consequently, an initial step
towards reclaiming his own voice has been completed. Nevertheless, Equiano
also identifies the need to express his thoughts further, therefore he
immediately plans his next manoeuvre. “I had long wished to be able to read
and write; and for this purpose I took every opportunity to gain instruction, but
had made as yet very little progress.”37 Equiano has developed himself further
and has turned into an eager adolescent at this moment, who wants to continue
with his studies.
With the help of the newly-acquired language, he was in a position to make
new friends in London (and in other parts of the world) and with their support he
takes great steps mastering the language. “They [the Miss Guerins] often used
to teach me to read.”38 He continues to struggle and strive in his efforts, even
after leaving his friends behind and working on board a ship again. His thirst
has not been satisfied yet “… for I always had a great desire to be able at least
to read and write; and while I was on ship-board I had endeavoured to improve
myself in both.”39
Once more, he attracts the attention of people who are willing to help him in
his quest for knowledge. Nevertheless, he is held up in his goal to gain his
freedom, because he is sold again, even though he was promised to be freed
in exchange for his service. His voice is a hindrance to his new master and of
no benefit to him, as he is capable of explaining the reasons why he should not,
or even could not, be purchased by another man and he can even defend his
view. At this point, his latest owner realises that he might have to employ
drastic measures to break his new slave in.
Upon this Captain Doran said I talked too much English; and if I did not
behave myself well, and be quiet, he had a method on board to make me. I was
too well convinced of his power over me to doubt what he said: and my former
sufferings in the slave-ship presenting themselves to my mind, the recollection
of them made me shudder.40
36
Eversley, p.62
Eversley, p.62
38
Eversley, p.64
39
Eversley, p.79
40
Eversley, p.82
37
23
The threats that are given by the Captain ensure that Equiano will hold his
tongue for the time being and he will not utter his intentions. As he cannot
freely state his reflections on slavery, he writes them down, for a later use. He
elaborates upon the masters and their relationship to their slaves, the cruelty of
the masters’ behaviour, as well as the few exceptions to the rule. He does not
only address this savagery but also reflects on it, pinpoints its defects and
offers solutions. Clearly, this is done to benefit his white male audience, in the
hope of having them change the slaves’ current deplorable state.
When you [the planters] make men slaves, you deprive them of half their
virtue, you set them, in your own conduct, an example of fraud, rapine, and
cruelty, and compel them to live with you in a state of war; and yet you
complain that they are not honest or faithful! You stupefy them with stripes, and
think it necessary to keep them in a state of ignorance, and yet you assert that
they are incapable of learning; that their minds are such a barren soil or moor,
that culture would be lost on them; … But, by changing your conduct, and
treating your slaves as men, every cause of fear would be banished. They
would be faithful, honest, intelligent, and vigorous; and peace, prosperity, and
happiness would attend you.41
Equiano’s reflections about slavery highlight the fact that he has gradually
found his voice and his position in society, as lowly as it might seem at the
start. He has identified the problem of the current situation and he is trying to
find a way out of it. “By claiming personal experience and observation, Equiano
becomes an expert on the institution of slavery as well as on the effects of the
African slave trade.”42 His ability to adapt himself, to learn languages even in a
hostile environment, and to read and write, clearly calls attention to his need to
reclaim his voice, after being deprived of one. After working for years and
saving the small earnings he acquired by buying and selling various products,
Equiano is finally able to purchase his freedom and receives his manumission,
the papers that declare that he is a freeman.43 One could believe that Equiano
will stop his struggle now, as he has finally reached his goal, in other words his
independence; however, he still has the desire to voice himself publically and
he might already be playing with the thought of publishing his narrative.
41
Eversley, p.104-105
Fisch, p.50
43
Eversley, p.136
42
24
Consequently, he continues with the story of his life and he also tells us how
language revealed itself to be his saviour in an unfortunate situation.
[two men want to kidnap him to sell him as a slave] … but I told them to be
still and keep off, for I had seen those kind of tricks played upon other free
blacks, and they must not think to serve me so. At this they paused a little, and
one said to the other – it will not do, and the other answered that I talked too
good English. I replied, I believed I did … after we talked together a little in this
manner, the rogues left me.44
In order to be able to work as something different than a manservant, be it
on land or on sea, Equiano decides to learn hairdressing to become his own
master, even in business matters. Nevertheless, the sea calls him again and so
he returns and learns how to navigate a ship. In his career, he also turns into a
teacher for a short while, during which he tutors four Indians in English.
… during which they [the Indians] learned to speak pretty good English. … I
taught him [one of the Indians] in the compass of eleven days all the letters,
and he could put even two or three of them together, and spell them.45
Unfortunately, he is captured yet again; however, he is saved and freed by
a friend. Finally, he tells us that he was employed by the British Navy, but this
project finds a grievous ending, as he is unfairly treated and not paid his fair
share. Ultimately, Equiano decides to spend the remainder of his life on fighting
for the abolition of slavery, in particular the British rule over slaves in the West
Indies, but also the rest of the world. He writes appeals to governments and the
Queen and travels around to see his novel published and his story spread to
reach others so that they might follow his example. By achieving all of these
exploits and by attempting to change the society he lives in, Equiano was able
to reclaim his own voice, which had been unrightfully stolen from him. Lost in
an alien environment, speechless and without an identity, he managed to
struggle and retrieve the most basic human rights that had been denied to him.
Obviously, Equiano did not only have to reclaim his voice, but also his identity,
in order to become an individual worthy of fighting for his peers’ rights. “He
44
45
Eversley, p.161
Eversley, p.214
25
gave a voice to the millions of people forcibly taken from Africa and brought to
the Americas as slaves.”46
Equiano’s search for identity can be discerned as a life-long process,
starting with his birth and childhood in Africa and his subsequent life in slavery
in a multitude of countries scattered around the world. In this particular case,
with its special conditions, it is clear that “… identity is a constantly shifting
territory”47. Identity is not only linked to race and ethnic origins, but also to a
person’s social status. Another factor that comes into play with regard to
identity is the process of naming. A name is given to a child by his/her parents
in order to highlight his/her individuality. The act of giving a name in itself is
crucial, as it will become a permanent part of a child’s life. Parents often go
through a difficult process of deliberation before being able to choose. It is part
of the child’s identity and will remain with him/her for the rest of his/her life,
except if it is his/her wish to change it and thus recreate himself/herself with its
help.
While names play an important role throughout the world, they hold an
even more special position in the sphere of African beliefs. “The power of a
name is so strong in much of Africa and the diaspora that often people kept a
secret name so that an enemy could not use it for evil intent.”48 As the quote
highlights, the importance of a name is crucial enough that one can be tempted
to hide it from others to undermine their possible attempts at casting a spell on
them. The appellation of a person is consequently not only a way of ensuring
one’s uniqueness, but it can also be used for evil or good as well. Without a
personal denomination, a human being certainly loses part of his/her
distinctiveness. Unfortunately, even this right to individuality was taken away
from the slaves, as they were given new names by their masters, therefore
branding them as their own. By imposing a new name on them, the masters
ensured that their slaves had to give up part of who they were, are or will be.
The slaves’ appellation is not their own, they are not shaped but just labelled by
46
Fisch, p.47
Campbell and Kean, p.39
48
David L. Middleton, ed. Toni Morrison’s Fiction: Contemporary Criticism (New York: Garland Pub., 1997),
p.120
47
26
them. “The reclamation of true identity has been crucial to black people who in
slavery were named by others.”49 Most slaves who obtain their freedom,
ultimately find their own identity by personalizing their name or reclaiming the
one that was given to them by their parents. “By (re)naming themselves at their
emancipation, the black slave ‘unnamed’ ‘the immediate [imposed] past’, to
symbolize ‘the long-unacknowledged nascent selfhood that had survived and
transcended slavery.”50
This is also Equiano’s case, who has to surrender his name for a great part
of his life, before being able to reclaim it as his own and for it to become part of
his identity again and thus retrieving part of his old life and establishing his right
to have an own life and individuality. As a child Equiano holds a privileged
position in the society he was born into, which is also highlighted by the choice
of name that he received at his birth.
Like them [the Jews] also our children were named from some event, some
circumstance, or fancied foreboding, at the time of their birth. I was named
Olaudah, which, in our language, signifies vicissitude, or fortunate also; one
favoured, and having a loud voice, and well spoken.51
If the choice of Equiano’s name was in fact as “foreboding”, one has to
admit that while he is fortunate in the end, he has to undergo a variety of trials,
before achieving his ultimate goal, namely freedom. As a matter of fact,
Equiano is able to highlight on several occasions that he possesses “a loud
voice” and that he is “well spoken”. His linguistic talents are clearly a tool that
he required to reclaim his voice, as shown before. Hence, his parents’ choice of
name fits his personality favourably; however, as a slave he is quickly forced to
surrender it in exchange for one that his master singled out for him.
49
Linden Peach, Toni Morrison (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press LTD, 2000), p.72
Henry Louis Gates JR, ed. Black Literature and Literary Theory (New York: Methuen, 1984), p.17
51
Eversley, p.16
50
27
Equiano undergoes several name changes and at first he seems to take it
light-heartedly. “In this place I was called Jacob; but on board the African scow
I was called Michael.”52 The reader realises that Equiano’s attitude only
appears carefree, because he does not completely comprehend the situation
he finds himself in, as he is unable to understand the language spoken around
him. These circumstances change as soon as he starts to grasp what is going
on around him.
When I was on board this ship my captain and master named me Gustavus
Vasa. I at that time began to understand him a little, and refused to be called
so, and told him as well as I could that I would be called Jacob; but he said I
should not, and still called me Gustavus: and when I refused to answer to my
new name, which at first I did, it gained me many a cuff; so at length I
submitted, and by which name I have been known ever since. 53
Ultimately, Equiano has to give in and accept his slave name, as he does
not have any other choice. He is forced by his new master to respond to the
appellation that was given to him to preserve his physical state. While reflecting
on Equiano’s new name, the reader becomes aware of the irony that surrounds
it. “Slaves were often given ironically inappropriate names of powerful historical
figures like Caesar and Pompey to emphasize their subjugation to their
masters’ wills. Gustavus Vasa (sic) was a sixteenth-century Swede who
liberated his people from Danish tyranny.”54 Paradoxically, the masters chose
titles for their slaves, which incorporate a certain level of power. One might
certainly wonder if those who have control over others do not manage to reflect
enough about their choice to realise that the names that they give might incite a
rebellion. Not only do they forcefully take away a part of the slaves’ initial
identity but they also seem to ridicule them by leaning their names on
characters, who fought for their rights and their freedom.
52
Eversley, p.45
Eversley, p.46
54
Fisch, p.44
53
28
As his title indicates, Equiano was well aware of the erasure of identity and
individuality that the slave system was designed to accomplish in its subjects:
by naming himself twice – Equiano and Vassa – he highlighted the doubleness
of the slave’s existence as both self and property, a property named by the
master. It is also worth noting that Equiano designated himself ‘an African’ in
the title of his narrative and omitted the word ‘slave’.55
By accepting both his given and slave names and blending them together,
Equiano manages to reclaim an own identity for himself and thus unifies his
African heritage, the period that he had to undergo as a slave and his future as
a so-called British gentleman author and publisher, who does everything in his
power to help the abolitionist case. His efforts and his struggle were means to
this end and by reclaiming his voice and identity he was able to compose a
piece of art that was able to awaken thousands of people around the globe to
the atrocities of slavery. “Like the authors of captivity narratives, and unlike later
slave narrators, Equiano experiences slavery, he tells us, between periods of
freedom. The story of his life begins and ends in freedom.”56
At the heart of the slave narratives lies the common mytheme of the brave
slave who manages to claim a voice and identity and supports his/her entire
race by revealing the atrocities of slavery and becomes the role model for
others. This is precisely the case for Equiano and his work. The depiction of his
struggles for freedom and the persona which he creates during this process as
a slave, who spends his entire life fighting against an institution that bereft him
of a “normal” life57, has been retraced in detail. Now a more critical look will be
taken at how Equiano relates the events which turned him into the first
stereotypical African American slave who decided to attempt to escape this
discourse of oppression and to open the path of freedom for others.
Throughout his narrative, the reader is aware of the fact that Equiano is not
writing for the educational benefit of black slaves, neither male nor female as
such, because he knows that they will not be able to read his work as the great
majority of them is illiterate. If the reader knows this, then it goes without a
55
Helena Grice, Candida Hepworth, Maria Lauret and Martin Padget, eds. Beginning Ethnic American
Literatures (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), p.67
56
Fisch, p.49
57
amongst his African clan if one believes the thesis that he was born there
29
doubt that the author himself is conscious that what he decides to reveal is
completely up to him and that he can silence those he wants and offer a voice
to others. His dealings with other slaves are reduced in his narrative, he mostly
interacts with white people and this is highlighted through the way he writes
and speaks. He is aware of what is expected of him and knows how to interact
with his readers. It is clear that he addresses a male white audience to awaken
them and force them to take a stand and to get them to ultimately abolish
slavery. He is not interested in writing an exemplary tale for his own community,
but he clearly desires to attract those in power, which is underlined by his style
of writing, the way he addresses his audience and the many famous names he
mentions, people who will willingly stand in to vouch for his sincerity.
Unfortunately, Equiano himself, as a person, does not shine through this
narrative. He stands in for his community, he metamorphoses into the role
model, but the reader does not get to know the author as a person.
Rather, Afro-American autobiographies present the experience of the
individual “as reflecting a much more im-personal condition, the
autobiographical subject emerging as an almost random member of the group,
selected to tell his/her tale”. Accordingly, he [Selwyn R.Cudjoe] views AfroAmerican autobiography as “a public rather than a private gesture, me-ism
gives way to our-ism and superficial concerns about individual subject usually
give way to the collective subjection of the group.58
One might now argue that he had to stand in for an entire race and
therefore could not personalise his narrative to the extent of revealing his “true”
identity and voice and could not bring in as many details about his feelings, his
thoughts and beliefs as would have been possible if he wrote an autobiography
as a person and not as an ex-slave. However, one still has to realise that he did
not take his entire community into consideration, but rather restricted himself.
From a stereotypically gender biased point of view it is obvious that he does not
appeal to female audiences, coloured or not, through his narrative, as he does
neither include a domestic sphere nor a female voice depicting their specific
sufferings within his account. He does not describe the sufferings specific to
female slaves, nor the impact that the masters’ relations with their female
58
Henry Louis Gates JR, Reading black, reading feminist: a critical anthology (New York: Penguin Books LTD.,
1990), p.184
30
subjects, has onto the black slave community. “Slavery stripped black men of
the social attributes of manhood in general and fatherhood in particular.” 59 He
does not address these issues of the missing family unit and all the
repercussions of this phenomenon on the lives of the salves at all, which are
central to slavery. He rather boasts about his adventures on sea and his
dealings with male officials and does not reveal any details about his private life
as a heterosexual man. “The male slave narrator was under no compulsion to
discuss his own sexuality nor that of other men.”60 As such, the reader is
scarcely given any particulars about women in his life and the romantic or
imposed relationships that he might have had with them or how women fared in
this discourse of slavery. His marriage to a Miss Cullen is summarised within a
sentence in the last chapter on the very last page of his narrative, in which he
does not even mention his wife’s first name, thus depreciating her value as a
person and effectively silencing her, as she is not given any opportunity to
voice herself.61 These omissions leave the reader with a bitter aftertaste as
Equiano does not seem to see the importance of including the female voice.
His style of writing is evidently directed towards white men, because they have
in the author’s belief, the power to alter his peers’ situation. Unfortunately,
Equiano was unable to see the fulfilment of his dream, as he died before
slavery was officially and legally put to an end.
He gave the abolitionist cause the African voice it needed. The very act of
writing a story of his life was an act of resistance to those who denied the full
humanity of people of African descent. The role he played in the last mission of
his life earned him the right to claim an African name that “signifies vicissitude,
or fortunate also; one favoured, and having a loud voice and well spoken.” That
role also entitled him to accept the name of a European liberator of his people
ironically given him in slavery. He had made himself a true “citizen of the
world.”62
59
Gates JR, Reading black, reading feminist: a critical anthology, p.188
Gates JR, Reading black, reading feminist: a critical anthology, p.36 and p.37
61
Eversley, p.254
62
Fisch, p.58
60
31
Equiano’s experiences in life were exactly the ones that enabled him to
reclaim his voice and his identity as the role model needed to work towards the
abolition of slavery; however, he does not really reveal himself through it. Even
though identity is an ever changing process and a person never remains the
same throughout his/her life, we cannot refrain from criticising Equiano for his
overly one-dimensional depiction of slavery which consequently follows his goal
to use his narrative to get a specific white audience to react to him and to have
them change things. During this process, he did not address all the issues of
his fellow slaves as would be expected from someone who is supposed to
stand in as the champion for his race, but he decided to refrain from adding all
of its components. While his narrative is clearly a major achievement and a
step into the right direction, it is nevertheless disappointing that he did not take
into consideration all the factors that would have been crucial to address to
benefit an entire community.
32
Frederick Douglass
It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through
which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could
commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it.63
Frederick Douglass’ literary efforts to abolish slavery were not just
restricted to composing the narrative of his life. Throughout his existence, he
tried to reveal the atrocities committed by slaveholders and their cruel
behaviour towards their subjugates. He used his personal experience to open
his audience’s eyes and to make them aware of their responsibilities towards
their fellow humans. His writings and his orations made him famous and
brought the abolitionist cause a lot of support. Nevertheless, his ability to
express himself and to voice his opinion openly and publically, also made
numerous envious critics appear in his life. The initial purpose of his Narrative
was actually to undermine the reproofs he was given by his opponents and to
establish and validate his identity as a former slave.
… people began doubting that he had ever been a slave. He did not talk or
act like a slave, and he avoided certain facts, like where he was from, who his
master was, and his former name, to avoid exposing his whereabouts to
slaveholders. … In response to such claims, he began writing his Narrative.
Published under the auspices of the African Anti-Slavery Society, it
authenticated his identity as a former slave.64
In the same way as Douglass later had to verify his identity through his
writing, he had to claim his voice and establish himself as an individual
throughout his years of bondage.
In his writing, Douglass depicts how he survived and asserted his right to
freedom. In order to claim his own voice, Douglass has to fight even harder
than his predecessors, because he never possessed one to start with, as it was
denied to him by those in power. Due to legal and social boundaries
established at the time, Douglass was born a slave on a plantation and is seen
by society as a mindless property that is only supposed to work, prosper and
63
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave (New York: The Modern
Library Edition, 2000), p.21
64
Fisch, p.203 and p.204
reproduce for his master’s sake and not develop any personal thoughts;
needless to say that he should not dare to utter them.
Douglass sets out to ascertain his individuality early on in his life. He is
born on a plantation, inhabited by several of his family members and is not
uprooted from a country and his home as such. Even though he only meets his
mother a couple of times in his life and he does not know who his father is,
although there are rumours that he might be his master’s son, he somehow
recognizes the plantation and the grounds around it as a home, due to the fact
that he was raised there by his grandmother. While he does not have to cope
with a foreign language that he first needs to assimilate, before having the
opportunity to give vent to his thoughts and ideas, he soon realises that it is the
masters’ (as he has a number of them) ultimate goal to keep his slaves illiterate
and uninformed.
… it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves
thus ignorant. … He [Douglass’ master at the time] deemed all such inquiries
on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless
spirit.65
This “restless spirit” which for the master is a synonym for a troublermaker,
is for Douglass a personal sign that he needs to be able to explore his points of
view and furthermore, to gain the opportunity and ability to make them known
by those around him. By achieving these goals, he will become capable of
denouncing the deceptive appearances of slavery. A first attempt at attaining
this is for him to highlight the actual meaning of the slaves’ songs. By revealing
them as what they are, namely laments for the slaves’ pitiful situation and
destiny in life, he makes certain that outsiders grasp that the hymns are not an
expression of happiness and a carefree existence, as advocated by those in
power. Even though he did not comprehend the songs at the time, while he
was a slave himself, he became aware of their power as a free man.
65
Douglass, Narrative, p.17
34
I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and
apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw
nor heard as those without might see and hear. … To those songs I trace my
first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can
never get rid of that conception.66
As a slave he does not see the connections between the lyrics and his
fellows in distress, but after claiming his voice as an individual, he can divulge
their true nature to his readers at an early stage in his Narrative.
As a young boy, he already encounters examples of how misfortunes can
befall a slave who expresses his personal opinion, when asked by an outsider.
Colonel Lloyd, the master of the plantation in question, actually owns so many
bondsmen that he does not know them personally and neither do they. In a
chance encounter, Lloyd interrogates one of his own male slaves as to how he
is treated by his owner. When Lloyd does not receive the adequate answers,
the poor man is sold off immediately without being given the opportunity to take
leave from his relatives and friends.67 Consequently, Douglass learns from
early childhood on “… that a still tongue makes a wise head. They [the slaves]
suppress the truth rather than take the consequences of telling it …”.68 By
denying themselves their voice, slaves attempt to remain safe in the
environment that they are accustomed to and out of fear they decide to hold
their tongue.
After witnessing several acts of violence towards slaves and family
members on the plantation and being scared into silence, thus being without a
voice, Douglass is sent off to Baltimore by his master at the age of seven or
eight to stay with Mr. Hugh Auld. His hopes for a better future are grounded in
his departure from his old “home” and he dreams of leaving slavery behind him.
66
68
67
35
Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to
all my subsequent prosperity. … There were a number of slave children that
might have been sent from the plantation to Baltimore. There were those
younger, those older, and those of the same age. I was chosen from among
them all, and was the first, last and only choice.69
In order to be able to voice himself clearly and as a result to obtain his
freedom, Douglass has realised that he is in dire need of becoming literate. He
could not have accomplished this, if he had stayed on the plantation where no
one would have taught him. As a result, he is incredibly grateful and feels
fortunate that he was chosen to move away to Baltimore. Fortunately for him,
his new mistress is not accustomed to possessing a slave and treats him like a
white child, or even like her own, rather than a mindless asset. “… she very
kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she
assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters.”70 She empowers
Douglass by teaching him the basics; however, she is stopped by her husband
who believes that education impairs a slave.
[Mr Auld tells his wife that ] If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.
A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master – to do as he is told to do.
Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world … if you teach that nigger
(speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would
forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and
of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great
deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.71
The husband’s behaviour and his speech manipulate and influence his wife
and ultimately slavery changes her personality and character. After seven
years, she has turned from a kind woman who saw the little boy as an equal
into the stereotypical mistress, tarnished by the negative influence of this
biased subjugation. “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me.” 72 As a
result, Douglass becomes aware of the fact that literacy is crucial to his gaining
a voice and obtaining his freedom. In fact “Douglass had to find ways out of the
imposed silence of slavery in order to tell the world ‘outside’ of its horrors.” 73
69
71
72
73
70
36
Therefore, he decides to take matters into his own hands and employs white
boys on the street to help him to educate himself further.
A further step towards claiming his voice is his discovery of “The
Columbian Orator” at the age of twelve. In this piece of work, he discovers a
story about how a slave was able to emancipate himself from his master, by
calling his master’s attention to the moral and logical wrongness of his
arguments in favour of slavery.74 This tale supports Douglass’ own reflections
and as he finds them expressed in writing accessible to those who are literate,
he is spurred on to continue with the research and analysis of his own ideas
and perceptions.
The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I
could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had
left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a
strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as
well as the most wicked of men.75
However, while on the one hand these thoughts enable him to become a
reflective person and to surpass the limits that were set to him by others; these
findings, also render him unhappy and helpless, even to a breaking point,
where he has to decide what he wants for the future.
I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead;
and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed
myself, or done something for which I should have been killed. While in this
state of mind, I was eager to hear any one speak of slavery. 76
Douglass wants to be inspired by others and receive new food for thought,
but he is also aware of the fact that they might depress him even further. His
mind has been filled with images and new information and he has left the state
of a “mindless beast” behind him. He does not surrender, despite the obstacles
that impede his way and consequently, he enriches his language further by
learning new words and looking for their literal meaning. His literacy enables
him to come across new vocabulary and during his research he stumbles
across the term “abolition”. When he becomes conscious of the meaning of this
74
76
75
37
word, he sets himself a new goal in sight for his future, namely to gain his
freedom and to help the abolitionist cause and in order to achieve this, he
decides to learn to write.
I wished to learn to write, as I might have occasion to write my own pass
[papers that declare that he is a free man, in order to be able to get away to the
north]. I consoled myself with the hope that I should one day find a good
chance [to escape]. Meanwhile, I would learn to write. 77
By challenging poor boys to write better than him,78 he eventually acquires
this skill as well, which becomes an imperative tool for the composition of his
works in favour of abolition. Unfortunately, he is set back in his attempt to gain
his freedom, because he is ordered back to the plantation to be financially
evaluated, as his old master died and all the slaves are supposed to be
redistributed fairly among the heirs. Even though he is returned to Baltimore
after the painful procedure, he finally ends up on the plantation once again,
after only being away for a short while. His new master quickly recognizes
Douglass’ dangerous potential to become an individual with an own voice and
as such a likely troublemaker. “My city life, he [his new master] said, had had a
very pernicious effect upon me. It had almost ruined me for every thing which
was bad.”79 For this reason, Mr Auld takes the decision to send Douglass to Mr
Covey, who has a reputation to break slaves in. This action should put an end
to Douglass’ efforts as Mr Auld expects Mr Covey to violently extract Douglass’
voice and render him silent once more.
At Mr Covey’s hands, Douglass receives the first whippings of his life and
as a result, he finds himself completely trapped in the brutal grip of slavery.
After some time in Mr Covey’s hold, Douglass ends up tamed and subjugated,
without a voice.
I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my
intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that
lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and
behold a man transformed into a brute.80
77
79
80
78
38
Clearly Douglass is tired of his life and the slave breaker and no one is
willing to help him. After having run away, Mr Covey awaits him upon his return
to subdue him yet again. However, Mr Covey does not receive the pleasure of
sanctioning Douglass and completely bringing him under his yoke as the slave
fights back. Both end up in a power struggle and hurt each other physically;
they have reached a point in their relationship where there is no going back
from, a “turning point” as Douglass puts it.
This battle with Mr Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It
rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of
my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me
again with a determination to be free. The gratification afforded by the triumph
was a full compensation for whatever else might follow, even death itself.81
Douglass realises that he can reclaim his voice, if he strikes back and fights
for his human rights and as he is determined to be free of his bondage in the
future, be it alive or dead, he does his utmost to fight the slave breaker. If Mr
Covey cannot hold him down, no one will be able to. Mr Covey leaves him in
peace after this incident, as he is too frightened that Douglass will reveal the
details of their fight in public and other slaves will follow his example.
After his trying episode at the slave breaker’s, Douglass slowly but certainly
reclaims his voice once and for all. A first step towards this resolve is taken by
him when he decides to teach others to read in a Sabbath school and to
transmit his knowledge to those in dire need of it, so that they might be able to
use it in order to gain their freedom.
… I succeeded in creating in them a strong desire to learn how to read.
Their desire soon sprang up in the others also. … It was understood, among all
who came, that there must be as little display about it as possible. … They
came because they wished to learn. Their minds had been starved by their
cruel masters. They had been shut up in mental darkness.82
After getting acquainted with a multitude of his fellow slaves, Douglass tries
to plan a possible escape with their help. He expresses these thoughts in front
of others, who agree with them, and together they plan a getaway.
Unfortunately, they are betrayed by one of their midst and Douglass ends up in
81
82
Douglass, Narrative, p.80 and p.81
39
prison. Nevertheless, he is too valuable a property to be left to rot in a desolate
place and he is therefore sent away to learn a trade in Baltimore by his master,
who does not want to forfeit money that his slave can obtain for him. Douglass
earns money which he has to forward to his master and consequently the
thoughts of freedom resurge even more violently in his mind.
In the final chapter of his narrative, Douglass reveals a few facts about his
escape from slavery, his marriage and his first meetings with abolitionists. He
does not give any details about how he managed to get away, because he
does not want to give slaveholders the opportunity to stop escapees from their
flight to freedom. Douglass ends the story of his life by telling his readers that
he has reclaimed his voice by attending anti-slavery conventions and speaking
to people about his experiences as a slave, after inspiring himself from excerpts
of others from an abolitionist paper called “The Liberator”. It helped him to sort
out his thoughts about slavery and its abolition and prepared him to take the
cause further. Consequently, “the Narrative enacts language itself as a mode of
liberation, as David Blight and other scholars have noted, “first as a source of
hope, later as a strategy of escape and a form of power.” 83 The power that
Douglass was given through literacy does not only lead to his subsequent
freedom, but also offers him the opportunity to help others in their endeavour
for independence. “He brilliantly used the power of the word, voice and image
to write himself into public existence and remake himself while seeking to
reform his nation.”84
In the same way as Douglass had to claim and reclaim his voice, he also
had to fight to establish his own identity. In fact, he was forced to patch
together information that he discovered along his way in order to find out who
he is and where he comes from. This is already highlighted at the start of his
Narrative, where Douglass reveals that “I have no accurate knowledge of my
age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.”85 By omitting the
slaves’ date of birth, the masters already install a state of ignorance in their
83
Fisch, p.205
Fisch, p.201
85
84
40
subjugates’ minds and “… slaves were not regarded as important enough as
individuals to warrant the recording of such details.”86 As early as their slaves’
birth, the masters begin their power struggle over their human property and
attempt to keep their slaves as lowly as possible. Douglass has a desire to
know and this thirst for knowledge is a nuisance for the man who tries to keep
him like a “mindless beast”.
The ‘want of information’ oppresses him [Douglass], dehumanises him to
the level below a horse by depriving him of basic human facts of identity. He is
denied an immediate history, but recognises the importance of finding a means
of articulating as a source of self-assertion.87
In the same way as Douglass is left in the dark about his exact date of
birth, he is also unaware of who his father is.
My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard
speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was
my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of
knowing was withheld from me.88
Consequently, he has no clear knowledge of where he comes from as he
only has a limited connection to his mother, whom he at best meets a few times
before her early death. His closest blood relation on the plantation is his
grandmother who raises him, but who does not or cannot tell him anything
about his lineage.
While he is ignorant of his father’s identity, he is well aware of the fact that
he is white. The likelihood that his master engendered him is also brought
forward by him, which is not beyond the bounds of possibility in this sphere. As
a matter of fact, a large number of masters used their female slaves as
breeding stock in order to increase their human supplies and consequently their
wealth. By establishing a law that dictates that a child born by a female slave is
automatically designated as a slave as well, the masters were seen to be in
their right when they raped those under their authority. With the help of these
immoral tactics, those in power might have gained financially; however, this
procedure also brought about inhuman consequences. The children thus
86
Richard Gray, A history of American literature (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2008), p.144
88
87
41
procreated did not have the opportunity to bond with their parents and were
consequently deprived of part of their ancestry and the knowledge deriving
from it and of course they were denied any parental love that they should have
been given. Furthermore, the slaves learnt that they did not have any value or
importance, except in a financial way. As a result, slavery did not only change
the slaves’ lives, but also the masters’ behaviour.
Narrators also commonly pointed out one of the uglier possibilities created
when slaveholders fathered slave children. These were children, in J.W.C.
Pennington’s words, “held at such a price, even to their own father, that they
could be sold to any interested party.” This could even entail, as in a case
Pennington described, the selling of one’s own daughters into prostitution.89
As a consequence, the idea of a “normal” family, where children grow up
alongside their parents, is not a given for the slaves on the plantation. In fact,
the slaves are denied this human right to be surrounded by their relatives as
they are only seen as property. They are deprived of part of their identity,
because they do not actually know anything about their roots. On the
plantation, the racial boundaries are not as clear as they are prescribed by
society and due to this slaves are refused the knowledge of their background.
The slaves themselves are conscious of this reality as Douglass points out in
his Narrative.
The whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and,
true or false, it is of but little consequence to my purpose whilst the fact
remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by
law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the
condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their
own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as
pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a
few, sustains to his slaves the double relation of master and father.90
In order to validate his arguments and to make sure that the readers
believe him, he gives examples of how such a situation plays out in reality.
89
90
Fisch, p.33
42
They [slaves fathered by their masters] are, in the first place, a constant
offence to their mistress. She is ever disposed to find fault with them; they can
seldom do any thing to please her; she is never better pleased than when she
sees them under the lash, especially when she suspects her husband of
showing to his mulatto children favors which he withholds from his black slaves.
The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of
deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, cruel as the deed may strike
any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is
often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must
not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his
brother, of but few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the gory
lash to his naked back; and if he lisp one word of disapproval, it is set down to
his paternal partiality, and only makes a bad matter worse, … 91
Douglass’ mixed racial background allows him to have a closer look at this
issue, which robbed him of a part of himself, as a hybrid in a society which does
not accept such a being. He does not belong to the realm of the white masters,
as he has the prejudicial “one drop of black blood” in his body. He can neither
be seen as being completely black, even though society attempts to implement
this thought in everyone’s head. He is well aware of the fact that he is only one
amongst many on the plantation and that he is just part of his master’s assets
and will never be identified as his lawful son. He will not be allowed to be part
of his father’s family nor will he be accepted by his white brothers or sisters. As
a result, he decides to become his own master, a free man with the identity that
he created for himself.
As a child on the plantation, he does not have the opportunity to fulfil
himself, neither as an individual nor as a member of a family. His trip to
Baltimore and his literacy become part of who he is at that point in time. He
turns into a confident, clever boy, who manages to convince or to trick others
into teaching him to read and write. Clearly, he does not lose his goal out of
sight and is rather focused and ambitious. He develops a sense of purpose,
which he is not supposed to have as a slave. Contrary to all expectations,
Douglass has taken first successful steps to earning himself a personal identity.
The next defining instant in his life is his confrontation with Mr Covey, which
does not only give him his voice back, but which also turns him into a grown up.
He stands up for himself and he “… present[s] this moment as central: since it
91
43
was the moment when he was ready to express his selfhood, his sense of his
own worth and dignity, at the expense of his own life if necessary.” 92 In fact “…
the recovery of selfhood is described as a rebirth. ‘It was a glorious resurrection
from the tomb of slavery,’ Douglass recalls, ‘to the heaven of freedom.’”93 In his
statement, he clearly hints towards his acquired religious thinking and links his
self-defining moment to the symbolic rise from the dead of Jesus Christ. He has
adopted religion in his attempt to find a personal identity and uses it to
complete himself. In the same way as Jesus struggles to free his followers from
religious oppression, Douglass fought his master’s representative for his
personal benefit and for the sake of others.
Unfortunately, this fight does not end Douglass’ struggles, as he remains in
bondage. While he learns a trade under his master’s pressure and can thus
sustain himself and provide his master with even more money, Douglass can
only be himself after his escape to New York. While he describes numerous
events in his narrative, he refrains from giving any details about his escape
from slavery. He fears that by revealing certain facts he would encumber or
even prevent fellow slaves from achieving an effective getaway from their
bonds. In his new safe haven, his intended wife Anna meets up with him and
they get married. By fulfilling their vows, they start a family and go against all
the principles that slavery has established for them. Before being able to
complete the search for his identity, Douglass has to take one final essential
step: he changes his name for the last time and by carrying this act out, he
ensures that slavery has finally relinquished the hold it has on him.
92
93
Gray, p.147
Gray, p.147
44
The name given me by my mother was, “Frederick Augustus Washington
Bailey.” I, however, had dispensed with the two middle names long before I left
Maryland so that I was generally known by the name of “Frederick Bailey”. I
started from Baltimore bearing the name of “Stanley”. When I got to New York, I
again changed my name to “Frederick Johnson,” and thought that would be the
last change. But when I got to New Bedford, I found it necessary again to
change my name. [Too many people had the same surname] … I gave Mr.
Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name, but told him he must not take
from me the name of “Frederick”. I must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of
my identity. Mr. Johnson had just been reading the “Lady of the Lake,” and at
once suggested that my name be “Douglass”. From that time until now I have
been called “Frederick Douglass;” and as I am more widely known by that
name than by either of the others, I shall continue to use it as my own.94
Douglass had to rename himself at several opportunities, in order to
escape from those who might retrieve him. He is afraid that he might not be
capable of casting off the yoke of tyranny a second time and by altering part of
his identity, he tries to make sure that he will not be captured that easily. Even
though he might still be pursued by his owner and brought back to the
plantation, he has decided to shape himself further according to his own beliefs
and reflections and the act of renaming himself, underlines this process.
The only element that still links him to his biological family is the first name
that he received from his mother. As he is unaware of his father’s identity,
though he assumes that it was his master, there is no need for him to include
any name that would remind him of this man. Therefore, he asks his friend to
come up with a suitable surname for him. By doing this, Douglass combines
both his past as a slave and his future as an abolitionist. Leaving the choice of
the surname to his friend is a way to thank the man who supported him in his
first steps as a free man and who turned into the perfect role model for
Douglass, an abolitionist through and through. He, just like Equiano, is well
aware of the fact that the audience he addresses are white men who are able
to change the slaves’ situation and support the abolition of slavery.
As both men are the stereotypical slave narrators, they try to highlight the
injustices under which they have suffered. They are both at the centre of this
myth that slaves can reclaim their voice and identity independently from the
situation in which they find themselves in, without giving in to pressure from
94
Douglass, Narrative, p.102 and 103
45
society, but there are also major differences which can be found in their
writings. Douglass uses a different narrative voice to Equiano’s. While Equiano
writes in a standard English in a type of monologue suitable for a diary, which
only seldom allows for other people’s words to interfere with his thoughts,
Douglass does not refrain from including vernacular English, whenever he
believes that the words of other people are important to underline his
statement. In these cases, he uses the type of language that the general public
would expect from a former slave. Slave narratives do not only include the
author’s own voice but also the ones that he wants to transmit to the intended
audience of abolitionists, in order to get them to support the anti-slavery cause.
Again, Equiano’s and Douglass’ works leave an open space for criticism.
While Equiano is not really interested in depicting a domestic life, Douglass at
least attempts to portray the repercussions of slavery on society as a whole. He
shows the reader what life on a plantation is like, not only as a man, but he also
describes the misery of the children on the plantation and the hardship of
female slaves. In particular, he mentions an aunt of his, who is frequently
whipped by her master for disobeying his wishes. According to Douglass, the
master enjoyed his doings incredibly.
The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran
fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and
whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease
to swing the blood-clotted cowskin.95
He therefore goes further in his narrative than Equiano, by not only
revealing the men’s wretchedness, but also the women’s. Unfortunately, he
does not go far enough in this depiction of the female experience of slavery and
does not give slave women the opportunity to voice themselves. Nor does he
offer his own wife, Anna, the possibility to express her thoughts and feelings on
the subject, as he merely reveals that they were married towards the end of the
narrative. Douglass does not mention her importance to him in any of his
works, thus effectively silencing her and diminishing her value as a human
being.
95
46
Throughout her [Anna’s] entire life in the North she was the source of the
family, economic, and emotional strength that enabled him [Douglass] to
achieve the greatness for which, as male, he was presumably destined. Does
the life of Anna Douglass have meaning in the nineteenth century struggle for
black freedom? Certainly not in the memoirs of the man who knew it best.96
Douglass prefers to restrict himself to his own experiences and even omits
those of his own family in his attempt to support the abolitionist cause.
Consequently, he turns into the model example of a former slave who is able to
leave the shackles of bondage behind him, both through his physical and
mental prowess. “… the narratives of male slaves often link the escape to
freedom to the act of physically subduing the master.”97 It is important for him
do depict his manhood and the act of reclaiming it to his readers, because he
wants to present himself as a black man, not only as an ex-slave.98 “… [male
slaves] were attempting to prove their equality, their manhood, in terms
acceptable to their white, middle-class readers. … The plot of the standard
narrative may thus be seen not only as the journey from slavery to freedom, but
also as the journey from slavehood to manhood.”99 Therefore, it is crucial to
him to remind his audience that he did not simply leave slavery behind, but that
he constructed himself an identity as a free, black man, who does not need to
be ashamed of his achievements.
His ultimate goal is to retrace his search for identity and its construction.
Within the political discourse of slavery and its aftermaths, he attempts to gain
a self, which effectively will be his own and which is supposed to be free from
the influence of others. Even though he manages to escape slavery and
establish a future for himself, he still remains trapped in a power discourse,
which does not offer him any real lenience to construct his self.
96
98
the physical fight that is referred to in this case is Douglass’ struggle with Covey, the slave breaker, who
stands in for his master
99
97
47
The accrued self-knowledge consists above all in the recognition that there
is no resting place for the fugitive. The struggle for the dignity of the self
persists. Insults and injuries abound in freedom as under slavery, albeit in
different forms. Life remains a war. But the focused struggle of wills with the
master has given way to a more generalized struggle to affirm the self in a
hostile, or indifferent, environment.100
While he leaves slavery behind, he realises that the abolitionists (whose
agenda requires him to support them, as a role model and example for an
entire community) have problems concerning his identity. In fact, he does not
represent the atypical “black slave” for them and they worry about the image
that he publically displays. They are afraid that he will hinder their cause more
than he will help it. Douglass is aware of this anxiety and of the expectations it
bears. His wish to support this cause even makes him accept certain
impositions on his person, even if he tries to view them as comical.
Douglass’s mixed blood, light complexion, and sexual charisma were a
problem for many abolitionists, black and white. The Englishman Thomas
Clarkson worried: “I wish he were full blood black for I fear pro-slavery people
will attribute his preeminent abilities to the white blood that is in his veins.” And
so some of them did. Douglass, whose identity was securely that of a black
man, wrote back comically from England that “I am hardly black enough for the
British taste, but by keeping my hair as wooly as possible I make out to pass for
at least a half a negro at any rate.”101
Although Douglass has tried to establish his own voice and identity, he is
still engulfed in this power discourse, which forces him to adapt himself to these
requirements. “… it is a self-division which turns into agonising conflict within
the self, between individualised determination and racialised identity.” 102 Even
his voice is affected by this process as he has to adapt it to the demands of his
audience. Depending on their mood, he has to convey his message in different
ways. “His gift for satirical mimickry – of Southern slaveholders, redneck
overseers, and pompous defenders of slavery – was wicked indeed and
brought down the house in frequent laughter. Yet, more seriously, Douglass
100
James W. Tuttleton, The Primate’s Dream: Literature, Race and Ethnicity in America (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee,
1999), p.14
102
Guy Reynolds, Twentieth-Century American Women’s Fiction: A Critical Introduction (Basingstoke:
MacMillan, 1999), p.103
101
48
could also mesmerize an audience of two thousand and more for two or three
hours at a time.”103
The writing of his Narrative fulfils a joint purpose in Douglass’ life. First of
all, it established his legitimacy as a former slave and enables him to process
the trials that he had to undergo before he was able to reclaim his voice and his
identity. “Douglass tells his readers that the purpose of his Narrative is to chart
his development in subject-hood: “You have seen how a man was made a
slave, you shall see how a slave was made a man.”104 Secondly, his work
furthers the abolitionist cause and it helps other slaves to follow him on his path
towards freedom, both physical and mental. Douglass constructs his own voice
and identity, but he is still influenced by the situation in which he finds himself,
and he has to adapt himself accordingly. He is well aware of the audiences he
addresses and bows himself to their expectations. However, who he really was
as a person cannot be clearly discerned through the many different layers of
self, imposed or not, that the reader is given in his Narrative. Douglass is
represented as a role model, a gifted orator and a black man who can stand in
as an example for an entire race and its cause. He constructs his voice and
identity, according to society’s requirements and puts on his persona like a
mask, in a similar way to Roman actors in the past. His support to the cause
seems to be unlimited as he does not display any part of himself that could go
against society’s expectations. Only in his old age, he seemed to have given up
on pleasing everyone and made a personal point
… by marrying, in 1884, Helen Pitts, a white woman from New York twenty
years younger than he. Neither his children nor her family approved of this
match, and the interracial marriage was widely criticized in the American press.
Many blacks thought he had turned his back on his race, while many whites
saw it as another step toward the “mongrelization” of the Caucasian race.105
103
Tuttleton, p.18
Fisch, p.68
105
Tuttelton, p.19
104
49
50
Harriet Jacobs
Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my
adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have
not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my
descriptions fall far short of the facts. 106
Harriet Jacobs already addresses her reader on a personal level within the
first lines of her narrative (in her preface) and asks him/her to believe her and
not to disregard her story as being a mere product of her imagination. She
continues by telling her audience that her goal is to “arouse the women of the
North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the
South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far
worse.”107 Her intended audience are in fact the women living in states where
slavery is not tolerated and who might have a word in changing the female
slaves’ condition, by using the influence they could have on their husbands
and/or male relatives.
In addition, she emphasizes her wish that her writing should be seen as an
example for others by saying that “I have not written my experiences in order to
attract attention to myself; on the contrary, it would have been more pleasant to
me to have been silent about my own history.” 108 In fact, Jacobs feels ashamed
of her condition as a slave and the misfortunes that emerge from her social
status. As a consequence of these emotions and in order to save her family
from any negative repercussions, she published her narrative under the
pseudonym of “Linda Brent”. “… in and through the story of Brent she could tell
her own story as a sexual victim, move the narrative beyond the limits
prescribed by nineteenth-century gentility and yet remain safely anonymous.”109
Even though she decided to keep her identity veiled to the public, she had the
support of a white woman, L. Maria Child, from a Northern free state who
authenticated her writing as being the actual truth. In the same way as the first
slave narratives by men were criticised for being too sophisticated for a simple
slave, who is supposed to be illiterate by law, to compose, Child is aware that
106
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the life of a slave girl (New York: The Modern Library Edition, 2000), p.119
Jacobs, p.120
108
Jacobs, p.120
109
Gray, p.150
107
Jacobs might be attacked for her style, lexis and vocabulary. Therefore, she
attempts to prevent such statements pre-emptively, by pointing out in her
editor’s edition that
At her [Jacobs’] request, I have revised her manuscript; but such changes
as I have made have been made mainly for purposes of condensation and
orderly arrangement. … It will naturally excite surprise that a woman reared in
slavery should be able to write so well. But circumstances will explain this.110
Child knows why Jacobs went through the process of putting her painful
experiences down for others to read and she takes the burden of having to
publically explain her reason for supporting the publication of such a narrative,
as a white woman by stating that
… the public ought to be made acquainted with its [slavery’s] monstrous
features, and I willingly take the responsibility of presenting them with the veil
withdrawn. I do this for the sake of my sisters in bondage, who are suffering
wrongs so foul, that our ears are too delicate to listen to them. I do it with the
hope of arousing conscientious and reflecting women at the North to a sense of
their duty in the exertion of moral influence on the question of slavery, on all
possible occasions.111
One might think that the issue, regarding the proven authenticity of slave
narratives of men such as Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass would
have opened enough doors to facilitate the publication of a first female version
of such a book. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as Jacobs’ narrative “was
long assumed to be either the product of a white writer or, later, the
achievement of a talented and tactful white editor.”112 It took a long time for
researchers to establish the amount of truth in Jacobs’ writing and the
connection between her and her alter ego, “Linda Brent”, and to authenticate
the narrative.
110
Jacobs, p.121
Jacobs, p.122
112
Fisch, p.219
111
52
… unlike other historians and scholars … she [Jean Fagan Yellin] believed
the author, “Linda Brent” (Harriet Jacobs), and the original editor, Lydia Maria
Child, when they said that the narrative was true. Searching through various
archives, Yellin was able to find solid documentary evidence, in the form of
letters, newspapers, and official state papers, as to the truth: that the incidents
recounted in Incidents had actually occurred.113
Consequently, Fellin was able to establish the literary and actual worth of
Jacobs’ narrative and to reveal it to the public. The fact that it was written by a
female black slave is not the only element that the audience had problems
dealing with at the time of its publication.
This is a tale, in short that concentrates on the female experience of
slavery and, in doing so, appropriates the techniques of the sentimental novel
as well as using those of the slave narrative. And at the centre of it is that
familiar protagonist of sentimental fiction: the young woman affronting her
destiny …114
The narrative does not only concern itself with the domestic and familial
environment and therefore contains a peculiar female note, but also with the
particular repercussions of slavery on females, both black and white, which is
the reason why Jacobs continually addresses her reader while telling him/her of
her ordeals, to awaken them and to make them react. Unlike Equiano or
Douglass, Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her readers by clearly depicting
the slaves as suffering human beings. She offers details of their pain and her
personal experience, in order to give her reader a vivid image of the horrors of
slavery. While both men are rather logical and emotionless in their narratives,
she clearly counts on upsetting her audience and driving them into action. By
doing this, she goes against the social restrictions for women, which were
established at the time.
Being relegated to that sphere meant that the participation of black women
in the public arena created tensions between black women and their audiences
(black and white) and between women and those blacks (male and female)
who did not share their thoughts on the public and political engagement of
African-American women. They were strongly encouraged to adopt the
attributes of piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness that characterized
the nineteenth-century ideal of “true womanhood”.115
113
Fisch, p.189
Gray, p.149
115
Sterling Lecater JR. Bland, Voices of the Fugitives (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2000), p.120
114
53
As a result, Jacobs has to fight against prejudices, both as a slave and as a
woman, which potentially increases the difficulty of her struggle. In order to be
able to successfully compose her narrative and to divulgate her knowledge
about slavery, Jacobs had to claim a voice and an identity for herself, first as a
slave, then as a runaway and finally as an author.
As far as language is concerned, Jacobs stands on a similar level as
Douglass, due to the fact that both were born in the United States and had
mastered its mother tongue easily as it was their own, the only one they were
confronted with when growing up. Jacobs’ upbringing is very different; however,
as she lives with her parents and brother away from the plantations, in their
sheltered home. She learns from them to openly express her opinion and
wishes, unaware of her social status. In fact, the opening lines of her narrative
highlight her particular situation, “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six
years of happy childhood had passed away.” 116 She continues by giving her
reader details of her rearing and her family background and then depicts the
turning point in her life “when I was six years old, my mother died; and then, for
the first time, I learned, by the talk around me, that I was a slave.”117 The reader
might find her parents’ attitude unreasonable, as they were hiding the truth to
their child, but in fact they thought that their offspring would be free sooner or
later, as both parents and the grandmother earned and saved money for their
freedom.
By following this premise, the family thought that a liberal and carefree
childhood of the siblings could be guaranteed. This is the reason why Jacobs
and her brother William have a voice at the start of their conscious immersion
into slavery, because they were taught to express their thoughts openly.
Furthermore, Jacobs has an initial access to a narrative voice, as she was
taught how to read by her mistress at the age of six.
116
117
Jacobs, p.125
Jacobs, p.127
54
A first incident in which voice becomes a crucial issue is described by
Jacobs at a time when her father was still alive. He had to hand over his
children to their first “real” master, Dr Flint, after the death of their mistress who
did not free them as promised. The children now have to reside in his home
and abide by his rules.
My father, by his nature, as well as by the habit of transacting business as
a skilful mechanic, had more of the feelings of a freeman than is common
among slaves. My brother was a spirited boy; and being brought up under such
influences, he early detested the name of master and mistress. One day, when
his father and his mistress both happened to call him at the same time, he
hesitated between the two; being perplexed to know which had the strongest
claim upon his obedience. He finally concluded to go to his mistress. When my
father reproved him for it, he said, “You both called me, and I didn’t know which
I ought to go to first.” – “You are my child,” replied our father, “and when I call
you, you should come immediately, if you have to pass through fire and water.”
Poor Willie! He was now to learn his first lesson of obedience to a master.118
This dialogue depicts the dilemma that a slave faces: should he/she first
obey the paternal voice or the master’s? The boy chooses the voice that has
the most power over him, even if the father does not understand his decision
and even criticises him for it. Under the given circumstances, it is clear that
William was right in his picking.
Unfortunately for the children, their life takes on another ominous turn when
their father passes away. Jacobs, in particular, is now trapped in Dr Flint’s
home and has to suffer from her master’s sexual advances as she becomes
older. He uses his voice to silence her – “My master began to whisper foul
words in my ear … I tried to treat them with indifference or contempt.”119 – and
to force her do his bidding, as he makes very clear by his choice of words when
he addresses her.
He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things.
My soul revolted against the mean tyranny. But where could I turn for
protection? No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as
her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult,
from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the
shape of men.120
118
Jacobs, p.129
Jacobs, p.150
120
Jacobs, p.151
119
55
Jacobs is aware of the fact that due to her status as a female slave, no one
will be willing to defend her or to keep her virtue and innocence safe from harm.
Her body and mind entirely belong to her master and she has to subdue herself
and her voice. Dr Flint achieves exactly what he wants, he renders her
voiceless, because she is afraid of telling her grandmother what is happening
and she has no one else to turn to. “I longed for someone to confide in. I would
have given the world to have laid my head on my grandmother’s faithful bosom,
and told her all my troubles. … I dreaded the consequences … and both pride
and fear kept me silent.”121 Owing to the fact that she cannot speak up for
herself, she cries out with indignation in her narrative and asks the reader to
react.
In view of these things, why are ye silent, ye free men and women of the
north? Why do your tongues falter in maintenance of the right? Would that I
had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen is so weak! There are
noble men and women who plead for us, striving to help those who cannot help
themselves.122
While Jacobs is unable to voice her resentment orally and in public, she
decides to take a step towards literary independence and she begins to teach
herself to write. Sadly, Dr Flint realises this and is determined to use her new
ability to gain ultimate power over her. Thus he turns her skills into something
undesirable as he writes her messages to express his desires. “He frowned, as
if he was not well pleased; but I suppose he came to the conclusion that such
an accomplishment [her literacy] might help to advance his favourite scheme.
Before long, notes were often slipped into my hand.”123 Somehow Jacobs finds
the strength to counteract his addresses and responds to them. “Sometimes I
so openly expressed my contempt for him that he would become violently
enraged, and I wondered why he did not strike me.”124 Clearly, her youth and
the wish to remain virtuous support her in her ordeal and faced with this
impossible situation in which she finds herself, she is able to voice herself in
front of Dr Flint, even if she cannot do it in public.
121
Jacobs, p.152
Jacobs, p.153
123
Jacobs, p.155
124
Jacobs, p.155
122
56
As he does not want to sully his reputation and out of fear of her
grandmother, Dr Flint does not attempt to rape Jacobs in his house, mostly
because she manages to stay away from him as much as possible. When he
decides to accommodate her in his room as a supposed caretaker for his
youngest child, Mrs Flint has had enough and questions her as to their
relations. Jacobs finally has the chance to voice herself and relate her
sufferings. However, Mrs Flint is clearly not the right person to pour her heart
out to, as she rather pities herself than the young sixteen year old slave.
As I went on with my account her color [Mrs Flint’s] changed frequently,
she wept, and sometimes groaned. She spoke in tones so sad, that I was
touched by her grief. The tears came to my eyes; but I was soon convinced that
her emotions arose from anger and wounded pride. She felt that her marriage
vows were desecrated, her dignity insulted; but she had no compassion for the
poor victim of her husband’s perfidy. She pitied herself as a martyr; but she was
incapable of feeling for the condition of shame and misery in which her
unfortunate, helpless slave was placed.125
Jacobs takes the chance to make Dr Flint’s misconduct known within his
home and reclaims her voice, though she does not benefit from it as her
domestic situation does not improve. Nevertheless, by grasping the opportunity,
she is able to speak up for herself.
Yet in making that villainy public, both to her reader and to Mrs Flint, Brent
[Jacobs] takes the chance that the person hearing that story of villainy could
side with the victimizer rather than the victim. To a large extent, the nineteenthcentury conception of the Cult of True Womanhood required women to maintain
their silence, just as Brent is required to maintain hers, in the face of their own
oppression. It should therefore come as no surprise that Mrs Flint sides with her
husband and transfers the blame back to Linda.126
Jacobs tried to take Mrs Flint into responsibility; however, her mistress
prefers blaming her slave by pointing her finger at her, making her accountable
for her husband’s immoral behaviour. Society demands of her to be a true,
demure wife and accept her marriage and her husband as who he is, no matter
how immoral his actions are. As Mrs Flint refuses to protect her by sending her
to her grandmother’s house, Jacobs takes the matter into her own hands and
accepts the marriage proposal of her lover, a freed man. This does not suit her
125
126
Jacobs, p.157
Bland, p.133
57
master who believes that she should either take up his offer to become his
mistress or remain alone. Jacobs yet again articulates her opinion of her
master’s decision and suffers physical violence from it.
If he [Jacobs’ lover] is a puppy I [Jacobs] am a puppy, for we are both of
the negro race. It is right and honourable for us to love each other. The man
you call a puppy never insulted me, sir; and he would not love me if he did not
believe me to be a virtuous woman.” He [Dr Flint] sprang upon me like a tiger,
and gave me a stunning blow. It was the first time he had ever struck me; and
fear did not enable me to control my anger. When I had recovered a little from
the effects, I exclaimed, “You have struck me for answering you honestly. How I
despise you!”127
Surprisingly enough Jacobs is not mentally broken by the physical harm
that she has to endure, but she remains strong-minded and even tells her
master how she feels about him. She would even prefer imprisonment or her
death to having to put up with his advances.
“By heavens, girl, you forget yourself too far! Are you mad? If you are, I will
soon bring you to your senses. Do you think any other master would bear what
I have borne from you this morning? Many masters would have killed you on
the spot. How would you like to be sent to jail for your insolence?” – “ I know I
have been disrespectful, sir,” I replied; “but you drove me to it; I couldn’t help it.
As for the jail, there would be more peace for me than there is here.128
While she can utter her thoughts in her master’s presence, she is unable to
do so publically at this time and for the sake of her loved one, she advises him
to leave her behind. When Dr Flint decides to have her locked away in an
abandoned house for his personal use, Jacobs is ready to give in to the
advances of a single white man, Mr Sands, who is willing to free her and any
children they might have. Jacobs feels ashamed of this episode in her life, but
she asks her reader to see the desperate need of her actions.
127
128
Jacobs, p.163-164
Jacobs, p.164
58
But, O, ye happy woman, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood,
who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are
protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely! If
slavery had been abolished, I , also, could have married the man of my choice;
I could have had a home shielded by the laws; and I should have been spared
the painful task of confessing what I am now about to relate; but all my
prospects had been blighted by slavery. I wanted to keep myself pure; and,
under the most adverse circumstances, I tried hard to preserve my self-respect;
but I was struggling alone in the powerful grasp of the demon Slavery; and the
monster proved too strong for me. I felt as if I was forsaken by God and man;
as if all my efforts must be frustrated; and I became reckless in my despair.129
In a way, she voices her independence and her disobedience from Dr Flint
through her pregnancy by someone else. Unfortunately, she does not foresee
her master’s stubbornness and his wish to remain in power. After some
reflections, he realises that he can use her child to manipulate her and “he did
not fail to remind me [Jacobs] that my child was an addition to his stock of
slaves.”130 By highlighting this, Dr Flint reminds her of his superiority and
renders her speechless. Even her brother cannot protect her from her master’s
cruelties and his advances. Her relatives are punished for her insubordination
and Dr Flint even sends her brother to jail. Her attempt at resisting her master
and voicing herself through her new status as a mother fails entirely. Jacobs
retrieves her power of speech partly through religion, as a new clergyman
enters her life. He and his wife give the slaves an opportunity to express and
educate themselves.
His wife taught them to read and write, and to be useful to her and
themselves. As soon as he was settled, he turned his attention to the needy
slaves around him. … Many colored people, hitherto unaccustomed to attend
church, now gladly went to hear the gospel preached. The sermons were
simple, and they understood them. Moreover, it was the first time they had ever
been addressed as human beings.131
129
Jacobs, p.180
Jacobs, p.188
131
Jacobs, p.201
130
59
Through the preacher’s influence, the slaves are ready to study the Bible
and think about their position in life. Jacobs herself finds a possibility to voice
herself and help others, for example by teaching an old man how to read. “I
asked him if he didn’t know it was contrary to law; and that slaves were
whipped and imprisoned for teaching each other to read.” 132 While studying the
Bible and reflecting on its teachings, Jacobs finds its messages filled with hope
for slaves and believes that it might render slaveholders more generous, but to
no avail. Her new knowledge allows her to contradict Dr Flint on his religious
beliefs and to tell him that what he preaches cannot actually be found in the
Holy Scriptures. Her statements are not taken lightly by her master, who
attempts to render her speechless again.
“You can do what I require; and if you are faithful to me, you will be as
virtuous as my wife,” he replied. I answered that the Bible didn’t say so. His
voice became hoarse with rage. “How dare you preach to me about your
infernal Bible!” he exclaimed. “What right have you, who are my negro, to talk to
me about what you would like, and what you wouldn’t like? I am your master,
and you shall obey me.”133
After the birth of her second child, a great confrontation between her
master, her grandmother and herself takes place. Jacobs gives her opinion too
openly and her grandmother’s support further irritates Dr Flint. In order to keep
the upper hand, he gives her the ultimate choice, either she becomes his
mistress or she will be turned into a field hand. She voices her point of view and
decides to go on the plantation. However, when she is told that young master
Flint, Dr Flint’s son, is resolved “to break us all [Jacobs and her children] in to
abject submission to our lot as slaves.”134, it is clear to her that “my children
were to be brought to the plantation to be “broke in”.”135 and this fact “… nerved
me to immediate action.”136 As a result, Jacobs runs away and hides herself in
various locations.
132
Jacobs, p.202
Jacobs, p.205
134
Jacobs, p.226
135
Jacobs, p.226
136
Jacobs, p.226
133
60
In the end, she stays hidden in a small den in a shed located next to her
grandmother’s house. There she remains, concealed for nearly a decade,
unable to voice herself and get into any real contact with her relatives. In fact,
she can see her children play outside and is fed by her family, but out of fear
for her discovery they rarely exchange words. Aunt Nancy, another of Dr Flint’s
slaves, tells her regularly about her master’s attempts at retrieving her, as he
actually travels north on several occasions to look for her.
Jacobs is resolved to help her children to leave their shackles behind and
thus takes the risk of revealing herself to Mr Sands, her children’s father. As
she has been confined for a long time already, she has become nearly
immobile. Her former lover has bought their children, nevertheless, he has not
freed them yet. Consequently, she asks him to do this. “… I came here to
speak a few words to you about emancipating my children. … I want nothing for
myself; all I ask is, that you will free my children, or authorize some friend to do
it, before you go.”137 He promises her to do this, but as the reader realises later
on, he does not keep his word. Therefore, Jacobs’ inability to use her voice
effectively is yet underlined.
While her orations are left unheard and her silence leaves her hopeless,
her writing skills give her an incredible power and compensate her for her oral
helplessness. In fact, she composes letters to Dr Flint that are posted by friends
from free states, and by doing this she tries to confuse her master. “… to make
him believe that I was in New York, I resolved to write him a letter dated from
that place. I sent for my friend Peter, … [to find a] trustworthy seafaring person,
who would carry such a letter to New York, and put it in the post office there.” 138
He tries to use the letter that he received from her to get more information
about her whereabouts from her grandmother, or to get her relatives to look for
her. From time to time she sends him letters to highlight her power over him, as
she is gone he cannot fulfil his sexual desires and he is unable to catch her.
137
138
Jacobs, p.263
Jacobs, p.265
61
These letters are intended to create a space for Linda [Jacobs] by
redirecting his attention away from her. The narrative gains its authority by
using Linda’s nearly seven-year attic stay to transform herself from possibly
becoming an actual representation of the “madwoman in the attic.” Instead, she
uses her writing to claim power and authority for herself. This authority extends
from the power she claims over Dr Flint and into the production of the narrative
itself.139
While she cannot speak up for herself in her den, her letters are means of
communication with her environment and consequently, she is not entirely
impotent, even in her confinement.
Jacobs also depicts other women’s developments in her narratives, as she
wants her story to be broader and vaster and not only concentrate on her
destiny. In particular, she calls attention to her aunt Nancy, who stands as her
connection to Dr Flint’s household. While she is hidden, Nancy comes
frequently and tells her of her master’s search for her. As a result, Nancy
becomes in a way Jacobs’ voice. Regrettably, Nancy never found out that
Jacobs was able to break out of slavery, as she died beforehand. “My aunt had
been stricken with paralysis. She lived but two days, and the last day she was
speechless.”140 It is clearly not a coincidence that Nancy, who was Jacobs’
source of information and the substitute for her voice, was bereft of speech at
the end of her life. As Bland puts it
For all her verbal encouragement to Linda, Aunt Nancy loses the power of
speech in her final days. With the emphasis she places on combining words
and actions, she suggests Linda’s simultaneous function as subject and object
in the narrative. Like Linda, she places a priority on her responsibilities as a
maternal figure; and as Linda realizes during her incarceration in her
grandmother’s attic crawlspace when her own health begins to falter,
adherence in the South to that proscribed role is ultimately fatal to black
women.141
139
Bland, p.137
Jacobs, p.285
141
Bland, p.135
140
62
In the same way as Jacobs relates Nancy’s story, she also describes her
daughter’s fate. Ellen, who was supposed to be free, remains voiceless in
bondage as she is not allowed to learn to read and write and has been stored
away at her father’s relatives who use her as a common house slave. As
Jacobs’ son has also left his great grandmother’s house, she decides to
attempt her escape up north and succeeds. A friendly family, the Bruces, take
her in and help her to restore her family. By telling her story to them, she
manages to get their support, can educate her children and Mrs Bruce even
buys her and sets her free.
The Bill of Sale speaks beyond the gulf of silence that characterizes and
defines slave experience. For Brent, the word, and especially the written word,
contains a power to order, arrange, and transmit meaning to a continuous
pattern that is in stark contrast to her constant struggles against the domestic
annihilation she otherwise faces.142
The Bill of Sale on paper in black and white assures Jacobs of its
authenticity and of her and her children’s freedom. It is in fact a written anchor
that certifies her right to her own person and another step towards her
establishing her right for a voice. Her final step is her narrative, in which she
uses her power to break the silence that she had to endure while being a slave.
Silence places authority for the narrative in the hands of Dr Flint; Jacobs’s
disclosure of the details reclaims the story as an indictment against the
rhetorical boundary Dr Flint hopes to construct and enforce.143
By acquiring a voice and an education, Jacobs finally manages to get the
assistance required to manumit. Even though she remained voiceless under
the shackles of slavery and locked up in her den for nearly seven years, she
was able to get out of it in the end and by composing her narrative she was
capable of reclaiming her voice.
While she was striving for the right to determine her personal fate, she also
had to construct an identity for herself in a society which deemed her unworthy
of one. As a child, Jacobs receives a partial education from her parents and a
very liberal upbringing. As she is surrounded by her relatives, she knows of her
142
143
Bland, p.136
Bland, p.131
63
family background, nevertheless, she is unaware of her status as a slave.
Consequently, her identity is altered when her parents pass away. She is
pressed into the mould that is reserved for slaves and comes to realise that her
life has undergone a crucial metamorphosis. “When he [Dr Flint] told me that I
was made for his use, made to obey his command in every thing; that I was
nothing but a slave, whose will must and surrender to his, never before had my
puny arm felt half so strong.”144 She can no longer decide upon her personal
fate and due to Dr Flint’s behaviour, she is about to lose her childish innocence
as well.
She [the young slave girl] will become prematurely knowing in evil things.
Soon she will learn to tremble when she hears her master’s footfall. She will be
compelled to realize that she is no longer a child. If God has bestowed beauty
upon her, it will prove her greatest curse. That which commands admiration in
the white woman only hastens the degradation of the female slave. 145
Jacobs realises that she had to take on the female slave persona and that
there is no one to help her out of it, neither family nor friends. She is denied the
right of marrying the man she wants, due to the fact that her master desires her
for himself. She is also aware of the fact that her offspring would have to
succeed her into slavery, “if we had children, I knew they must follow the
condition of the mother.”146 Therefore, the fate of her descendants is clear from
the start, as their identity is closely linked to her own. She shows the reader
how the slaves are perceived by society but also confronts him/her to the
treatment that they had to undergo for centuries.
What would you be, if you had been born and brought up a slave, with
generations of slaves for ancestors? I admit that the black man is inferior. But
what is it that makes him so? It is the ignorance in which white men compel him
to live; it is the torturing whip that lashes manhood out of him; it is the fierce
bloodhounds of the South, and the scarcely less cruel human bloodhounds of
the north, who enforce the Fugitive Slave Law.147
144
Jacobs, p.139
Jacobs, p.151
146
Jacobs, p.167
147
Jacobs, p.169
145
64
She points out the fact that the slaves’ identity is also shaped by religion
and the interpretation that slaveholders draw out of it. “They seem to satisfy
their consciences with the doctrine that God created the Africans to be
slaves.”148 Nonetheless, not all priests support this thesis and Jacobs is lucky
enough to meet one who preaches that “Your skin is darker than mine; but God
judges men by their hearts, not by the color of their skins.”149 Of course, this
type of men does not stand a chance of being welcome in the South and he is
driven out of his church by the slaveholders, leaving his believers, who are
unable to throw off the yoke of slavery, behind.
As Jacobs finds herself entrapped in this setting dictated by slavery, she
attempts to somehow escape her master by entertaining an amorous
relationship with Mr Sands. While she loses her self-respect as a person during
her pregnancy, her identity shifts as she becomes a mother. Her children and
their well-being become her priority in life, especially as their father has no legal
rights towards them and cannot even name them as they are another man’s
property. “It was a sad thought that I had no name to give my child. His father
… was not unwilling that he should bear his name; but he had no legal claim to
it.”150 While her children complement her life, they also complicate it, as she
has become responsible both for their welfare and their enslavement.
Surprisingly, Dr Flint offers Jacobs a choice after the second pregnancy, as
she can choose between becoming his mistress or a field hand. In this instant,
she turns into a rather independent woman who prefers the hardship of working
as a slave with all the implications that can be drawn from it to giving herself to
an unwanted man. This decision making actually gives her personal power and
she gains strength from it. Her personality further develops when she decides
to hide at her grandmother’s to save her children from becoming field hands as
well.
148
Jacobs, p.170
Jacobs, p.202
150
Jacobs, p.189-190
149
65
For Jacobs, liberation comes not in heroic battle, the recovery of manhood
and solitary flight but in being still with her family, even if apart from them:
enjoying a strange kind of solitude, free from the impositions of her white
masters, that nevertheless allows her to see, and sometimes talk with, those
whom she loves.151
She sacrifices herself, her health and her voice, for the sake of her
children. She does not only take on the role of mother, but also of the selfscarifying parent, who does everything in her power to protect her loved ones.
As soon as she realises that the father of her children has bought them, but
does not yet intend to free them, she escapes north to liberate them. She is
aware of the fact that as her son and daughter are incredibly fair skinned,
society will be even stricter towards them than to darker skinned slaves. They
will neither be accepted by white citizens, nor by the black population, but
instead will be considered as despicable “mulattoes”, a product of two races,
which by law should not actually be in existence. Jacobs manages to free her
offspring in the end and educate them at home, thus merging further into her
new role as a free woman and an altruistic mother.
After having acquired her freedom and restored her family, Jacobs decides
to use her knowledge about slavery to open other people’s eyes.
Consequently, she turns into an author, who puts her voice and experience into
service, to help her peers in their query to gain their liberty, thus turning into a
role model for others.
The slave mother willing to risk losing her character by publishing her story
for the greater good emerges as the prototype for the post-bellum “race
woman” (a phrase connoting the respectability of activist women) whose
domestic labor, usually invisible, becomes visible and is transformed into a
collective and raced form of activist labor.152
151
152
Gray, p.151
Fisch, p.243
66
Jacobs’ transformation is undeniable, from a slave to an author, in the
selfless attempt to have others benefit from her “incidents”. In the same way as
Douglass and Equiano’s narratives were of incredible use to the abolitionist
cause, Jacobs’ work can be seen as a further chapter in the development of the
slave narratives. Her Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl takes on a female
perspective of the horrors of slavery and by revealing the real emotions of
slaves that lie behind the seemingly legitimate façade of slavery, she works
proficiently towards its unveiling. By addressing her reader openly throughout
her retelling, she takes them into responsibility and even forces them to
consider their own conduct as far as slavery is concerned. Combined, her
narrative and actual voice, have the power to make her readers question
themselves and their behaviour and hopefully bring about a change in people’s
attitude towards slavery.
Now that we have established Jacobs as the most prominent female author
of a slave narrative and shortly compared her to her male predecessors, some
more critical questions arise as to who she really was as a person. In her
Incidents, she is described as a determined, loving granddaughter, sister and
mother, whose ultimate goal it is to secure her children’s and her own freedom.
She is aware of who will read her narrative while she is composing it and often
addresses her potential readers within her writing. “Imagined readers shape the
ways in which an autobiographer constructs the narrative of her life.”153 The
reason why she appeals to a particular type of audience has been sufficiently
evoked, but it might be important to highlight the fact that “… Jacobs [did not
identify] with those likely readers [white abolitionists and white middle-class
women] … but sought to interest them.”154
Therefore one must question in how far this literary persona coincides with
the “real” Harriet Jacobs. The first problem that comes up with regard to identity
is when the reader realises that “Linda Brent” is a pseudonym, which she
invented to hinder those looking for her to retrieve her. Consequently, her
fictional constructed self does not entirely correspond with her real persona,
153
154
67
which brings about first issues of identity and authenticity. Furthermore, her
editor’s confession to revising her writing (even if it was only to look over her
lexis and grammar) clearly influenced the narrative and diluted in a way Jacobs’
own voice. The reader can understand her reluctance to openly voice her affair
with a white man in a society which prohibits interracial sexual relations
(amongst others) and her consequent use of an assumed name.
Women’s sexuality is another subject treated very differently by women and
men writers. In the male slave narrative, for example, sexuality is nearly always
avoided, and when it does surface it is to report the sexual abuse of female
slaves. … As far as we know, the only slave narrator forced to admit a sexual
life was Linda Brent, who bore two children as a single woman rather than
submit to force concubinage. Her reluctance to publish Incidents because it
was not the life of “a Heroine with no degradation associated with it” shows that
sexuality literally made a woman an unfit subject for literature.155
Like the “Madwoman in the Attic”, Jacobs is locked away because she has
given herself to someone, whom she should have refused as she was not
supposed to choose in her own right, being the property of someone else and
not her own mistress. Her narrative is often questioned by her audience,
especially as to why her master did not proceed with raping her in order to
achieve what he wanted. Even if he feared for his reputation and was in awe of
her grandmother, other masters might not have been as lenient towards his
slaves as he was. Clearly, Jacobs’ is “lucky” to have been raised amongst this
close-knit family in a small town and not on a plantation, because in this type of
location she would neither have had the opportunity to escape her master’s
advances nor would she have had the opportunity to meet a male white
benefactor. On the plantation, Jacobs would have been used sexually and
would have borne her masters’ children without a doubt.
155
68
In comparison to Equiano and Douglass, Jacobs relates the experiences of
female slaves and depicts their daily struggles, which are particular to their
gender. “Rather, we must recognize that issues of class and race alter one’s
experience of gender, just as gender alters one’s experience of class and
race.”156 However, in her writing we can find the same type of omissions as in
the first two male narratives. Jacobs cannot stand in for an entire community as
she is restricted to her own experiences, even though she tries to integrate the
male slaves’ points of view in her writing as well. She tells her readers about
her father’s struggles with his son157 and her brother’s helplessness when he
realises that she is sexually harassed by their master. Thus, she highlights the
problems male slaves encounter, the patriarchal rights and duties which are
denied to them among the family unit; however, she does not linger on them for
too long. As a result, the male voice is neglected in her narrative, thus silencing
it in a similar way as the female voice was before.
Additionally, she is restricted to her local setting as a town slave. She
shortly mentions the struggles that plantation slaves go through, but she is
unable to give details about their sufferings as she does not stay on a
plantation long enough to find out about their hardships. Again, Jacobs’
Incidents can be seen as the quintessential tale of a slave girl with its mytheme
at its core; however, not all the different types of female and male slaves are
considered in it. Only one is taken into account, the town female slave, which is
understandable as Jacobs can only relate to her own experiences. While the
reader finds out about her sexual life, we do not really get to know the real
Harriet Jacobs. We are presented with many layers of self, for example she is
depicted and constructed as a granddaughter, a sister and a mother, which are
all respectable roles in a gender-biased society and we see her transformation
from a slave into a freed person; nonetheless, she is never simply shown as a
woman or lover. So the mystery remains as to who the “real” self is behind the
slave girl, as her constructed voice and identity, as described in her narrative
can only be identified as the public depiction of her self, created in order to fit
the needs of the abolitionist cause, which she supports and adheres to.
156
157
when his son decides to obey his mistress’ call rather than his father’s, as mentioned before
69
70
Part Two: The evolution of the slave narratives
The Slave Fiction, or the first African American novels
The first African American novels are closely linked to the realm of slavery,
its repercussions on both black and white individuals and the black community
as a whole and their ultimate struggle for freedom. Due to this, these works are
often referred to as being examples of “slave fiction”. Understandably, the
authors of these books are more than inspired by this theme, as they are either
former or second generation slaves, who either escaped the bonds of slavery,
(in some cases reluctantly freed by their masters) or who still find themselves in
a bondage of some sort. “Self-liberating African Americans produced first their
own factual accounts of slave life and second, their own fictionalized versions
of that life.”158 With the help of fictional and/or semi-biographical characters,
whose features are anchored in reality, they try to cover the gulf between
bondage and freedom. “When African Americans made the move from the
writing of narratives to the writing of novels, they were stepping across a void
no matter how close the last narratives were to the first novels. At that moment
the writers were giving up the authenticity of life for the authenticity of
imagination …”159
As the authors of the slave narratives already had problems having their
work accepted as true accounts of socially inferior and subjugated people by
their mostly white audience, the fact that they were trying to write fiction made
them even more suspicious in the public eye. Novels, such as Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, complicated the matter, as white abolitionists also
began composing fictional narratives that seemed to come from a black source.
Consequently, the publication of slave fiction was even more of a challenge, as
the narratives were often criticised as being the products of white people or that
they had only come into being because of the helpful editing of white
publishers. Only a short amount of time lay between the two genres and as a
result the audience had barely time to get accustomed to one before the next
158
Maryemma Graham, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2004), p.19
159
Graham, p.18
followed, especially as the readers were not (and still are not nowadays) a
homogenous group, but were then divided into abolitionists, supporters of
slavery and those who had not yet made up their mind on the issue yet. The
question of authenticity arose yet again, as some people pointed out that the
common features of both genres, such as the depiction of slavery and the
slaves’ struggle for freedom, might indicate that the slave narratives were in
fact only imaginary works and were thus not closely connected to the actual life
of a slave. The fight that the authors of slave narratives had undertaken might
have been undermined by the slave fiction; however, in the end, after centuries
and decades, the authors’ works were able to settle the matter and as a result
the slave fiction genre received a well-deserved place in African American
literature, as the literary successor of the slave narrative.
Like the slave narrators, early African American novelists had to map a
course for their fictional texts between an often hostile audience and a
demanding sponsor or publisher. This “triangular relationship of narrator,
audience, and sponsors” continued to dictate the development of thematic and
formal conventions in the novel well into the twentieth century. 160
In fact these works can nowadays be considered as the next evolutionary
step, following the narratives, and are regarded as the first African American
novels, even if it took the Civil Rights, the Black Power Movements and the
Black studies programs of the 1960s and the 1970s to establish their value. 161
160
161
Graham, p.4
Graham, p.30
72
In the following section, three very different works of slave fictions shall be
discussed in the light of voice and identity, namely Frederick Douglass’ The
Heroic Slave (1853), William Wells Brown’s Clotel (1853) and Harriet E.
Wilson’s Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859). This will be
done in order to link the slave narratives to the slave fiction and consequently
to the first African American novels and to highlight the importance of the
themes of slavery, voice and identity in African American literature. “Of
particular significance is the autobiographical impulse in the African American
novel. The continuous need to explain and “inscribe the self” in a world which
has historically denied the existence of that self gives both focus and intensity
to the act of writing a story about black life.”162
162
Graham, p.5
73
74
The Heroic Slave by Frederick Douglass
What, then, is life to me? it is aimless and worthless, and worse than
worthless. Those birds, perched on yon swinging boughs, in friendly conclave,
sounding forth their merry notes in seeming worship of the rising sun, though
liable to the sportsman’s fowling-piece, are still my superiors. They live free,
though they may die slaves. They fly where they list by day, and retire in
freedom at night. But what is freedom to me, or I to it?163
After completing his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American slave, Frederick Douglass continued to compose a multitude of
critiques, which reflected his abolitionist opinion. However, he only created one
piece of fiction entitled The Heroic Slave. This novella seems to have been
forgotten over time, nonetheless, thanks to the growing interest in African
American studies, it was retrieved and its value to African American literature
became known. It appears that Douglass had a specific purpose in mind when
he composed it. It should not only depict the life of a rebellious slave, based on
a real event, but it should also highlight the fact that black writers were able to
write fiction. It is thought that this was Douglass’ reaction and response to
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
In his story “The Heroic Slave” (1853), Douglass was to address another
prominent abolitionist writer, Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose character Uncle
Tom came to epitomize the ideal of the passive, honest, Christian slave. In
contrast, Douglass created the rebel Madison Washington, based on and
named after a slave who had successfully overthrown the crew of the slave
ship the Creole in 1841.164
By putting down his fictional story, Douglass brought about a first link
between the slave narrative and the slave fiction.165 He also created the
stereotype of the heroic slave as indicated in the title of his story.
163
Douglass, “The Heroic Slave”, in Three Great African-American Novels (New York: Dover Publications Inc.,
2008), p.5
164
Fisch, p.69
165
Critics, however, are divided on the question if Douglass’ The Heroic Slave or if William Wells Brown’s Clotel
is the first African American novel, as both were published in the same year. It is quite possible that this issue
will not be resolved any time soon and that no common agreement will be found.
The heroic slave as the violent slave was not a type found in either antislavery or plantation novels. It represented an innovation when imported and
adapted from English literature by Douglass in 1853. Madison … [was an]
African American answer to Uncle Tom, [a man] who refused to be beaten, and
… [was] ready to kill.166
Douglass tries to undermine the belief that only white people can compile
slave fiction and with the help of his authoritative manner he addresses his
audience to show them that he can produce fiction as well, because he as a
former slave knows more about slavery than a white abolitionist.
Douglass’ introduction to Madison Washington, the heroic slave, is quite
different from any that the reader has ever encountered before. In fact,
Madison is still trapped in slavery, but he has possession of his voice and uses
it to lament his fate. At first he is invisible to the observer’s eye and the only
thing that is noticeable about him is his voice, which he employs to call
attention to the atrocities of slavery and as means to criticise it. He does not
pronounce his thoughts in public as it is forbidden to him, but in a secluded
area of a forest. The reader realises that this man knows about the hardships of
life and struggles to survive and feels compassion for his lot. Madison’s voice
stands out, before the man is actually described. “… the rider caught the sound
of a human voice, apparently engaged in earnest conversation.”167 An
onlooker, Mr Listwell, is so touched by Madison’s soliloquy that he decides to
become an abolitionist. After reflecting on his social status as a slave, Madison
is determined to escape his doomed state.
But what is freedom to me, or I to it? I am a slave, - born a slave, an abject
slave, - even before I made part of this breathing world, the scourge was
platted for my back; the fetters were forged for my limbs. … Liberty I will have,
or die in the attempt to gain it. … I shall be free.168
Up until this point, it was rather unconceivable for a slave to utter his
thoughts so openly and for an author to give his slave such a powerful fictional
voice. In his novella Douglass presents Madison with a right to his own views
straight away, so that Madison as a character is even strong enough to convert
166
Graham, p.25-26
Frederick Douglass, “The Heroic Slave”, p.4
168
Douglass, “The Heroic Slave”, p.5
167
76
a white man who had not made up his mind on slavery yet. Even though he
might have achieved this act, his escape is unfortunately impeded with
difficulties. He has to leave his family behind and is constantly pursued by
bounty hunters. People who might be willing are too afraid to help him, because
of the consequences that might affect them. Due to providence, Madison ends
up in Ohio at Mr Listwell’s house five years after their initial encounter. Listwell
helps him and lets him stay the night and during this time, Madison is able to
recount his entire story as a runaway, which he could not do so far. The hold of
slavery is so strong that even during his/her escape, the slave is virtually
rendered voiceless, except if someone is willing to take risks to actually listen to
the tale that the slave brings forward and offers him/her shelter, even if it is only
for a short amount of time and at his own risk and peril.
… for the laws of Ohio were very stringent against any one who should aid,
or who were found aiding a slave to escape through that State. A citizen, for the
simple act of taking a fugitive slave in his carriage, had just been stripped of all
his property, and thrown penniless upon the world.169
The reader realises that slavery and the laws it dictates ensure that the
slaves remain publically speechless and unheard170 as long as they cannot put
their story down in print. The rebellious slave highlights this fact by revealing
that he simply has no rights and therefore cannot have his voice heard for the
moment.
The fact is, sir, during my flight, I felt myself robbed by society of all my just
rights; that I was in an enemy’s land, who sought both my life and my liberty.
They had transformed me into a brute; made merchandise of my body, and, for
all purposes of my flight, turned day into night, - and guided by my own
necessities, and in contempt of their conventionalities, I did not scruple to take
bread where I could get it.171
By unveiling the fact that Madison had to break the law in order to sustain
himself, the reader notes that he is the type of slave who does not give in, but
decides to struggle and even use violence if necessary.
169
Douglass, “The Heroic Slave”, p.21-22
with the exception of lonely soliloquies as in Madison’s case which was heard by the right person
171
170
77
When Listwell meets Madison again, the latter is about to be sold on a
slave market, as he was arrested during an attempt at liberating his wife, who
did not survive this venture for freedom. Madison is only one amongst many on
the slave market, he is able to recount his experiences to Mr Listwell. Madison
is taken aboard a slave ship with New Orleans as its destination, to be
auctioned there yet again. The last part of the novella unfolds the story and
depicts Madison’s fate. The reader finds out what happened to him through a
conversation between sailors in Richmond, who discuss a “negro” insurrection
on-board a ship. As a matter of fact the leader of this mutiny was Madison. The
first mate, who relates the story, is most impressed with the slave due to his
voice and his eloquence. Though Madison is not averse to violence, as he
deems it necessary at times, he also believes that conversations are fruitful at
times. The sailor tells his colleague that Madison’s use of language is
extraordinary, chiefly because he is a slave.
Mr Williams speaks of ‘ignorant negroes’, and, as a general rule, they are
ignorant; but had he been on board the Creole as I was, he would have seen
cause to admit that there are exceptions to this general rule. The leader of the
mutiny in question was just as shrewd a fellow as ever I met in my life, and was
as well fitted to lead in a dangerous enterprise as any one white man in ten
thousand. … He seldom spake to any one, and when he did speak, it was with
the utmost propriety. His words were well chosen, and his pronunciation equal
to that of any schoolmaster. It was a mystery to us where he got his knowledge
of language; but as little was said to him, none of us knew the extent of his
intelligence and ability till it was too late.172
As the white men in power underestimated Madison as a mere uneducated
subject, equal to an animal, they were incapable to perceive the intelligent man
behind his dark outside appearance and were thus taken completely unawares.
The power of his voice enabled him to become the leader in this mutiny and his
faculty ensured that he could restrain the other prisoners and have them follow
his orders. After the deaths of the captain and another member of the crew,
Madison manages to talk the first mate out of resisting and thus avoids further
172
78
bloodshed. “I forgot his blackness in the dignity of his manner, and the
eloquence of his speech. It seemed as if the souls of both the great dead
(whose names he bore) had entered him.”173
Due to his actions and the use of his voice, Madison achieves an
astonishing act: when the ship ends up in Nassau, all the slaves are freed as
the authority in place does not sanction slavery. While he is not fond of violence
and feels guilty about the murders of the two crewmen, Madison saw the need
of the insurrection and acted upon it. “The violence necessary to attain freedom
from oppression, Douglass demonstrates, is not merely a moral dilemma for the
slave but a moral imperative for individuals and nations alike.”174
Throughout the novella, Madison does not only reclaim his voice and uses
it to ensure his freedom, but also grows as a person and claims an identity for
himself.
Before establishing Madison’s identity as an individual, Douglass presents
us with details of the black slave community as a whole. According to the public
opinion of the time, the slaves are put on an equal footing with animals and are
given the same rights, namely none. Consequently, Douglass already points
out the fact that his slave is not remembered by history for his exploits, but he is
forgotten because he was only seen as a brute. “By some strange neglect, one
of the truest, manliest, and bravest of her children [America’s], one who …
holds now no higher place in the records of that grand old Commonwealth than
is held by a horse or an ox.”175 In the same way as the author depicts the
general view on slaves, Madison himself reveals that he is seen as a beast with
all the repercussions attached to it by his pro-slavery environment. “This living
under the constant dread and apprehension of being sold and transferred, like
a mere brute, is too much for me.”176
173
Fisch, p.69
175
176
174
79
After setting his slave up in such a manner and giving him a voice to
condemn his bondage, Douglass describes the man himself. “His face was
“black, but comely.” … His whole appearance betokened Herculean strength;
yet there was nothing savage or forbidding in his aspect.”177 The author does
not only highlight Madison’s blackness but also his physical appearance and
his manliness. The reader is not told about Madison’s parentage at any point
during the novella, only that his skin colour is of a dark shade. The major part of
his identity at this point is constituted by his social status as a slave.
The next aspect of his individuality is disclosed to the reader when told
about Madison’s appellation. The origin of his full name is revealed by Madison
himself as he tells Mr Listwell that “My name is Madison, - Madison Washington
my mother used to call me.”178 Surprisingly, he is not named by his master, nor
does he rename himself before or after his escapes from slavery. It is his
mother who offers him this part of his identity, a rather important and influential
one. In fact, he is named after two authoritative American presidents, first of all,
James Madison, the 4th head of state of the United States and secondly,
George Washington, the 1st chief of state. The importance of this act of naming
is highlighted by the first mate’s statement that “… the great dead (whose
names he bore) …”179 With the benefit of hindsight, the reader is aware of the
fact that with the naming of Madison, Douglass tried to place him among other
great American leaders. He only achieved this by making Madison grow as a
person and having him develop his character and identity.
During his escape, Madison learns to toughen up and to become even
warier of others. He is not only betrayed by white bounty hunters, but also by
black fellow slaves and freedmen. Others try to help him; however, they are
cruelly punished for it when they are discovered. Ultimately, Madison realises
that he has to cope by himself and make his own way into freedom.
Nonetheless, he cannot forget the people that he left behind and so he returns
to retrieve his wife. He cannot bear to stay in liberty without her. Her death
177
179
178
80
during their attempted escape could have destroyed him further, especially as
he is arrested as well and sent back into slavery. For any other person this
might have been too much weight to shoulder and consequently, he/she would
have given up and accepted his/her fate. Madison is now homeless, alone and
finds himself trapped in the shackles of slavery again. In spite of this, Madison
regains control over himself and grows as a person, despite of all the obstacles
that are thrown into his way.
When Madison is brought aboard the slave ship, he is again only one
amongst many slaves, but as soon as the opportunity offers itself, he is ready
to take over responsibility and turn into the leader that the others in their need
require. Through his behaviour, his actions and his manner, he even manages
to make the white crew feel inferior to him.
During all the storm, Madison stood firmly at the helm, - his keen eye fixed
upon the binnacle. He was not indifferent to the dreadful hurricane; yet he met
it with the equanimity of an old sailor. He was silent but not agitated. … I
confess, gentlemen, I felt myself in the presence of a superior man; one who,
had he been a white man, I would have followed willingly and gladly in any
honourable enterprise. Our difference of color was the only ground for
difference of action. It was not that his principles were wrong in the abstract; for
they are the principles of 1776. But I could not bring myself to recognize their
application to one whom I deemed my inferior.180
The first mate is astonished at Madison’s behaviour and his ability to storm
the weather on the ship, without any former experience as a sailor. It underlines
his capability to adapt himself to the circumstances into which he is thrown. As
a result, he is able to display the noble traits of character he possesses and
even the white first mate has to admit that except for his skin colour, he would
be a man to follow as a leader, as he has all the abilities necessary for it. The
sailor even understands the necessity for freedom that Madison feels, as
everyone is supposedly born free and equal, according to the Declaration of
Independence. However, this is not case for slaves as he furthermore indicates.
180
81
“In this fusion of fact and fiction Douglass represents the slave as embodying
“the principles of 1776,” the very ideas that won America her own
independence.”181
By reaching Nassau, a safe haven for slaves, Madison achieves the goal
he most desires, real freedom for himself and his peers and even protection
from the law, as he is told that “… they [the authorities in Nassau] did not
recognize persons as property.”182 Even the first mate’s protests do not change
the situation and the last sentence of the novella uncovers the power that the
slaves received under the protection of the authorities.
They [the slaves] deliberately gathered up their baggage before our eyes,
and, against our remonstrances, poured through the gangway, - formed
themselves into a procession on the wharf, - bid farewell to all on board, and,
uttering the wildest shouts of exultation, they marched, amidst the deafening
cheers of a multitude of sympathizing spectators, under the triumphant
leadership of their heroic chief and deliverer, MADISON WASHINGTON.183
Madison therefore turns into the stereotypical heroic slave who is able to
grow as an individual and take over his own destiny. By composing this work,
Douglass has successfully created a new type of slave, highlighted the fact that
black writers were able to write fictional works and linked the slave narrative to
the slave fiction and by doing so composed one of the first African American
novels. His attempt at showing his audience that black writers were actually
able to write coherent fiction about a theme that is dear to their heart was
successful, because even though his story had been forgotten, its “rhetorical
design, its relationship to Douglass’s autobiographical writing, its development
of a fictive voice, its gendered conception of ideal manhood and its
endorsement of violent revolt”184 have turned “The Heroic Slave” into a
significant work of African American literature, linking slave narrative to slave
fiction.
181
Fisch, p.69
183
Douglass, “The Heroic Save”, p.46
184
Andrews, Foster and Harris, p.354
182
82
However, yet again, one must question in how far Douglass’ Madison can
be identified as a true model for his community. For Douglass it is crucial that
his heroic slave turns out to be a superior being, a hero for his fellows, who can
show off his intellectual and physical prowess. Madison is constructed as the
perfect black man who combines all the necessary abilities of attractiveness,
intellect, ethics and the right shade of darkness to succeed. Douglass’ struggle
with his own lighter skin colour stands in complete opposition with Madison’s,
possibly out of fear that Madison’s heroism might be attributed to his white
blood if he had any, as was the case for his creator. “But “Blackness” is a colorcoded, politically-based term of marking and definition which only has meaning
when questions of racial difference and, in particular, white supremacy are
deployed.”185 So why does Douglass constantly ponder on the ideology of
manhood in his fictional work, to such an extent that female slaves are only
depicted as damsels in distress, who need to be saved by the hero because it
is his duty? The most logical explanation is that due to the restrictions slavery
places on its subjects, men cannot fulfil their gender-codified roles as protectors
and suppliers of the family any longer. They are subdued and helpless with
regard to their relatives as well as being denied their marital and patriarchal
rights on the plantation.
… explicit social protest about racial prohibitions that restrict black men
from exercising patriarchal authority is part of their “heroic quest” because they
don’t possess all the privileges of white men. … Nineteenth-century black men,
confronted with the impossibility of being the (white) patriarch, began to subvert
certain patriarchy’s ideals and values to conform to their own images.186
Consequently, Douglass creates the superior being that avenges those
afflicted by slavery. His Madison incorporates moral and ethical values and has
a conscience which allows him to decide when violence is appropriate in order
to survive and when communication is a better solution.
185
Carole Boyce-Davies, Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject (London: Routledge,
1994), p.7
186
83
The pattern of self-restraint, of physical self-control as an avenue to moral
superiority and intellectual equality vis-à-vis white society, dominates male selfportraiture in the nineteenth century, where achieving heroic stature is most
often the means by which the black male hero also assumes the mantle of the
“patriarch”. But the black patriarch in the nineteenth century has more to do
with providing for and protecting his “dependents” than with wielding authority
or exploiting their dependency so as to achieve his own privilege. 187
The male black voice and identity is so predominant in this work that it
drowns and silences all others. The white men are only used to praise
Madison’s exploits or to witness his achievements. The voice Madison uses is
filled with eloquence, thus reinforcing his depiction of a superior individual.
Douglass also makes use of religious aspects during the construction of his
hero, as his lament at the start of the novel transforms him into a symbolic
saviour. Throughout the novella, the reader cannot shake the feeling that
Madison is too good to be true. Even though he was based on a real person,
the way in which he is portrayed is too unimpeachable and virtuous to be
viewed as an actual human being. All these characteristics are so perfectly
manufactured to fit into Douglass’ agenda that Madison’s essence is lost, there
is no self that can be discerned as he has become the puppet of the abolitionist
cause. Although he displays emotions of fear and despair, his overall
characterisation destroys the humanity that he could have shown.
Furthermore, the fact that women are not considered as individual beings
renders his novella one-dimensional. In order for Madison to be able to shine
through as the ultimate “heroic slave”, they are denied a voice and a complex
identity, as they are only depicted as objectives to be achieved by the hero on
his quest. Even Madison’s wife’s death cannot hinder the paragon from
achieving his literal holy grail. Douglass’ conception of an ideal black manhood
lies at the core of his novella and in order for it to transcend into every aspect of
the society he paints, other members have to be disregarded and have to take
into account that they are of no significance in this literary work. Naturally, we
must remember that Douglass tried to fill a void between the slave narrative
and the slave fiction and that he wanted to give a portrayal of a black man who
stands as an antithesis to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom prototype and
187
84
that as a consequence, he might have gone a bit overboard in his construction
of Madison’s voice and identity. His saviour figure is the result of an attempt to
establish the black man as a powerful, morally and physically superior being.
The heroic slave cannot stand in for an entire community, but has to be rather
seen as a literary figure, the construction of an author who wanted to highlight a
slave’s ascent to superiority.
85
86
Clotel, or, The President’s Daughter by William Wells Brown
“Why stands she near the auction stand,
That girl so young and fair?
What brings her to this dismal place,
Why stands she weeping there?”188
William Wells Brown’s Clotel, or, The President’s Daughter incorporates all
the ingredients of a slave narrative, as far as its content is concerned. In fact,
the main body of the text depicts the story of a slave girl, Clotel, who loses
everything, her family, her home, her freedom and ultimately her life, due to
slavery, the laws that are laid down by it and the pressure that she receives
from it. “Like slave narratives, the novel emphasizes its basis in fact in order to
buttress its authority as an indictment of slavery.” 189 Nonetheless, it is clearly a
work of fiction as the author’s construction betrays it as such. He intertwines
fictive articles, dialogues and statistics and often draws on the actual
Declaration of Independence to pinpoint the injustice of the system in action.
“Clotel, however, outstrips most slave narratives in its use of a variety of genres
and voices, from anecdotes, vignettes of slave life, newspaper accounts, and
folklore to songs, poems, and abolitionist rhetoric.”190 This is mainly due to the
fact that Brown was first of all an abolitionist, he spent his time giving lectures
and presenting his point of view on the matter at hand and only secondly did he
see himself as a writer.191
Clotel is considered to be one of the first African American novels, if not the
first according to some critics, even if it contained several controversies that the
white audience at the time was not willing to accept and therefore his work was
condemned as being an example of poor literature. “These many “difficult”
aspects [the controversies that will be elaborated on further on] of Brown’s work
have been read far too often as proof that early black literature is by necessity
bad black literature.”192 This is also the reason why his novel was initially
188
William Wells Brown, “Clotel, or, The President’s Daughter” in Three Great African-American Novels (New
York: Dover Publications Inc., 2008), p.51
189
190
191
192
Fisch, p.141
published in the United Kingdom and not in the United States, because as the
title already indicates the American population had a difficult time coming to
term with the themes that Brown addressed. “Most daringly, Clotel attacks not
only the hypocrisy of slaveowning and slave-condoning Christians but also the
similar hypocrisy of such republican icons as Jefferson, suggesting that the
existence of slavery fatally compromised the very ideals of the republic.”193
Before having a closer look at these controversies, one has to state why
Brown was resolved to bring his Clotel into the literary world. In the same way
as Frederick Douglass decided to compose his The Heroic Slave as a response
to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Brown’s Clotel can be identified
as a counterpart to Lydia Maria Child’s story The Quadroons. Critics have
pointed out the “atrocious” textual similarities between both works 194 and have
highlighted the fact that Brown admitted that he was inspired by Child’s work by
stating in his novel that “To Mrs Child, of New York, I am indebted for part of a
short story.”195 The reader, nonetheless, takes notice of the value of Brown’s
Clotel as it goes further in his examinations of slavery than Child’s work did, by
dwelling on different areas in life, like religious ideals, which clash with slavery.
The reasons this novel upset its audience at the time and was seen as
scandalous can be easily explained. First of all, the title put readers off by
stating that Clotel, a mulatto girl, was the result of an illegitimate relationship
between an American President, Thomas Jefferson, one of the men who
signed the Declaration of Independence, ensuring that everyone is free and
equal on American soil (except for the slaves and the American Natives) and a
black female slave. “The gentleman for whom she [Currer, Clotel’s mother] had
kept house was Thomas Jefferson, by whom she had two daughters. Jefferson
being called to Washington to fill a government appointment, Currer was left
behind ….”196 Consequently, the audience sees in Brown a black man who has
the audacity of slandering one of the most important American leaders and they
193
Eve Allegra Raimon, The “Tragic Mulatta” Revisited – Race and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century
Antislavery Fiction (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004), p.64 and p.65
195
Brown, p.202
196
Brown, p.55
194
88
believe this to be fraudulent behaviour. “It [Clotel] treats what at the time was
taken to be an ugly piece of gossip – that Thomas Jefferson fathered several
children with his slave concubine Sally Hemmings.”197
It was unthinkable at the time that a man like Jefferson could maintain illicit
relationships with his female slaves, even if this was a common day practice
and phenomenon on the plantations all over the United States. Nowadays,
science has provided us with further evidence, to support Brown’s theory of
Jefferson’s involvement with his slaves. “Indeed, given the recent scientific
findings establishing a genetic descent line from Jefferson to at least some of
the progeny of his slave Sally Hemmings, the novel would seem to demand
greater critical scrutiny and stature than it has thus far enjoyed ….”198 Brown’s
decision to make an American President the parent of his “tragic mulatto”
heroine was clearly seen as an affront by his white audience and his novel was
therefore dismissed by the general public as being imposturous. “Clotel
frequently quotes the Declaration of Independence to expose the hypocrisy of
the Unites States government during slavery.” 199 Society could not and still
cannot stand the fact that someone holds up a mirror to it and points out its
deficiencies, even less if the one in possession of the looking glass is
supposedly racially, morally and intellectually inferior and should therefore not
be allowed to slander its superiors.
Secondly, Brown is criticised for his use of a mixed-race slave as the main
character of his novel and by using the stereotype of the “tragic mulatto” girl in
the same way as Child did. Furthermore, Clotel, the heroine, is praised in the
text for her near whiteness, unlike Douglass’ Madison, who is seen as a hero
for his darkness and his manliness. The decision to make Clotel as white as
somehow possible, may have to do with Brown’s own mixed-race status, but
unfortunately, his audiences, both white and later black, denounce Clotel for
her appearance, as it gives her social advantages at the start that her fellow
slaves do not receive. As such Clotel is given her own home and commodities
197
Fisch, p. 141
Raimon, p.66
199
Grice, Hepworth, Lauret and Padget, p.71
198
89
that others can only dream of. “Still others have suggested that Brown, along
with many other early Black American authors, populated their works with fairskinned characters in order to pander to their mainly white readership.”200 The
fact that Brown himself belongs to this particular branch of the racial order has
been left aside in this logic, but it might explain why he used Clotel as his main
protagonist, as he drew from his personal experiences to compose his novel.
“William Wells Brown was born on a plantation near Lexington, Kentucky, the
son of a white man who never acknowledged his fatherhood and a slave
woman whose only name was Elizabeth.”201
Thirdly, Brown has been taken to task for his negative depiction of black
people in his novel. This actually goes hand in hand with the second argument
made against him. In fact, the darker the person, the meaner his/her behaviour
is described towards Clotel. There is a certain tension between the darker and
the lighter protagonists in the story and Brown has been criticised for using the
dark-skinned people as a way to break the novel’s seriousness, in the same
way as a white writer would have done. “To make matters worse, Brown
borrows heavily from a minstrel tradition in which dark-skinned black slaves
provided comic relief with their continual malapropisms and clownish antics.” 202
This controversy is of course mainly pointed out by the black community, who
reproached Brown of this one-sided, even seemingly racist approach to writing.
However, he actually addresses a problem that is strongly anchored within this
community, namely racism amongst it. “The narrator [Brown] observes that
there is considerable prejudice ‘even among the negroes themselves’ about
racial coloration. ‘The nearer the negro or the mulatto approaches to the white,’
he says, ‘the more he seems to feel his superiority over those of darker
hue.’”203 It is needless to say that the same principal works the other way
around as well.
200
Fisch, p.141
202
Fisch, p.141
203
Gray, p.187
201
90
Nevertheless, Brown’s Clotel and his writing is now widely accepted by
African Americans and seen as his attempt to break free from the white
standards established by authors, such as Beecher and Child, who were so
greatly admired up until this point. “For a people prevented from reading and
writing by law, it is not surprising that novel writing and novelists have since
[since the publication of Brown’s Clotel] become highly valued within African
American culture.”204 It is obvious that not only the protagonists within the novel
were trying to reclaim their voice and identity, but Brown as its author and as a
former slave was attempting a similar enterprise. “But when Brown chose to
write about mulattoes, he was not turning away from his condition but towards
it, and it is only by the standards of an absolute black nationalism that he can
be accused of denying his people.”205 After having a closer look at his personal
struggles, Clotel’s fight and ultimate perilous flight from slavery shall now be
analysed in the light of voice and identity.
Clotel includes the stories of several people, which are intertwined, either
through the context of slavery and/or through family bonds. The reader is told
about Currer’s and Althesa’s fate, Clotel’s mother and sister, as well as her
daughter Mary’s whereabouts. The author also introduces a slave holding
minister, Mr Peck, and his abolitionist daughter, Georgiana and other minor
characters. While all of them are of substantial value within the narrative, this
analysis will concentrate mainly on Clotel’s voice and identity, as she is the
main protagonist and the eponymous heroine of the story.
Clotel is seldom given the opportunity to voice herself within the narrative,
in fact she is rarely offered the possibility to say anything in her own name. The
omniscient author takes over the retelling; however, the reader soon realises
that through this literary device, Brown ensures that the audience is aware of
the fact that when Clotel speaks her statements carry a great weight. As a
consequence one cannot really talk about claiming or reclaiming her voice in
Clotel’s case, nevertheless, when she is provided with the occasion to talk, all
her declarations are of great importance.
204
205
Graham, p.1
Graham, p.22
91
When the reader first encounters Clotel, she is one of many who are for
sale at a slave auction. “Amongst the above slaves to be sold were Currer and
her two daughters, Clotel and Althesa; the latter were the girls spoken of in the
advertisement as “very superior”.”206 She does not have the right to speak up
for herself, neither to indict the injustice of these proceedings nor to state her
wish to remain with her mother and/or sister. Fortunately or not, depending on
how the reader views the future events linked to this decision, her mother has
found a suitable buyer and potential liberator for Clotel beforehand, at a socalled “negro ball”, a type of marriage bureau for mulatto girls. In this matter
Clotel does not have a say for herself either.
Although the term “negro ball” is applied to most of these gatherings, yet a
majority of the attendants are often whites. Nearly all the negro parties in the
cities and towns of the Southern States are made up of quadroon and mulatto
girls, and white men. … Clotel was sixteen, and was admitted by all to be the
most beautiful girl, coloured or white, in the city. … He [Horatio Green] soon
promised to purchase Clotel, as speedily as it could be effected, and make her
mistress of her own dwelling; and Currer looked forward with pride to the time
when she should see her daughter emancipated and free.207
During the sale, Clotel is voiceless yet again; however, her appearance on
the auction block speaks for itself and stuns the viewers, getting them to bid
highly on her.
There she stood, with a complexion as white as most of those who were
waiting with a wish to become her purchasers; her features as finely defined as
any of her sex of pure Anglo-Saxon; her long black wavy hair done up in the
neatest manner; her form tall and graceful, and her whole appearance
indicating one superior to her position.208
The reader might think that throughout these life changing proceedings,
Clotel must have had some thoughts to communicate and should have had the
possibility to voice herself, however, this is not the case. It might be imagined
that she could not speak up for herself, due to the unfamiliarity of the situation,
or perhaps even shyness, as she was not used to being thus handled. The
reader meets Clotel again in her small home, provided to her by Horatio Green,
206
Brown, p.55
Brown, p.55 and p.56
208
Brown, p.57
207
92
her new master. She seems to be content enough, but due to her upbringing
and education, she will not live in sin with Horatio, well knowing that an interracial marriage is not sanctified by law or by the church. Therefore, she speaks
up and asks her master to make their marriage, if not legal, at least rightful in
her eyes.
… though she well knew that a union with her proscribed race was
unrecognised by law, and therefore the ceremony would give her no legal hold
on Horatio’s constancy. … she replied, “If the mutual love we have for each
other, and the dictates of your own conscience do not cause you to remain my
husband, and your affections fall from me, I would not, if I could, hold you by a
single fetter.” It was indeed a marriage sanctioned by heaven, although
unrecognised on earth.209
Clotel clearly states her wish by voicing it and Horatio, who is smitten by
her charms, accepts. Their union is crowned with the birth of a baby daughter,
named Mary. However, Horatio’s attitude towards her and his plans for the
future are already changing and consequently he does not follow Clotel’s
advice to go to continental Europe, where both she and Mary could be free and
have legal rights. She is not given a voice as the text only indicates that “Clotel
now urged Horatio to remove to France or England … where colour was not a
crime.”210 The author’s narrative voice has taken Clotel’s place and it does not
seem to be a coincidence that Horatio does not pay heed to her thoughts.
Shortly afterwards, the reader and Clotel are told that Horatio plans to get
married to a white lady, in order to advance both politically and socially. He
does not reveal this to Clotel personally, but she finds out through rumours. By
asking a simple question in a certain tone of voice, Clotel discloses her despair
at the situation, but also her yearning to clear up the situation. “At length, in
words scarcely audible, Clotel said: “Tell me, dear Horatio, are you to be
married next week?”.”211 While Horatio uses an entire flow of words and
expressions, which all appear meaningless to the reader, considering Clotel’s
situation, the audience also becomes aware of the power of Clotel’s voice,
when she is allowed to use it openly in the narrative. With a question, she was
209
Brown, p.70 and p.71
Brown, p.71
211
Brown, p.92
210
93
able to destroy Horatio’s well-elaborated tissue of lies and hopes of having both
women and now she can choose her future path, in a limited manner, as she
will under no circumstances turn into his illegitimate mistress. Their discussion
is not recounted in minute detail, suffice it to say that Clotel makes her position
clear and underlines it in her last goodbye, which is given verbatim. “ “Farewell,
dearest Horatio,” said Clotel. “Give me a parting kiss.” … “It is our last. To meet
thus is henceforth crime. God bless you. I would not have you so miserable as I
am. Farewell. A last farewell.”.”212
Following this, no further conversation between Horatio and Clotel is
recorded, not even when the new Mrs Green decides to sell Clotel and take
Mary into her service, after finding out in what relation they stand to her
husband. Silently, without any exchange of words, Horatio’s first love is sold off
like an animal. Of course, no statements from Clotel could have further
amplified the feeling of indignity that the reader feels towards Horatio’s
behaviour, especially as he had once promised her to free her and her
daughter. Instead, both are trapped further in slavery than ever before.
Clotel, who up until now has not faced the reality of a life as a slave, due to
her mother’s education and upbringing, finds herself stuck as a waiting-maid
with all the consequences attached to it. As a result, Clotel loses her long hair
as Mrs French, her new mistress, fears that her beauty might entice her
husband into having a relationship with her. Furthermore, Clotel is confronted
with racism for the first time as the other slaves, who are of a darker skin
colour, ally themselves and bully Clotel as they feel that she behaves in a
superior way towards them. While Clotel does not voice her despair, she
grieves in silence and consequently starts fading away and the state of her
health is deteriorating. Even though her protest is voiceless, Clotel
nevertheless succeeds in her silent protest which depicts her misery and as a
result she is sold off once again and thus escapes her cruel masters and their
subjects.
212
Brown, p.93
94
However, Clotel’s situation does not improve. In spite of the fact that her
new master, Mr Cooper, does not hurt her physically or with words, he does
something just as cruel: he persecutes her with his advances, which she
refuses. She is afraid that her master will lose his gentle manners towards her if
she continues denying herself to him and realises that sooner or later she will
have to give in, either willingly or through force. At this point in time she comes
into contact with William, a fellow slave at Mr Cooper’s, who tells her about his
escape plans. Following this, the reader is confronted with the longest dialogue
on Clotel’s part that can be found within the novel. William gives her an idea on
how she could escape. “One day the quadroon [Clotel] observed to him
[William] that her hair was growing out again. “Yes,” replied William, “you look a
good deal like a man with your short hair.” … “If I had the money,” continued
she, “I would bid farewell to this place.”213 A second dialogue is transcribed
verbatim, in which William offers Clotel all of his money to gain her freedom,
resulting in the decision that both of them will try to reach a Free State.
… [William] said, “There, Miss Clotel, you said if you had the means you
would leave this place; there is money enough to take you to England, where
you will be free. … “I will take the money only on one condition,” said she; “and
that is, that I effect your escape as well as my own.” “How can that be done?”
he inquired. “I will assume the disguise of a gentleman and you that of a
servant, and we will take passage on a steamboat and go to Cincinnati, and
thence to Canada.”214
The most important decision in her life is thus given to the reader in Clotel’s
own words and consequently highlights its importance. Together with William,
Clotel is able to escape into a Free State. During their flight, she passes as a
white gentleman, Mr Johnson, and seldom speaks to anyone, feigning illness,
in order not to betray her identity. There is no dialogue or monologue of hers
put down throughout her escape.
213
Brown, p.140
95
Although Clotel could now spend her life in freedom, she cannot forget her
daughter and therefore decides to return to Richmond in order to learn about
her whereabouts and attempt to retrieve her. She puts her plan into action and
as Mr Johnson she manages to get back to her home town. Unfortunately, she
arrives during the trouble of the Nat Turner insurrection and all the slave
holders are on the lookout for runaways and strangers. As a result, she is
arrested by city officers, who put her into prison. She lets all this happen
wordlessly and does not put up any defence. “… a further investigation that
resulted in the arrest of Clotel as a fugitive slave. She was immediately
conveyed to prison, there to await the orders of her master.”215 Even if she
does not show any outward reaction, the author tells us that she is aware of the
consequences. “For many days, uncheered by the voice of kindness, alone,
hopeless, desolate, she waited for the time to arrive when the chains were to
be placed on her limbs, and she returned to her inhuman and unfeeling
owner.”216
In fact, the courageous and desperate response to her arrest takes place
sometime later, while she is being transferred from one prison to another.
Knowing that her master would not forgive her for her flight and that he will use
her to his heart’s content from now on, she takes a leap of fate and runs away.
During her escape, she realises that there is no way out, as people are trying to
apprehend her and are cutting off her way into liberty. Her ultimate resolve to
this dilemma is taken wordlessly by her: she commits suicide by jumping off a
bridge.
She clasped her hands convulsively, and raised them, as she at the same
time raised her eyes towards heaven, and begged for that mercy and
compassion there, which had been denied her on earth; and then, with a single
bound, she vaulted over the railings of the bridge, and sunk for ever beneath
the waves of the river! Thus died Clotel, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, a
president of the United States; a man distinguished as the author of the
Declaration of American Independence, and one of the first statesmen of that
country.217
215
Brown, p.177
Brown, p.177
217
Brown, p.181
216
96
Brown knows well enough that he could have given Clotel the opportunity
to speak up for herself; however, he is aware that no one on this bridge
pursuing her would have had any interest in listening to her. Therefore, he
decided to include a poem about her death and has it published in a newspaper
the next day, to inform the public of this occurrence as Clotel was unable to do
so herself.
That bond-woman’s corpse – let Potomac’s proud wave
Go bear it along by our Washington’s grave,
And heave it high up on that hallowed strand,
To tell of the freedom he won for our land.
A weak woman’s corpse, by freemen chased down;
Hurrah for our country! hurrah
To freedom she leaped, through drowning and deathHurrah for our country! hurrah!218
The author uses his narrative voice once more in his final chapter, entitled
“Conclusion”. He addresses his readers and assures them of his work’s
authenticity. By informing them and enlightening them of the slaves’ serious
and desperate situation, he hopes to change this. Furthermore, he appeals to
his British contemporaries to use their potential influence to abolish slavery
overseas through political pressure.
I have personally participated in many of those scenes. Some of the
narratives I have derived from other sources; many from the lips of those who,
like myself, have run away from the land of bondage. … Finally, let the voice of
the whole British nation be heard across the Atlantic, and throughout the length
and breadth of the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, beseeching their descendants,
as they value the common salvation, which knows no distinction between the
bond and the free, to proclaim the Year of Jubilee.219
In order for Clotel’s voice to be heard, the author has to bring his own in
and only by combining both, the novel has the potential to convince its readers
of the wrongfulness of slavery, controversies notwithstanding.
218
219
Brown, p.183
Brown, p.202 and p. 203
97
As far as Clotel’s identity is concerned, the reader is immediately
confronted by her parentage, when glimpsing at the title of the novel. The fact
that Thomas Jefferson is supposed to have sired her and the audience’s
reaction to this statement, have already been discussed beforehand. As a
consequence, Clotel is not as fatherless as many other slaves, who have been
denied the knowledge of who their father actually is. She also has a strong and
unusual bond to her mother, Currer, who worked rather independently as a
laundress and thus had the possibility to raise her daughters freely, maybe
even irresponsibly as they were brought up as ladies, rather than as slaves.
Consequently, the girls acquired polished manners, which are considered as a
trait of arrogance by their fellow slaves and which will make their life and that of
their daughters subsequently even harder.
Currer early resolved to bring her daughters up as ladies, as she termed it,
and therefore imposed little or no work upon them. As her daughters grew
older, Currer had to pay a stipulated price for them; yet her notoriety as a
laundress of the first class enabled her to put an extra price upon her charges,
and thus she and her daughters lived in comparative luxury.220
Through her education and separate upbringing in her mother’s house,
Clotel already stands apart from other slaves. This gulf is further deepened by
the choice of her name, as it sounds exotic to the ear and is clearly not one
chosen by a master, but rather by her mother. Nonetheless, the author never
actually tells us who named her and what her appellation stands for and
therefore the reader is left in the dark as far as this area of Clotel’s identity is
concerned.
Clotel’s distance from others is further amplified by her racial identity, as a
mulatta or quadroon, a nearly white black girl. This characteristic is certainly
nothing that can be logically blamed on her, as it is connected to her genetic
heritage, which she could not and cannot influence. In fact, Brown points out
within the first pages of his novel the origin of this problem, namely slavery.
220
Brown, p.55
98
With the growing population of slaves in the Southern States of America,
there is a fearful increase of half whites, most of whose fathers are
slaveowners, and their mothers slaves. Society does not frown upon the man
who sits with his mulatto child upon his knee, whilst its mother stands a slave
behind his chair. … In all the cities and towns of the slave states, the real
negro, or clear black, does not amount to more than one in every four of the
slave population. This fact is, of itself, the best evidence of the degraded and
immoral condition of the relation of master and slave in the United States of
America.221
Slavery is the source of this unnecessary and highly traumatic evil and all
the children from mixed-raced involvements that happened to turn out whiter
than they were supposed to be had to suffer from it. The injustices that Clotel is
subjected to are just fictional examples, but they mirror the reality of what was
taking place in the United States at the time and the feeling of dejection felt by
many, is one that Brown shares.
Brown’s “racial identity” was not a single matter. In 1853 and living in
England, he was rejecting a world divided into black and white. By 1860 and
living in the United States, he had begun to abandon the hope that his selves –
white and black – could be accepted by both black and white.222
These people are not received favourably by society, not by the white nor
by the black part of it, because they do not fit into the stereotypical categories
that have been established. As a consequence, they are despised as “the
other” by both sides and rejected by all, which is exemplified in Clotel’s case.
At her [Clotel’s] short hair, the other servants laughed, “Miss Clo needn’t
strut round so big, she got short nappy har well as I,” said Nell, with a broad
grin that showed her teeth “She tinks she white, when she come here wid dat
long har of hers,” replied Mill. “Yes,” continued Nell; “missus make her take
down her wool so she no put it up to-day.” The fairness of Clotel’s complexion
was regarded with envy as well by other servants as by the mistress herself.223
This conversation between the darker-skinned servants at Mrs French’s
mirrors the prejudices that people like Clotel had to face on a daily basis. Brown
is criticised for the portrait of these black women; however, he probably based
them yet again on personal experience or hearsay.
221
Brown, p.51
Graham, p.22 and p.23
223
Brown, p.122
222
99
Black-skinned women are infrequently developed as characters,
infrequently given a name, and are infrequently made to speak. … Brown does
have black women break the general silence in a way which reflects well on
them, but more commonly he offers a character such as Dinah, a black cook,
who appears briefly to make a cruel remark about the mulatto heroine.224
In the same way as he is criticised for the way in which he portrayed these
characters, he is held responsible for making them look uneducated, even
comical. On other occasions, he changes the dialect which black people use,
depending on the people they address, which his critics also reproach him with.
“Brown has strangely purposive variations on the dialogue convention so that
he makes the heroine’s mother speak Standard English when she lives
independently with her daughters but makes her speak Black English when she
becomes a kitchen slave.”225 Brown uses this literary device, in order to
highlight the fact that Currer, as well as her daughters, received the education
equal to that of white ladies, but still remember their social background.
Clotel’s identity is from the beginning fixed in this limbo, she is regarded as
an outsider by everyone and everything that ensues later in the novel is
connected to her mulatto identity. During her escape, Clotel does not take the
usual approach that is available to her by nature to disguise herself. With her
fair skin, she could just pretend to be a white lady, especially as she has the
appropriate education to go with it. The act of passing has often been used as
a literary device in African American literature, to come to term with the mixedrace heritage that was inherited by slavery.
Passing refers to the act of crossing the socially constructed “color line”
that separates white and black Americans, though the term has broad
applications for other ethnic or racial groups, as well as for categories of
gender, sexuality, or class. Racial passing has special importance for African
American writers, who have used it as a theme that sheds light on the various
meanings of race, identity, and color in the United States.226
224
Graham, p.26
Graham, p.27
226
225
100
In fact, Clotel decides to use the gender passing to acquire William’s and
her temporary freedom, by travelling as a white gentleman. “The sheer
frequency of scenes of cross-dressing in Clotel, together with their increasing
elaboration, suggests the importance of the motif to Brown.”227 By taking on the
identity of Mr Johnson and cross-dressing, Clotel is able to leave the grasp of
slavery and could even have secured herself her freedom.
While Clotel could have fulfilled the stereotype of the “tragic mulatta” and
taken its identity, due to her untimely and devastating death, she is able to
surpass this image. First of all, the main tragic element about her figure is her
suicide and the circumstances surrounding it. “At least until her extraordinarily
stylized and iconic demise, Brown’s mulatta character is far from “tragic”.” 228
Secondly, even her death acquires a note of self-determination. She chooses
to jump, because she refuses to go back to her master. Although, she is aware
of the fact that her decision has fatal repercussions, she is willing to take these
into account. “While Clotel, like many a “tragic mulatta” in nineteenth-century
American fiction, is distinguished by her beauty, her idealism, her barely
traceable American ancestry, and her disappointments in love, she also proves
herself an active and combative figure by the end of her story.”229
Brown’s ending enables Clotel to outshine the identity and the rigid frame
that she had been pushed into by society and his narrative voice furthermore
ensures that she will not be forgotten by the reader. Even though Brown had to
struggle to make his work known and had to fight against a multitude of
accusations from his audience, he managed to approach various vital themes
such as “passing” (for another) and the tragic mulatto identity in Clotel. His work
is nowadays rightfully identified as one of the important first African American
novels, an example of slave fiction and a successor of the slave narrative.
227
Raimon, p.81
Raimon, p.83
229
228
101
Nonetheless, Brown’s writing still remains open to attack. His main
protagonist, Clotel, is effectively silenced throughout the novel and is seldom
given the opportunity to voice herself. Although, this might be a literary tactic to
ponder on the importance of her voice, it still subdues her to the narrative voice
and its whims. The author is truly responsible for what the content and the tone
of her speech and the point of time when she is allowed to speak. This is quite
clear from the start and the reader cannot neglect this fact. It is praiseworthy of
Brown to attempt to use a main female character in his work as a male writer,
but instead of going about and developing the recurring theme of “passing”
race, he prefers to make Clotel deny her sex and turns her into a man in order
to escape. Clotel could have fled slavery just as well while dressing up and
passing as a white lady, which would have come to her naturally as she
received an adequate education for it, rather than transform into a white man.
By doing this, the author effectively discards the female from the equation and
reduces Clotel to a mere bystander. The quote that fits the minor black female
characters comes into play in this scenario as well. “Black-skinned women are
infrequently developed as characters, infrequently given a name, and are
infrequently made to speak.”230 Although Clotel is the main protagonist in the
novel and she is given a name, she is not given any more leniency in the
construction of her identity and voice as those scarily developed women
mentioned above.
While Brown probably finds it easier to identify himself with a male,
notwithstanding the skin colour, it is irritating for the reader that Clotel does not
only have to deny her voice, but also her sex, in order to run away. The
following question arises: would Clotel not have completed her journey
successfully as a white woman and is Brown therefore an advocate of figures
such as Douglass’ heroic male slave? In any case, the worth of female slaves
is diminished, as they are not seen as being capable to escape the power
discourse in which they are entrapped. Her motherhood stands in Clotel’s way
and is ultimately her downfall as it makes her return to retrieve her daughter.
230
Graham, p.26
102
Again she travels under a male disguise. The journey itself is completed without
suspicion from outsiders; however, she is detected on arrival in Richmond.
The end of the novel also brings about further issues as one might wonder
if Clotel really had to commit suicide. While Madison is able to cope with his
wife’s death, Clotel is crushed under the weight of discovery and impending
imprisonment. Up until this point, her character did not fit in with the “tragic
mulatta” figure and consequently, was rather innovative, so why did Brown
decide to let her die instead of finding a happy ending with her daughter? It is
clear that by removing her from the plot at the end, Brown is able to take over
the entire narrative again and can compose an obituary for her and once more
highlight the cruelty of slavery. Clotel’s tragic death and the issues it fashions
are certainly of greater importance and impact to the abolitionist cause than her
personal happiness would have been. Unfortunately, Brown does not create a
completely individualised character with various layers of self in Clotel, but
rather a translucent one, whose identity is never clear and who is impossible to
grasp as a person. The reader understands the reasons why Brown
constructed Clotel the way he did; however, we cannot refrain from regretting
the fact that the author’s own narrative voice and identity carries more weight in
the plot that his character’s.
103
104
Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E. Wilson
Frado, as they called one of Mag’s children, was a beautiful mulatto, with
long, curly black hair, and handsome, roguish eyes, sparkling with an
exuberance of spirit almost beyond restraint. ... Why the impetuous child
entered the house [the Bellmonts’], we cannot tell; the door closed, and Mag
hastily departed. Frado waited for the close of day, which was to bring back her
mother. Alas! it never came. It was the last time she ever saw or heard of her
mother.231
Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black was composed by
Harriet E. Wilson and was published in 1859, but unfortunately was not
recognised as a valid piece of literature for a number of decades by either
critics or the general public. In fact, it was thought to be the work of a white
male abolitionist, before a lot research went into it and its true source was
revealed. Not many details of Wilson’s biography have been uncovered;
however, with the help of clues within Our Nig, which is thought to be a semibiographical story, quite a few facts about her life have been exposed and the
importance of the novel for African American literature has finally been
recognized. As a result, the novel has been pronounced to be the first African
American novel written by a woman.
Long thought to be white, Harriet E. Wilson and her one novel, Our Nig,
had been mere footnotes to nineteenth-century American literary history, and
obscure ones at that, until 1981. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and David Curtis’s
research came on the heels of the republication of rediscovered white women
writers and the incipient attention paid to early African American women
authors.232
Wilson’s work is not only filled with many components of her life, but it also
creates a connection to the earlier slave narratives, due to the structure of its
story, even though the events described do not take place in the south of the
United States nor on a plantation. “… recently Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig; or
Sketches From the Life of A Free Black (1859) has been recognized as an
important fictional autobiography that integrates the literary qualities of
sentimental abolitionist fiction with the structures and tropes of the slave
231
Harriet E. Wilson, “Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black” in Three Great African-American
Novels (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 2008), p.217 and p.220
232
narrative.”233 While there are certainly elements of a slave narrative within Our
Nig, it cannot be easily classified and placed into a specific literary category. A
variety of different genres blends into Wilson’s work and thus creates a singular
piece of work.
Our Nig is a fascinating hybrid. It is, first, an autobiography, a deeply
personal confession and a cry for help. Founded on some of the author’s own
experiences, it begins with her saying that she is ‘forced to some experiment’ to
maintain her child and herself and ends with a straight appeal to the reader for
support.234
Wilson attempts to reach the same goals as the authors of the slave
narratives, to have her voice heard and to get people to change their attitude
towards those who find themselves in a similar position, as well as earning her
living.
While the main protagonist in the story, Our Nig, is a mixed-raced free girl,
and not a “common” slave or runaway, she is trapped in a system that takes
advantage of her in an almost identical way. “In Our Nig …, slavery is
presented as the white appropriation of black labour.”235 The reader might think
that as Frado, or Our Nig, is not a “real” slave by title that her fate as a house
servant should be far easier to tolerate, as it seems to only include household
duties. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as her position in society is not any
different than the one of a house slave on a plantation. “Not only an
autobiography with a fictional addendum, Our Nig follows the classic pattern of
the slave narrative, so as to show that ‘slavery’s shadows fall even there’, in the
North among indentured servants and other victims of racism.”236 The North,
which is presumed to be a safe haven by and for all runaway slaves and free
black slaves, is not a paradise for Frado, as she is neglected, beaten, starved
and subjected to the whims of the Bellmonts, the family that took her in. “It is
important to note, as we turn to Wilson’s novel, that the practice of indenturing
a free black girl to a white family was not uncommon, especially considering the
233
Fisch, p.77
Gray, p.193
235
Graham, p.22
236
Gray, p.193
234
106
extra economic burden faced by free blacks in Northern cities in the 1850s.” 237
Of course, this practice was not entirely legalised with regard to the treatment
of those indentured and consequently, the servants were still used as their
master thought fit and their situation was not enviable.
The themes that Wilson discusses are both varied and of great importance
to African Americans: racism, prejudice, the misleading belief that the North
would give a former slave a peace of mind and body they were after and an
accurate description of the life of a black girl in a white household. She also
works on and reworks the stereotype of the “tragic mulatta” within the plot as
Frado is of mixed-race, her mother being white and her father black. Her
mother took the decision to start a relationship with her father because she was
on the brim of starvation and needed his financial support. Wilson gives
economic reasons as to why she had to sit down and bring her experiences to
paper and maybe in a way to apologise for her work and explain herself on the
topic. “In the preface Wilson explained that Our Nig writes this story in order to
provide for herself and her child but in the process she exposes Northern
racism – especially that of white women – in no uncertain terms.”238 Even if her
initial plan was to find a way to make ends meet, her story brought up all the
issues that were of concern to African Americans at the time and nowadays.
She tries to open the reader’s eyes to this unfortunate situation and addresses
her white audience to get them to change their behaviour towards their black
servants. By talking about her own experiences, she lays bare the cruelty of
white mistresses and the unwillingness of white masters to step up to their
servants’ protection and to confront their wives with their uncharitable
behaviour.
237
238
Raimon, p.125
107
“Her creation, this hybrid “… in which [she] express[es] and explore[s]
[herself]: a form that gives [her] a chance of narrating, properly, [her]
identity.”239, that mixes various genres, is her way of dealing with her past and
her uncertain future. It enabled her to present herself and built up her own
voice and identity, through Frado, her main protagonist, in the same way as
Frado is shaped by her creator.
Not much is said on Frado’s account until she turns six, at which moment
her white mother, Mag, and her “stepfather”, Seth (or rather her mother’s new
boyfriend), decide to leave the place where they have been living in search of a
new job. They believe that it would be best for their prospects to leave Frado
behind and Seth sets about to tell the girl about their plans. While the reader
might think that a young child of six could not entirely grasp the meaning of
such words coming from an adult, Frado is quick to recognize them for what
they are and voices her disagreement.
… “Frado is such a wild, frolicky thing, and means to do jest as she’s a
mind to; she won’t go if she don’t want to. I don’t want to tell her she is to be
given away.” [replied Mag] – “I will,” said Seth. “Come here, Frado?” The child
seemed to have some dim foreshadowing of evil, and declined. “Come here,”
he continued; “I want to tell you something.” She came reluctantly. He took her
hand and said: “We’re going to move, by-‘m-bye; will you go?” – “No!”
screamed she; and giving a sudden jerk which destroyed Seth’s equilibrium, left
him sprawling on the floor, while she escaped through the open door.240
Not only does Frado voice her indignation, but she also lets actions speak
for her: she runs away from home. In a way, one can say that she has already
a certain power over her voice and thoughts; however, her ability to be heard
by others will be subdued as soon as she is left behind (intentionally) at the
Bellmonts’ home. She is ripped out of her family by her own mother and left at
other people’s mercy, although Mag is aware that “His wife [Mrs Bellmont] is a
right she-devil! … She can’t keep a girl in the house over a week [a hired white
servant].”241 But by accomplishing this act, Mag was able to dispose of her
mixed-raced daughter, who was a social burden to her as a white woman.
239
Gray, p.193
Wilson, p.218
241
Wilson, p.218
240
108
During the entire interaction that takes place at the Bellmonts’ home, where
the decision is taken to “accept” Frado as an indentured house servant, Frado
does not utter a single word. She is shown into a room at the back of the
house, below the roof and left there, alone with her thoughts and emotions. She
ponders on the fact that she might be able to fend for herself somewhere else,
but still hopes that her mother might retrieve her.
She was of wilful, determined nature, a stranger to fear, and would not
hesitate to wander away should she decide to. She remembered the
conversation of her mother with Seth, the words “given away” which she heard
used in reference to herself; and though she did not know their full import, she
thought she should, by remaining, be in some relation to white people she was
never favoured with before. So she resolved to tarry, with the hope that mother
would come and get her some time.242
Thus start her twelve years in bondage, filled with hatred and beatings,
during which she nevertheless also receives signs of compassion and affection
by a number of people in the household. After a single year, she has already
been given a great amount of chores to dispatch, although she is only seven
years old. Luckily for her Mr Bellmont realises that he has a certain legal
obligation towards her and he “… declared decisively that she should go to
school.”243 This is done against the wishes of his wife who “… was in doubt
about the utility of attempting to educate people of color, who were incapable of
elevation.”244 Nonetheless, Mr Bellmont knows better than to ignore the law.
“As beneficiaries of the poor relief system of indenture, the Bellmonts were
legally obligated to provide a minimum amount of schooling for their female
servant.”245
Frado is finally given the opportunity to become literate and to develop a
voice for herself in this environment. Of course, this annoys Mary, one of the
Bellmonts’ daughters, intensely as it means that “… she would have to attend
the same school as she did.”246 In a first instance, Frado is bullied by the other
children at school, which Mary is pleased about. “Mary evidently relished these
242
Wilson, p.223
Wilson, p.225
244
Wilson, p.225
245
Raimon, p.134
246
Wilson, p.224
243
109
sharp attacks, and saw a fair prospect of lowering Nig where, according to her
views, she belonged.”247 Fortunately, Frado is rescued by Miss Marsh, the
schoolteacher, who tells her pupils off and shows them through her own
behaviour how they should act appropriately, without prejudice, towards Frado
and other people of colour from this point in time onwards. “She [Miss Marsh]
then reminded them of their duties to the poor and friendless; their cowardice in
attacking a young innocent child; referred them to one who looks not on
outward appearances, but on the heart. … Example rendered her words
efficacious.”248 As a result, Frado is accepted by all, except for Mary, and she is
liked and admired by them. “Under the empowering influence of Miss Marsh,
therefore, Frado thrives, transforming herself not just from silent object to
speaking subject but also to a position of community leadership.”249 Naturally,
Mary, as a younger copy of her mother, cannot accept the fact that Frado has a
voice and is even socially recognized for it.
And so Mary decides to play a nasty trick on Frado to shame her and put
her back into her “rightful” position. However, her stratagem fails and instead of
Frado falling into a stream, Mary does and both need help. “Some of the larger
scholars being in sight, ran, and thus prevented Mary from drowning and Frado
from falling.”250 Of course Mary cannot cope with the outcome of her ploy and
regrets the circumstance that their school comrades were as eager to assist
Frado as her. “In this scene, Mary’s attempt to exert class and race dominion
over Frado fails twice – once in the actual execution and again because the
children, now transformed by Miss Marsh’s influence, rescue both playmates at
once rather than making distinctions based on social ranking or race.” 251
Encouraged by the support she receives at school, Frado hopes that the
Bellmonts will believe her that she did not try to trap Mary, but that everything
occurred the other way round.
247
Wilson, p.225
Wilson, p.225
249
Raimon, p.136
250
Wilson, p.226
251
Raimon, p.137
248
110
“I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it!” answered Nig, passionately, and then related
the occurrence truthfully. The discrepancy greatly enraged Mrs Bellmont. With
loud accusations and angry gestures she approached the child. Turning to her
husband, she asked, “Will you sit still, there, and hear that black nigger call
Mary a liar?” – “How do we know but she has told the truth? I shall not punish
her,” he replied, and left the house, as he usually did when a tempest
threatened to envelop him.252
As might be expected, Mrs Bellmont refuses to see Mary as a deceiver and
accordingly, Frado is beaten as the fibber and to add insult to injury, she invites
her daughter to lend a helping hand to the enterprise. “No sooner was he [Mr
Bellmont] out of sight than Mrs B. and Mary commenced beating her
inhumanly; then propping her mouth open with a piece of wood, shut her up in
a dark room, without any supper.”253 The act of gagging her after the beating
clearly symbolises the fact that she should keep her mouth shut and that she
should not make use of her voice. The encouragement that she received at
school should not enter the domestic sphere and this battering, unjustified or
not, should show her that her word does not count as much as a white’s.
Of course, the ideological work that the beating does is to reassure the
Bellmont family and presumably the larger white community that though this
young, attractive, “yellow” girl lives under the same roof as the Bellmonts, she
indeed does not belong. … The punches, the pinches, the slaps, the pieces of
wood wedged into her mouth reiterate “the fact” of Frado’s African origins, her
separateness from the metaphorical American family represented by the
Bellmonts.254
Jack, Mary’s brother is horrified by what happened and tries to put right the
wrong that was done to Frado, as soon as he finds out about it.
“Where is Frado?” he continued. “Mother gave her a good whipping and
shut her up,” replied Mary. … The knowledge of her innocence, the perfidy of
his sister, worked fearfully on Jack. He bounded from his chair, searched every
room till he found the child; her mouth wedged apart, her face swollen, and full
of pain. … He resolved to do what he could to protect her from Mary and his
mother. He bought her a dog, which became a great favourite with both.255
252
Wilson, p.226
Wilson, p.226
254
Fisch, p.145
255
Wilson, p.227
253
111
As a result, Frado takes courage again and while she remains subdued at
home, she manages to develop further at school and grow as a person. “In Mrs
Bellmont’s presence she was under restraint; but in the kitchen, and among her
schoolmates, the pent up fires burst forth.”256 After three years of schooling, in
which she went to school for three months a year, Mrs Bellmont has had
enough. “She [Frado] could now read and spell, and knew the elementary steps
in grammar, arithmetic, and writing. Her education completed, as she said, Mrs
Bellmont felt that her time and person belonged solely to her.”257 As a matter of
fact this means that Frado will remain under her mistress’ thumb for the
remaining of her indenture. Soon she is beaten again and this time Frado finds
the courage to answer this: she runs away, but she is retrieved by Jack. Her
fate does not improve when all her friends in the household leave and she
remains on her own with the quick tempered Mrs Bellmont and the deceiving
Mary.
Mary has discovered that even though her mother does not generally
believe Frado, her father is not so prejudiced. When Mary throws a carving
knife at Frado, she is taken aback by her own action and blackmails Frado to
remain quiet, thus highlighting the power of Frado’s voice. “Tell anybody of this,
if you dare. If you tell Aunt Abby, I’ll certainly kill you,” said she [Mary], terrified.
She returned to her room, brushed her threads herself; was for a day or two
more guarded, and so escaped deserved and merited penalty.” 258 Frado is not
so helpless anymore, she has grown as a person and her voice has also
increased in importance. For example, she refuses blatantly to eat from her
mistress’ used plate and rather has her dog lick it off first, before putting it into
service. This act can however only be completed because of Jack’s presence,
as he will protect Frado from any injuries. “Nig never looked toward her
mistress during the process. She had Jack near; she did not fear her now.”259
256
Wilson, p.228
Wilson, p.231
258
Wilson, p.244
259
Wilson, p.248
257
112
When religion comes into play, she develops her voice even more. James,
another of Mr Bellmont’s sons, implores his mother to allow Frado to find
Christianity, although “religion was not meant for niggers”. 260 Frado will go
against Mrs Bellmont’s orders and take the sermons to heart which the mistress
should be happy about as she is a religion teacher but her behaviour towards
Frado being so unchristian, she does not want Frado and society to realise how
much of a hypocrite she is. When Mary is sent off to live with her brother,
Lewis, Frado is incredibly happy and voices this joy as well, scaring her aunt
Abby mightily, who is trying to teach her the principle of forgiveness and “…
doing good to those that hate us.”261
… she [Frado] exclaimed, - “She’s gone, Aunt Abby, she’s gone, fairly
gone”; and jumped up and down, till Aunt Abby feared she would attract the
notice of her mistress by such demonstrations. “Well, she’s gone, gone, Aunt
Abby. I hope she’ll never come back again.” – “No! no! Frado, that’s wrong! you
would be wishing her dead; that won’t do.” – “Well, I’ll bet she’ll never come
back again; somehow, I feel as though she wouldn’t.”262
The beating and the gagging continues, because Mrs Bellmont wants to
keep the upper hand in her household. When James is close to death, he
attempts to get Frado on the “right” religious path, in order for her to have a
chance at entering heaven.
Frado, under the instructions of Aunt Abby and the minister, became a
believer in a future existence – one of happiness or misery. Her doubt was, is
there a heaven for the black? She knew there was one for James, and Aunt
Abby, and all good white people; but was there any for blacks? She had
listened attentively to all the minister said, and all Aunt Abby had told her; but
then it was all for white people.263
260
Wilson, p.246
Wilson, p.253
262
Wilson, p.253
263
Wilson, p.255
261
113
Frado continues her instruction and starts reading the Bible, going to
meetings and talking to the minister. “She knew she was unfit for heaven, made
for whites or blacks. She would gladly repent, or do anything which would admit
her to share the abode of James.”264 One of Mrs Bellmont’s fears that Frado
might publically discuss her behaviour at a meeting seems to become reality
when she finds out what Frado has been up to.
But she seemed to have great aversion to the notice Nig would attract
should she become pious. “… I found her reading the Bible to-day, just as
though she expected to turn pious nigger, and preach to white folks. So now
you see what good comes of sending her to school.” [Mrs Bellmont reproaches
her husband].265
Her second worry is that if Frado is further influenced by her religious
teachings and friends, she will leave them and Mrs Bellmont will either have to
do all the household chores herself or hire a new servant again and spend
money on it.
Why according to you [Mr Bellmont] and James, we should very soon have
her [Frado] in the parlor, as smart as our own girls. It’s of no use talking to you
or James. If you should go on as you would like, it would not be six months
before she would be leaving me; and that won’t do. Just think how much profit
she was to us last summer. We had no work hired out; she did the work of two
girls.266
In order to tackle the first problem, Mrs Bellmont decides to make Frado
believe that she will never receive religious absolution; no matter how hard she
tries. “Her mistress told her that it would do no good for her to attempt prayer;
prayer was for whites, not for blacks.”267 In spite of her attempts, she is unable
to stop Frado from going to meetings and discussing her faith with a minister,
which ends up being known by Mrs Bellmont’s neighbours, making her expect
the worst. Fortunately for her, Frado did not actually disclose any information
about the household members and their behaviour towards her.
264
Wilson, p.256
Wilson, p.257
266
Wilson, p.258
267
Wilson, p.261
265
114
Mrs Reed called and informed Mrs B. that her colored girl “related her
experience the other night at the meeting.” – “What experience?” asked she,
quickly, as if she expected to hear the number of times she had whipped Frado,
and the number of lashes set forth in plain Arabic numbers. … Mrs B. made no
reply, but changed the subject adroitly. Next morning she told Frado she
“should not go out of the house for one while, except on errands; and if she did
not stop trying to be religious, she would whip her to death.”268
Mrs Bellmont has the clear intention to keep Frado away from others, to
seclude her and to preserve her as a voiceless subject. It is too late for this
however, seeing that Frado will no longer be denied her own voice.
“Stop!” shouted Frado, “strike me, and I’ll never work a mite more for you”;
and throwing down what she had gathered, stood like one who feels the stirring
of free and independent thoughts. By this unexpected demonstration, her
mistress, in amazement, dropped her weapon, desisting from her purpose of
chastisement. Frado, walked towards the house, her mistress followed with the
wood she herself was sent after. She did not know, before, that she had a
power to ward off assaults.269
Frado has found out that the method she has now applied for the first time
will be successful: she will not work anymore, if she is beaten! While she does
not avoid all the beatings in future, they are substantially reduced over time,
mostly because the mistress becomes afraid of her servant’s power. Mary’s
death does not soften up her mother and Frado as a consequence even thinks
of fleeing as Mrs Bellmont is even more heartless than before. Then she
realises that she does not have to remain subdued.
She remembered her victory at the wood-pile. She decided to remain to do
as well as she could; to assert her rights when they were trampled on; to return
once more to her meeting in the evening, which had been prohibited. She had
learned how to conquer; she would not abuse the power while Mr Bellmont was
at home.270
Therefore, Frado chooses to stay as a servant until she turns eighteen and
her indenture comes to its close. In the meantime she educates herself further
and starts reading books. Her health decreases, due to the hard work she had
been forced to do, nevertheless, she is more than happy to leave and fend for
herself.
268
Wilson, p.266
Wilson, p.266
270
Wilson, p.268
269
115
Mrs B. felt that she could not well spare one who could so well adapt
herself to all departments – man, boy, housekeeper, domestic, etc. She begged
Mrs Smith to talk with her, to show her how ungrateful it would appear to leave
a home of such comfort – how wicked it was to be ungrateful! But Frado replied
that she had had enough of such comforts; she wanted some new ones; and as
it was so wicked to be ungrateful, she would go from temptation; Aunt Abby
said “we mustn’t put ourselves in the way of temptation.”271
Unfortunately, her carefree time at Mrs Moore’s, her new employer, is cut
short, due to her poor state of health. She has to go back to the Bellmonts in
the hope to be looked after by them, believing that she deserves it. Regardless
of her weakness, Mrs Bellmont ignores and disdains her and believes herself to
be guiltless of everything that happened to Frado.
All felt that the place where her declining health began, should be the place
of relief; so they applied once more for a shelter. “No,” exclaimed the indignant
Mrs B., “she shall never come under this roof again; never! never!” she
repeated, as if each repetition were a bolt to prevent admission. One only
resource; the public must pay the expense.272
In other words, Frado is rejected by those who should be held accountable
for her present situation and has to accept the aid of the state. When she is
better, she attempts to further herself. “She felt herself capable of elevation;
she felt that this book information supplied an undefined dissatisfaction she had
long felt, but could not express. Every leisure moment was carefully applied to
self-improvement, and a devout and Christian exterior invited confidence from
the villagers.”273
Unfortunately, Frado is trapped again, but this time by love and matrimony.
A man who pretends to be a former slave captures her compassion and gets
her to marry him. He often disappears on her and as a result, she has to accept
the help of the state again when she is pregnant, nonetheless, she is finally
able to support her baby and herself, even after her husband’s death.
Rendered voiceless through part of her illness, her marriage and then her
widowhood, she has achieved the unthinkable in the end: she has sorted out
271
Wilson, p.273
Wilson, p.275
273
Wilson, p.277
272
116
her life and succeeded in looking after herself and her child, by selling products
to customers, thus using her voice to the fullest.
The fact that Frado had to fight so much throughout her life and her
narrative can be traced back to her racial identity. While during the slave
period, the mixed-raced children almost always were born to black or mulatto
slave mothers who became pregnant by white men, this is not the case for
Frado. Her mother is actually white and decides to live with a black man in
order to avoid starvation, destitution or having to accept help from the state.
Mag Smith is a white orphan, alone in the world and ends up pregnant by a
white man, without being married, which is the reason why she is shunned by
society. Her baby girl does not survive, which she is grateful for, as she will not
have the stigma of her shame in front of her eyes constantly, nor will her child
be treated like her. “God be thanked,” ejaculated Mag, as she saw its breathing
cease; “no one can taunt her with my ruin.”274 Therefore, she hides herself from
others and remains isolated in a little shed. Unfortunately, she is scarcely able
to sustain herself and for that reason she accepts Jim’s proposal to get
together. He is a “kind-hearted African”275 who owns a shop and looks after her.
You’s [Mag] had trial of white folks any how. They run off and left ye, and
now none of ‘em com near ye to see if you’s dead or alive. I’s black outside, I
know, but I’s got a white heart inside. Which you rather have, a black heart in a
white skin, or a white heart in a black one?276
While Jim has saved her financially, society does not accept this behaviour
on Mag’s part. “She has sundered another bond which held her to her fellows.
She has descended another step down the ladder of infamy.”277 Jim is proud of
her and their children and they are happy as long as it lasts, which cannot be
considered as lengthy. “Wilson makes little of many issues that might be raised
by the sexual union of black and white as she plausibly describes how a
destitute white woman (the heroine’s mother) takes up with a less destitute
black man (the heroine’s father).”278 After his sudden death Mag is left alone
274
Wilson, p.212
Wilson, p.213
276
Wilson, p.215
277
Wilson, p.215
278
Graham, p.24
275
117
with their offspring, not knowing what to do. “She was now expelled from
companionship with white people; this last step – her union with a black – was
the climax of repulsion.”279 Mag certainly has extenuating circumstances which
speak for her, nevertheless, her behaviour towards her eldest daughter is
unacceptable. Well knowing that Frado would have a hard life at the Bellmonts’,
she leaves her behind, in order to be rid of her. One cannot say that Frado is a
child born out of love, but rather the necessity of her mother.
Frado’s start into life has been a difficult one, but as a “mulatta” in a white
household, her social position and acceptance dwindles considerably. Although
she is free, she is caught in indenture, in a similar position to a slave on a
plantation. “Wilson’s novel presents another evolution of the slave narrative by
universalizing the virtual slavery of so many caught in segregation’s trap and
from which escape was less easy than from the plantation.”280 As Frado cannot
get out of this position, she has to remain there. She could run away, but as a
little girl she hopes for her mother’s return and later on her friends in the
household hold her back. She arrives at the Bellmonts’ as the small black girl
who will literally become their slave. “Her orphaned heroine comes to cultural
consciousness in a white world which tells her she is black.”281
Frado is seen as a slave and as a personal property by Mrs Bellmont. As
such, her name is swiftly changed by her mistress and she is only ever called
“Nig” by her, a derogatory term that always makes clear that Frado does not
belong and is in fact inferior to the white members of the household. “Wilson’s
ironic use of “our nig” ties the novel to the slave narrative form as well and
shows that others call her this to claim her.”282 Only Jack occasionally uses
“Our Nig” which should give her a sense of rapport and as the reader is aware
of his feelings of companionship towards Frado, his naming of her can be
regarded as acceptable, even if the labelling in itself is wrong. The title of the
novel already indicates the problematic of the naming procedure itself: Frado is
denied part of her identity by having the Bellmonts brand her with a demeaning
279
Wilson, p.217
Graham, p.19
281
Graham, p.24
282
280
118
appellation that is solely connected to her race. “Wilson made it clear in her title
that Frado, a free black woman whom the white Bellmont family in the novel
refer to as ‘our nig’, is both object of scorn and yet the subject of her own
narrative.”283
Consequently, Frado has to fight to appropriate this name forced on to her
and reclaim an identity for herself. Through her actions and the power of her
voice, she manages to make her life a success and thus defying the stereotype
of the “tragic mulatta” that might have been stamped on her persona. In fact, at
first it seems as if she could not escape her fate as a tragic character, as an
abandoned and misused child, who grows up amongst racists and bullies.
Nevertheless, she is capable to leave her unhappy childhood behind her and
even though she is suffering physically from the harm done to her, she takes
control of her life. Even an unsuccessful marriage, a pregnancy and some time
spent under the care of the state, never get her down, she struggles and
succeeds. “Though undoubtedly of mixed race, in many ways she defies the
designation “tragic,” despite her life circumstances of economic and emotional
depravation.”284
At the end of the novel, Frado makes an appeal to the reader to show
sympathy for her, but in fact this is not necessary. While one can feel sorry for
the wrongdoings that she suffered from, one is left with the feeling that she has
become a strong, independent woman, who earns her living and can support
her child on her own. Of course, many obstacles had to be overcome to
achieve this and there are still some that might hinder her. Through Frado’s
story, Wilson is able to voice herself and to establish her own identity,
alongside that of her main protagonist and alter ego. One has to remember that
Wilson’s story is semi-biographical and that she uses certain details from her
own life to construct her main protagonist Frado. The greatest influence on her
voice does not come from within her, from her soul or determination, but in
some way it is forced onto her by the religious input she receives from Aunt
Abby and James. At a time when she is in need of solace and is too young to
283
284
Raimon, p.133
119
find any inner strength to fight back on her own, the offer of a Christian point of
view on life and the support that is given to her come as means of escapism.
By suggesting to her to follow the “rightful” path to God, she is given an
alternative to her dreadful life on Earth. Now one might wonder in how far these
beliefs really aid her in finding her own voice. One might rightfully question if
Frado, and to some extent Wilson, construct an individual voice for themselves
or if they are indoctrinated by the power discourse of religion in such a way that
Frado is given a voice which would have been suitable for a white person, but
not for an orphaned, mulatto girl locked up in servitude. This ambiguity is felt by
Frado at several instances in the plot, when she wonders about heaven and
attempts to find out if absolution is something that she has access to,
regardless of her racial background.
Christianity was certainly misused by those in favour of slavery to hold the
black race down as they found quotes in the scriptures which they interpreted
as God’s acceptance of slavery and his assurance that black people were
inferior. Frado seems to critically address religion, as she questions it and
highlights her mistress’ hypocrisy in relation to it, nonetheless, it would be too
simple to say that only through religion she managed to establish her own voice
as Wilson puts it in her novel.
On the same note, Frado is not entirely constructed as an individual adult in
the last chapters of the novel. She is well described as a wilful child, who fights
against injustice and will not accept dominance over her being. While she lives
in servitude, she is a fully developed character with many different layers of
self; however, she seems to lose a bit of this aspect as an adult. While she can
still stand as a role model, due to the fact that she overcomes all the obstacles
that were in her way, she has become more difficult to grasp as an individual.
This might be because Wilson has not yet emotionally got over this part of her
life and she has not established a great enough distance between the events
and herself. Naturally, Wilson is also restricted in her writing; she cannot stand
in for an entire race when she depicts the life of a free mixed-race girl from up
North, who ends up in indenture. She is unable to describe life on a plantation,
nor can she tell the reader about specific events in connection to the male
120
experience in a similar setting. She shows the reader that a free person of
colour still has to struggle and fight the aftermaths of slavery.
The issue of racial identity and how it is constructed by society and its
discourse, is revisited in the depiction of Mag’s life and the reactions that she
encounters, when she as a white woman decides to live with a black man
instead of just dying in a dignified way, as society would have encouraged her
to do. Mag’s decisions are at the centre of the struggles that Frado has to deal
with. Clearly Frado’s, as well as Wilson’s public identity, are mostly influenced
by society and its dictates as to what is acceptable and what is not. What lies
behind their mask, their inner self, is hidden from the public and Wilson’s
audience. Finally, we can say that the plot connects the slave fiction to the
slave narratives due to the themes it discusses and the fact that is goes beyond
them by talking about the lives of free black people after slavery.
121
122
The works of the Reconstruction Era – dealing with the immediate
aftermath of slavery
The end of the Civil War in 1865 brought with it the Union’s victory over the
Confederacy and ultimately the abolition of slavery. The news of this success
filled the former slaves who had longed and fought for their freedom with
giddiness. Although their shackles were broken and they were able to leave
this atrocious world of slavery behind, they soon realised that they were
completely unprepared for the new situation in which they found themselves.
One has to remember that the transition which they were faced with now was a
difficult one, as from one day to the next their ex-masters told them that they
were free to leave the plantation and that they could occupy their time in
whichever way they wanted. This was exciting as well as frightening, as they
did not know which position would be attributed to them in this new world, if
they had to fight for it or if they could fit in by themselves wherever they wanted.
It brought them responsibility for themselves, their family and eventually their
entire community. The fact that their former owners were thrown in a similar
awkward condition did not help the newly freed people. The Southern
plantation owners were now left without their servants and their field hands,
upon whom they had entirely relied up until this point in time and as a
consequence they were at a loss of what to do next with their property and the
aftermaths of the war that they did not win. The slaves’ freedom was clearly
welcome and embraced by those subjugated by it; however, those who had
spent their entire life incarcerated on a piece of land and in cabins which were
not their own, felt at a loss of what to do with their newly gains liberty and were
wondering what the future would hold for them.
Harriet E. Wilson already depicted to her reader what the life of a young,
indentured girl of colour was like, who even though she was born free, had to
suffer under similar conditions as the lowest field hand on a plantation, so the
question as to what would happen to these former slaves after their liberation
was an obvious issue that had to be addressed. In spite of the fact that the
majority of them was illiterate, they still had access to the daily news and even
to some pieces of literature which were handed down through the grapevine of
rumours. Quite a few of them were aware of the slave narratives written by
runaways such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs and the subsequent
slave fiction that emerged from them. Be that as it may, these genres had
reached their limitations, in a way they could be described as being outdated,
as they were works which promoted the deliverance of slaves and were
rendered obsolete by its completion. This does not mean that these products
lost their literary and social value in any way, nonetheless, they were not of
immediate use to those who were freed by the government in place, as no one
had predicted or imagined such a situation and had as a result prepared for it
adequately in advance. “… the antebellum slave narrative was no longer the
most viable literary template for African American writers, but more important,
at a moment when dominant cultural memories of slavery, circulating in
nineteenth-century popular fiction, had become idyllic and benign.”285 While the
slaves had just managed to escape their dreadful situation and some of them
had barely scraped out of it with their life, those who were able and willing to
write down what their race now had to deal with, could not use the format of the
slave narrative and slave fiction any longer.
This new generation of free African Americans who had been left out of
society for so long needed help to come to term with their new situation and
accordingly required a different type of literature that would still concern itself
with the aftermath of slavery, which cannot be ignored at this point in time and
which would be able to show them a way forward. Two men are predominantly
mentioned when reflecting on the Reconstruction Period, in which African
Americans were struggling to find a place for themselves in society, namely
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. While both writers have utterly
different ways of addressing the problematic at hand, they both have been
criticised for their works by their contemporaries, those who succeeded them
and by each other as their approach could not have been any more different
than it was.
285
Fisch, p.156
124
In the following section, Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery (1901)
and W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903) will be analysed, with
regard to their value as the next evolutionary step in African American
literature, as the successors of the slave narrative and the slave fiction and with
close consideration as to how these authors attend to the issues of voice and
identity within their writing.
125
126
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign
land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with
the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: “Cast
down your bucket where you are” – cast it down in making friends in every
manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down
in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the
professions.286
As mentioned before, the Reconstruction Era was a period in time which
incorporated numerous changes, not only for the Southern but also for the
Northern part of the United States. All components of society were concerned
by the abolition of slavery as it had touched all areas of life, such as politics,
moral and ethical rules, as well as the economy of the country, as the slaves
had been a very cheap resource of labour for their owners. As a consequence,
the abolition of slavery brought a great number of issues about that had to be
dealt with, in order for society to somehow be able to cope with the new
situation at hand. “The decades that followed the end of the Civil War in 1865
and the abolition of slavery witnessed both the opening up of new opportunities
for former slaves and the continuation of old racial hierarchies and prejudices
under new forms.”287 It would be ludicrous to believe that the mere act of
abolition would annihilate all the predominant prejudices against the black race
that loomed underneath the surface of society. The freedom that the slaves
obtained was merely the tip of the iceberg and their struggles would continue
for longer than they actually expected, before they were able to gain an equal
standing to white people in society, which even though it was legally prescribed
by the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1870 did not work out in
reality.
286
Booker T. Washington, “Up From Slavery” in Three Negro Classics, ed. John Hope Franklin (New York: Avon
Books, 1999), p.147
287
Graham, p.35
Confronted with this situation, Booker T. Washington decided to follow his
standpoint and promote the tool that he believed would be most valuable for
the newly freed slave, to be specific economically independent. “… Washington
proposed a model of racial dignity through self-reliance, epitomised in his
famous dictum ‘Cast down your bucket where you are’….”288 Washington was
sure that his model of education, namely coupling the study of books with hard
work and the learning of a trade, would bring his race forward and would
consequently lift them “up from slavery”. “Washington advised his fellow African
Americans that they could regain their rights in the South only by accepting the
political status quo and working gradually to change it by proving themselves
valuable, productive members of society who deserved fair treatment before
the law.”289 Naturally, his point of view was and still is not shared by everyone
and his theory has provoked many different reactions. Already at the time of
publication of his Up From Slavery, African Americans were divided on his
account. First of all, there were those who supported his beliefs and relished in
them.
After witnessing the systematic legalization of racial segregation throughout
the South in the 1890s, many African Americans concluded that self-reliance
and racial solidarity were their last best hopes for a decent life in the United
States. These people embraced Booker T. Washington as their champion and
adopted his autobiography, Up From Slavery (1901), as their guide to a better
future.290
Others, like his contemporary W.E.B. Du Bois identified Washington as a
“sellout”, obliterating the rights of the race by (yet again) subjugating them to
the wishes of the white majority and thus not bringing about a real change for
those in need.
288
290
289
128
It was a ‘gospel of Work and Money’ founded on a ‘triple paradox’: by which
Du Bois meant that, as he saw it, Washington was asking black people to
sacrifice the three things they most urgently needed. These three, as Du Bois
succinctly summarized them, were ‘the right to vote’, ‘civic equality’ and ‘the
education of youth according to ability.’ Washington, Du Bois argued, tended to
shift responsibility for the racial problem from white people ‘to the Negro’s
shoulders’; whereas ‘in fact the burden belongs to the nation’.291
No one actually knows or has any evidence to support if these two men
were actually friends, mere acquaintances or real enemies and critics tend to
have rather divergent opinions on the subject.
Later generations, for example in the 1960s and the 1980s, decried
Washington as an “Uncle Tom” figure, the stereotype of a naïve black person
who will not defy his master but continue to struggle with words and without
taking major drastic measures to encounter those who subjugated him.
When I [Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a political analyst] got to college in the late
1960s, everything turned around. Booker T. Washington suddenly became the
symbol of everything that was wrong in terms of black leadership. He was a
sellout, an Uncle Tom; he held the race down. All the negative and pejorative
things that could possibly be said about him were said. He was held in such low
esteem at that point that to be labeled a Booker T. Washington, or someone
even like a Booker T. Washington, was almost tantamount to being called the N
word.292
The dichotomy that surrounds Washington still prevails today. The reader
can follow this difference of opinion in Rebecca Carroll’s edition of Uncle Tom
or New Negro? African Americans reflect on Booker T. Washington and Up
From Slavery 100 Years Later, in which twenty prominent African Americans
were asked to write about their experiences of this historical figure and their
opinion about his personality. Their views on this character could not be any
more diverse, as they reach from seeing him as a great leader who was on the
lookout for his peers to being a “sellout” for the race who betrayed them by
plotting with the racial enemy. Clearly, the question as to why Washington is
thus conflictingly branded, even more than a century after the publication of Up
From Slavery, lies within the text itself, which is left open to interpretation. As a
consequence, this section will not attempt to put him into any category, but will
291
292
Gray, p.351
Carroll, p.107
129
analyse in how far he was able to reclaim a voice and a public identity in the
aftermath of slavery.
Washington tells his reader straight away that he was born as a slave on a
plantation, the son of a black cook and an unknown white father. When he sees
a schoolhouse and expresses the wish to go there and receive an education as
“to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as
getting into paradise”293, he also realises that he is actually a slave.
So far as I [Washington] can now recall, the first knowledge that I got of the
fact that we were slaves, and that freedom of the slaves was being discussed,
was early one morning before day, when I was awakened by my mother
kneeling over her children and fervently praying that Lincoln and his armies
might be successful, and that one day, she and her children might be free.294
He is resolved not to voice any bitterness of slavery and its repercussions
on his life in his work, as he feels that everything has been said and that his
people need to concentrate on the future and not the past, without of course
forgetting about it. As a child he witnesses the abolition on a first hand basis. In
fact, he tells the reader that the slaves are aware of the closeness of their
liberation towards the end of the Civil War, which they manifest through their
songs.
As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters
than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of
the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom. True, they
had sung those same verses before, but they had been careful to explain that
the “freedom” in these songs referred to the next world, and had no connection
with life in this world. Now they gradually threw off the mask: and were not
afraid to let it be known that the “freedom” in their songs meant freedom of the
body in this world.295
The slaves have started to reveal the power of their singing voice without
reluctance and even disclose the fact that the verses are not meant to please
their masters, but to express their desire to take their own lives into their hands.
So, at last Washington’s mother gets her wish and the abolition of slavery
brings their freedom about. Unfortunately, he has not been able to clearly claim
293
Washington, p.32
Washington, p.32
295
Washington, p.39
294
130
a voice for himself up until this point in time, as he is only a slave child on a
plantation, but bears witness to the progress. The family leaves the place
behind and settles in Malden, a small salt-mining town. He teaches himself the
alphabet with his mother’s and the help of a spelling book. The building of
schools for coloured people throughout the country drives people of all age to
study in order to receive an education. “This experience of a whole race
beginning to go to school for the first time, presents one of the most interesting
studies that has ever occurred in connection with the development of any
race.”296 Obtaining an education becomes a necessity for him as he wants to
claim a voice for himself and change the world he is living in. Unfortunately, his
stepfather hinders him in his enterprise and forbids his going to school as it
would mean that the family’s financial income would be reduced. Therefore, he
remains an autodidact at first, but soon afterwards manages to get into day
school. He tells the reader why it is so important for him to voice himself. “Years
ago I resolved that because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of
which my children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still
higher effort.”297
As a result, Washington continues studying and working to earn money, in
order to be accepted and finance his stay at the “Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute”. After numerous setbacks (his stepfather spending his
savings, him having to sleep on the street), he arrives at school and by showing
that he would be an excellent janitor as well as an eager student, he is
received. He is only able to support himself and pay for his education and
board through hard work and spends his time split between mental and
physical activity. Amongst other things, he learns about hygiene and the
necessity to present a respectable outside appearance, in order to be accepted
by society. In this way, he continues with his studies and improves
continuously. One of his teachers realises that he has a potential for public
speaking and supports him; encouraging the development of his voice by giving
him private lessons.
296
297
Washington, p.44
Washington, p.48
131
Whatever ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in a measure to Miss
Lord [his teacher]. When she found out that I had some inclination in this
direction, she gave me private lessons in the matter of breathing, emphasis,
and articulation. Simply to be able to talk in public for the sake of talking has
never had the least attraction for me. In fact, I consider that there is nothing so
empty and unsatisfactory as mere abstract public speaking; but from my early
childhood I have had a desire to do something to make the world better, and
then to be able to speak to the world about that thing. The debating societies at
Hampton were a constant source of delight to me.298
As a consequence, Washington starts early on to perfection his ability to
speak in front of an audience, in order to get his point of view across. He
practises his skills in his own community, for example when he talks about his
academic experiences in church or Sunday school. After graduation on “honour
roll”, he returns to Malden to teach there. He opens a night school for adults,
organizes a reading room and establishes a debating society, so as to help his
community in their effort for education. His attempts at furthering his students
are fruitful as he manages to prepare a few chosen ones for their entry into the
Hampton Institute.
His voice is one that people listen to, they follow his advice and learn from
him. Without the abolition of slavery, he would not have been able to state his
opinion in such a successful way and to reach even those who are illiterate and
would not have been able to read his speeches. He has never truly lost his
voice, but he claimed it for himself through his education and with the help of
his teaching he is enabling those who hear him to reclaim theirs. In fact, he is
attempting to aid an entire race to claim back what was wrongfully taken from
them. By continuing his studies in Washington DC, he makes sure that he also
encounters other methods of teaching so that he is able to identify the
advantages and disadvantages of the various systems and this enables him to
progress. Soon Washington builds himself a reputation as a public speaker,
while he strictly refuses to become politically involved in any way. The
postgraduate address that he delivers at Hampton is welcomed and liked by
the academics attending the ceremony and results in the offer of a teaching
position there, which he accepts. His voice and the skills attached to it have
298
Washington, p.64 and p.65
132
pushed him up the ladder of success, as he will now take over a job that will
enlarge his field of influence. He even becomes one of the people in charge of
a special programme which integrates “Indians”, as he labels them (in this case
Native Americans), into Hampton and manages to earn their respect and trust
through his actions.
In 1881, he receives the offer that turns into his “life work”. The former
principal of Hampton, General Armstrong, recommended him for the post as
principal of a new institute in Tuskegee and even though he is not white, he is
accepted. During the Reconstruction Era, this is a demanding endeavour,
especially as the prejudices against black people are exceeding the feelings of
amiability amongst members of society. Although the Fifteenth Amendment “…
guaranteed the right of citizens, including the right to vote, regardless of race,
color or previous condition of servitude, on the federal level.”299, the realities of
the situation are quite contradictory to the laws in use. The former slave states
establish their own regulations by finding legal loopholes and thus initiate the
racial segregation which blooms throughout the Black Belt for decades and
ensures the disparity of the races. The appearance of the Ku Klux Klan further
incapacitates a peaceful living together and gives rise to acts of lynching, which
are obviously illegal and unjustified. “Amid this climate of inter-racial sexual
violence
and
intimidation,
economic
exploitation,
and
political
disenfranchisement, Booker T. Washington came to prominence and dedicated
himself to making Tuskegee Institute, the school he established in 1881, a
“Black Utopia”.”300
After numerous setbacks, Washington is able to buy property on which to
build his novel school and with the help of his students and the new trades they
acquire, they can together erect buildings which are used as classrooms,
boarding rooms and other commodities which are needed to create a place
where learning is stimulated. “Tuskegee encouraged industry, self-reliance, and
a faith in the power of materialism which Washington astutely recognised as
299
300
Tindall and Shi, p.616
Fisch, p.154
133
becoming the dominant creed in late nineteenth-century America.”301 In order to
complete the mission he set himself, Washington had to convince white and
black people alike to give him donations for the school. His good character
enables him to receive personal loans for the benefit of his life work and his
voice is his most effective tool in persuading others to help him out. Half of his
time is spent as acting principal in Tuskegee and during the other part he is
travelling around the country, in an attempt to keep the school financially
running. “During the last fifteen years I have been compelled to spend a large
proportion of my time away from the school, in an effort to secure money to
provide the growing needs of the institution.”302 His goal is to educate his
students in a way that they will be of benefit to their community and this attitude
is greeted by officials as he does not venture to publically rally his peers to fight
for their civic rights for example.
As a consequence, he receives an invitation to address the Educational
Association.
Without my knowing it, there were a large number of people present from
Alabama, and some from the town of Tuskegee. These white people afterward
frankly told me that they went to this meeting expecting to hear the South
roundly abused, but were pleasantly surprised to find that there was no word of
abuse in my address. On the contrary, the South was given credit for all the
praiseworthy things that it had done. … This address at Madison was the first
that I had delivered that in any large measure dealt with the general problem of
the races.303
His ultimate goal is to reunite the races and not to alienate them further, but
this is clearly a utopian wish as he cannot expect them all to follow his lead, for
example according to some people’s opinion, he is not radical enough in his
expectations of society and therefore they do not agree with him. His most
famous speech at the Atlanta Exposition has the same effect on people;
however, one cannot forget the historical and social context surrounding this
address, as Washington reminds his reader.
301
Harold Bloom, ed. The Harlem Renaissance (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004), p.114
Washington, p.125
303
Washington, p.136
302
134
I knew, too, this was the first time in the entire history of the Negro that a
member of my race had been asked to speak from the same platform with
white Southern men and women on any important National occasion. … I was
also painfully conscious of the fact that, while I must be true to my own race in
my utterances, I had it in my power to make such an ill-timed address as would
result in preventing any similar invitation being extended to a black man again
for years to come. I was equally determined to be true to the North, as well as
to the best element of the white South, in what I had to say.304
Washington realises early on that his address is not only congratulated by
both races but that it is also criticized. “They seemed to feel that I had been too
liberal in my remarks toward the Southern whites, and that I had not spoken out
strongly enough for what they termed the “rights” of the race.”305 However,
these reproaches do not stop him, he keeps giving speeches and uses his
voice to address the problems at hand and asks for donations. He is even
awarded a Master of Arts honorary degree from the University of Harvard as
the first coloured man. He appeals to the consciences of white people and
urges them to recognize his race. His meeting with a lot of prominent white
politicians results in further criticism, nonetheless, he tries throughout his life to
seal the gulf that separates both races. He uses his voice, both oral and
narrative, in an attempt to further his race and promote an anxiety-free
cohabitation of the races.
As far as Washington’s identity is concerned, his social origins are similar
to those of other authors of slave narratives or of slave fiction. In fact, he is of
mixed-race, due to the fact that his mother is black and his father white.
Of my ancestry I know almost nothing. … I have been unsuccessful in
securing any information that would throw any accurate light upon the history of
my family beyond my mother. … Of my father I know even less than of my
mother. I do not even know his name. I have heard reports to the effect that he
was a white man who lived on one of the near-by plantations. Whoever he was,
I never heard of his taking the least interest in me or providing in any way for
my rearing.306
304
306
305
135
As most slaves, Washington is kept in the dark about his family
background, as well as his date of birth, as ignorance is used as a method of
subjugating others. Even after the abolition, he is not able to get to know who
his father is, whom he does not make responsible for his growing up without
him. “But I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply another
unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted
upon it at that time.”307 In the same way as many other African Americans,
Washington feels the urge to establish an identity for himself. “However, the
struggle of blacks born in America was different. Their need was to find an
identity previously denied them.”308 This endeavour begins with his acquiring a
name for himself, as numerous others have done before him.
After the coming of freedom there were two points upon which practically
all the people on our place were agreed, and I find that this was generally true
throughout the South: that they must change their names, and that they must
leave the old plantation for at least a few days or weeks in order that they might
really feel sure that they were free.309
He realises during his first enrolment at school that there is an acute need
to transform his name, as he believes that it is not suitable for the situation
anymore.
From the time when I could remember anything, I had been called simply
“Booker”. … I was in deep perplexity, because I knew that the teacher would
demand of me at least two names, and I had only one. … and so, when the
teacher asked me what my full name was, I calmly told him “Booker
Washington”, as if I had been called by that name all my life; and by that name
I have since been known. Later in life I found that my mother had given me the
name of “Booker Taliaferro” soon after I was born, but in some way that part of
my name seemed to disappear, and for a long while was forgotten, but as soon
as I found out about it I revived it, and made my full name “Booker Taliaferro
Washington”. I think there are not many men in our country who have had the
privilege of naming themselves in the way that I have.310
307
Washington, p.30
Bloom, p.115
309
Washington, p.41
310
Washington, p.47
308
136
Consequently, Washington has the possibility to unite the name that he
was given by his mother “Booker”, as well as the one that she provided him
with at birth “Taliaferro”, which had been lost during slavery with one that he
chose for himself, “Washington”, which naturally is connected to the historical
figure of the first American President. The tradition of altering one’s appellation
after slavery is upheld in Washington’s case and underlines the importance of
reclaiming a name for oneself as part of your identity.
Washington’s mixed-race does not hinder him to work hard on himself and
make sure that he achieves the goals that he set himself. As he is never
considered as a mulatto by his environment, but “simply” as a black man, he
does not encounter any racial problems within his own ethical group and does
not suffer from any prejudices within his milieu as others have before him. It is
his identity as a speaker for the unity of mankind that unleashes the indignation
of his peers. When he works as a teacher, he is regarded as a benefactor by
everyone, who struggles to bring a change about, with the support of
education. The same applies to his role as principal in Tuskegee, where he
sacrifices his health and maybe even the happiness of his family, as he loses
two wives during their common fight to keep the school running. The women
damaged their health in such an extent that they never recovered from the
hardships they endured while raising funds and teaching their students. While
these experiences must have shaped Washington’s private life and personality,
he does not give up on his life work. Seeing that he does not want to obligate
his reader to pity him or feel compassion for him, he scarcely mentions his
spouses’ demises, but concentrates on his work.
Washington’s function as a public speaker is probably the part that shapes
his identity the most, as it gives rise to such diverse reactions. His controversial
statements about slavery are not welcomed by black radicals, even if they
understand that they were pronounced in order for their race to find a way
forward. These declarations are the cause of his being treated as a traitor, a
sellout.
137
I have long ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern
white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our
country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was
recognized and protected for years by the General Government. Having once
got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it
was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution. Then, when
we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we
must acknowledge the fact that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of
slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or
whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a
stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and
religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion
of the globe.311
As Gates and McKay put it, this is the main difference between the slave
narratives so far and Washington’s autobiography. “Instead of the hell on earth
that antebellum slave narrators claimed slavery was like, Washington termed
slavery a “school” from which his fellow blacks had graduated with honors, so
to speak, and with the will and skill to keep rising.”312 It is understandable how
his words could be interpreted, rightfully or wrongfully, depending on the
readers’ point of view. As mentioned before, his words are open to criticism.
Another moment in which he is thought to go against the interests of his
race and therefore denying his racial identity, is when he mentions the
segregation and the actions of the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, he offers many
occasions in which he is treated differently, when he is denied access to a
specific train compartment or is rejected by a hotel receptionist for example,
due to his skin colour. He gives examples, recalls details and explains how “…
difficult it sometimes is to know where the black begins and the white ends.” 313,
but he never passes judgment on those who treat him differently. He also
reflects that “The “Ku Klux” period was, I think, the darkest part of the
Reconstruction days”314 and states at the same time that “To-day there are no
such organizations in the South, and the fact that such ever existed is almost
forgotten by both races.”315
311
Washington, p.37
313
Washington, p.82
314
Washington, p.71
315
Washington, p.71
312
138
Clearly, statements like these asked for a reaction from his audience, which
was not favourable to him. One cannot forget that his identity was shaped by
his racial and social background and the education he received. The reader
only gets acquainted with the serious, determined businessman and educator
whose ultimate goal is to bring his race “up from slavery”. The man behind this
mask remains invisible. We do not see him as a person, but as a man who
struggles on many fronts in order to push his ideas through. He only offers the
reader a short glimpse of himself when he describes his family life on the
plantation and the love he feels for his mother. In those moments, he can be
seen as an incredibly humane person, who is deeply afflicted for example by
the loss of his mother. Unfortunately, there are only small incidents that allow
the reader to glimpse behind the public mask and discern Washington as a
private person. The deaths of his wives are not related in detail and the reader
cannot stop feeling that these events are commented on rather cold heartedly
and as if they were minor occurrences in his life. His public identity is
constructed in an attempt to further his race, in the same way as his voice
becomes his oratory tool in order to attract benefactors for his cause. He pays
great attention to his outside appearance and complements it with his voice
and outside persona.
The controversy around his persona remains as people still either worship
him as an avant-garde leader for their race or denounce him as a backstabbing traitor for his declarations. The combination of both his oral and
narrative voice brought about this conflict and his racially shaped public identity
also played a major role during the composition of Up From Slavery. In how far
the reader praises him for his achievements in educational matters and decries
him for his behaviour and statements entirely depends on the individual’s
reflection. The fact that he tried to stand in for every single member of his race
is the reason why so many people of his community objected to his statements.
His ideas might have found less rejection, if he had decided to take on the
political fight as well, but this might have obliterated his success in educational
matters. All in all, Washington chose one precise course of action and followed
it through until the end, always keeping up his mask of an educational
139
academic, willing to speak in front of white audiences and to compromise with
them for the sake of financial support for his projects, even if this means that he
had to go against members of his own community and was branded as a traitor
by them. This rejection must certainly have hurt him as a private person and
affected him; however, he did not let these emotions filter through his writing.
Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding his work, Washington tried to
fill the literary gulf after the abolition of slavery and his work can be identified,
as the successor of the slave narrative and fiction. Its attempts at bringing the
race forward after their ordeals might have been crippled by drawbacks, but it
was one man’s venture to give rise to a peaceful cohabitation of the black and
white race.
140
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defence,- else what shall
save us from a second slavery? Freedom, too, the long-sought, we still seek,the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love
and aspire. Work, culture, liberty,- all these we need, not singly but together,
not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving
toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the idea of human
brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race; the ideal of fostering
and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or
contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of
the American Republic, in order that some day on American soil two worldraces may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack. 316
W.E.B. Du Bois addresses his reader in his work entitled The Souls of
Black Folk by using different literary devices; he intertwines personal
anecdotes, historical facts and statistics, sociological discussions and lines of
music to create a novel composition that both criticises and attempts to redress
the issue of racism. The nature of the main obstacle that an entire race is faced
with, can be explained in a few words, as the author does in his “forethought”.
“… for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.” 317
In order to understand the problems issuing from this colour line, one has to be
conscious of its meaning. “That invisible but powerful social divide structured to
“separate” the races, the color line was policed so violently in turn-of-thecentury America ….”318 He offers numerous examples to illustrate this
predicament, both on a personal and a fictional level. While the colour line is at
the centre of all his revelations, he also tries to attend to all the social
implications and the consequences it engenders.
But it was Du Bois’s genius to realize that to protest the color line most
effectively and originally in a new century, he had to find ways to personalize it,
to make its reality not merely a social and legal fact but a profound
psychological factor in the African American’s sense of self and relationship to
society.319
316
W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Souls of Black Folk” in Three Negro Classics, ed. John Hope Franklin (New York: Avon
Books, 1999), p.220
317
Du Bois, p.209
318
Fisch, p.154
319
Gates JR and McKay, 687
This Du Bois achieves for example by depicting, in his work The Souls of
Black Folk, the lives of the two Jims, one white and one black, who both study
up in the more liberal North and end up back in their home town in the South,
incapable of fitting in any longer. He critically inquires the necessity of this
colour line and highlights the injustice of the prevailing racial prejudice. With the
composition of The Souls of Black Folk, he makes himself a name, not only as
an African American writer but also as a man who strives to further his race
after the abolition of slavery. “With this concept [the twoness of the African
American person], and with his cultural activism as founder of the influential
magazine The Crisis, Du Bois in effect became the first African American
cultural theorist, whose influence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s
and early 1930s was considerable.”320
His goal is to open the eyes of the public to the injustice of the colour line
and the racial prejudice that emerges from it. “For him, racial prejudice was a
national issue and an intensely urgent one. As he put it, ‘the problem of the
twentieth century is the problem of race’. And he wanted to make as many
people as he could, black and white, aware of it.”321 While he discusses these
points, he does not refrain from attacking others who do not share his beliefs.
In fact, he reserves an entire chapter to denouncing the wrongdoings of Booker
T. Washington, which he accordingly entitled “Chapter III – Of Mr Booker T.
Washington And Others”. The discord between both men, amicably or not,
depending on the sources one refers to, brought with it the result that they were
seen as complete opposites by the public opinion. As mentioned in the section
on Washington’s Up From Slavery, people had a hard time agreeing on their
account.
This volume [The Souls of Black Folk], which expressly attacked Booker T.
Washington, the most powerful black American of the age, brought Du Bois to
controversial prominence among blacks. Brilliantly written and extraordinarily
rich and complex as a portrait of black life, it also became a sort of Bible for
younger black intellectuals and artists in America.322
320
Gray, p.351
322
321
142
His work is clearly a further step away from the slave narratives, especially
in comparison to Washington’s compositions. While Washington uses the
conventional form of an autobiography, retracing his experiences during slavery
and its aftermaths, Du Bois remains more reserved about his life. He does not
follow a chronological order and seldom reveals details about his family, except
when he discloses the pain he felt after the death of his first-born son.
Nevertheless, his volume concerns itself far more with the inward situation of
individuals and his community by telling his audience what it feels like to be
entrapped by a colour line, because even though it is invisible to the naked eye,
the person who dares to transgress it is immediately caught and severly
sanctioned.
Not only did The Souls abandon the development logic of the antebellum
slave narrative (the arc from “slavery to freedom,” from “captivity to
deliverance”), it helped to inaugurate an “inward” turn, a shift to the psychic, the
spiritual realm in which Black Americans lived and moved. In asking in The
Souls at the outset, “How does it feel to be a problem?” (p.9), Du Bois
announced his interest in this inner landscape even as he understood the
psychic and the social to be thoroughly intertwined. While the antebellum slave
narrative had excelled at cataloguing the physical and material realities of
slaves, especially as made manifest in bodily abuses of various kinds, it mainly
drew a veil across what Du Bois would term, in the chapter titled “Of the Sons
of Master and Man,” the realm of “thought and feeling”.323
Du Bois was not born a slave and he did not grow up on a plantation. He
was able to receive a privileged education, going to college and studying at
university. As a consequence, he did not have to fight for his voice in the same
extent as the slaves and their progeny in the South. Nonetheless, he still has to
struggle with the colour line from a young age onwards, which influences him in
his various undertakings. Already as a boy, he realises that he is different
because of the behaviour of those surrounding him. While their conduct drives
him to succeed, others who experience similar conditions are intimidated by
them and give up. As a result he attempts to reclaim a voice for his entire race,
with the help of his narrative voice and his educational background. He is quite
aware of the fact that not everyone is as fortunate as he is and therefore he
tries to further his peers through his writings. His work does not only address a
323
Fisch, p.160
143
white audience, to open their eyes to the situation at hand, but it is also meant
as a guideline for coloured people who need food for thought to realise that
they can change their circumstances if they fight as a unity, together for a
common goal. Consequently, Du Bois clearly states early on in his work what
the troubling issue is.
The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet
found in freedom his promised land. Whatever of good may have come in these
years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro
people,- a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was
unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people.324
He emphasizes the distress felt by his fellows and himself to the slow
progress made after the abolition of slavery.
… [Du Bois] called attention to the lack of freedom in the “free” North and in
this way suggested that the challenge that continued to face the nation was to
live up to its revolutionary ideals. In post-Civil War autobiographical narratives
and in the neo-slave narratives of twentieth-century US fiction, African
American writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Sherley Anne Williams would revoice that challenge while honouring the agency and vision of the slave
narrators who came before them.325
As the author, he is also able to express his indignation about the prejudice
that reigns against his race and their powerlessness towards this unfair
treatment. “Men call the shadow prejudice, and learnedly explain it as the
natural defence of culture against barbarism, learning against ignorance, purity
against crime, the “higher” against the “lower” races.”326 Before going into
details and developing his thoughts on the subject, he implores the reader to
listen to his proposals. “And now what I have briefly sketched in large outline let
me on coming pages tell again in many ways, with loving emphasis and deeper
detail, that men may listen to the striving in the souls of black folk.”327 This
imploring links the work to its title. After depicting the wrongdoings that the
entire race suffers from and his direct address to the reader, Du Bois uses his
voice to propose measures to counteract the current predicament. He starts by
framing the historical and social context of slavery and the Reconstruction
324
Du Bois, p.217
Fisch, p.112
326
Du Bois, p.219
327
Du Bois, p.221
325
144
Period. Naturally, education plays a major role when he refers to battling the
negative aftermaths of abolition; however, in contrast to Washington’s theory,
he believes that education has to be based on civic equality and this can only
be achieved if everyone has the same rights and can voice his/her beliefs
openly, through the ballot. He is aware that by criticising Washington he goes
against the mainstream opinion.
To-day he [Washington] stands as the one recognized spokesman of his
ten million fellows, and one of the most notable figures in a nation of seventy
millions. One hesitates, therefore, to criticise a life which, beginning with so
little, has done so much. And yet the time is come when one may speak in all
sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr
Washington’s career, as well as of his triumphs, without being thought captious
or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill than well in the
world.328
In spite of the disapproval of his peer’s work, Du Bois understands both
sides of the argument, why Washington is praised and why he needs to be
condemned at the same time. Therefore, Du Bois puts the issue into its
historical and social context and highlights the three problems that he thinks
Washington did not address and by doing so, he voices his concern for the
well-being of his race. In fact, Du Bois manifests the necessity for “the right to
vote, civic equality and the education of youth according to ability.” 329, which he
believes his opponent did not emphasise on.
His [Washington’s] doctrine has tended to make the whites, North and
South, shift the burden of the Negro problem to the Negro’s shoulders and
stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact the
burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none of us are clean if we bend
not our energies to righting these great wrongs.330
328
Du Bois, p.242
Du Bois, p.248
330
Du Bois, p.251
329
145
Du Bois also reveals in his volume that he has worked as a teacher, trying
to support people in their strivings. This leads to his musing over the type of
education that would fit his race best, to return to his credo that they need to be
taught in accordance with their capabilities. Those who can should visit
colleges and universities and should not be hindered by their racial background
and the colour line. However, in order for this to be granted, the government
has to support and equip them, which leads back to his demand of the right to
vote and civic equality.
The foundations of knowledge in this race, as in others, must be sunk deep
in the college and university if we would build a solid, permanent structure. …
They already dimly perceive that the paths of peace winding between honest
toil and dignified manhood call for the guidance of skilled thinkers, the loving,
reverent comradeship between the black lowly and the black men emancipated
by training and culture.331
By pointing out that an adequate level of education is needed for each and
every person, Du Bois goes against Washington’s technical institutes and
favours a liberal education for everyone, thus voicing his concern for the future
of his race. In his last chapter, entitled “Of the Sorrow Songs”, Du Bois
analyses the meaning of the slave songs and their importance to the slaves as
a means of expressing their pain and hope. He draws attention to the songs
that have been neglected and their importance that has been disregarded by
the white majority as their actual meaning was not clear to them. However, Du
Bois does not want his peers to forget about these songs which voiced the
slaves’ misery and demanded a better future.
And so by fateful chance the Negro folk-song - the rhythmic cry of the slave
- stands to-day not simply as the sole American music, but as the most
beautiful expression of human experience born this side of the seas. It has
been neglected, it has been, and is, half despised, and above all it has been
persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still remains as
the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro
people.332
331
332
Du Bois, p.283
Du Bois, p.378
146
In order to highlight the value of these songs, he prints lines of them at the
beginning of each chapter. In the final one, he explains their origins, retraces
the different stages they go through and how they influence African Americans.
In the end, he indicates why they should not be forgotten, even though they are
not an example of literary perfection.
In these songs, as I have said, the slave spoke to the world. Such a
message is naturally veiled and half articulate. Words and music have lost each
other and new and cant phrases of a dimly understood theology have displaced
the older sentiment. … Of nearly all the songs, however, the music is distinctly
sorrowful.333
It is certainly not a coincidence that Du Bois ends his work by referring to
the slave songs, as they were the means by which the slaves expressed
themselves. Their utterances were misrepresented for decades and he
attempts to set them right and stands in as their voice.
Another topic that is of significance to Du Bois is how the African American
sees himself and how he is perceived by his environment. As a consequence,
he attempts to get behind the colour veil and find out why identity is such an
issue to his race and in particular why they are discerned as “other” by society.
This phenomenon is already alluded to at the start of his work, when he
mentions the rejection he is confronted with when a little girl refuses to play with
him as a boy, due to his skin colour. The racial prejudice he is confronted with
does not abate over time and he realises that due to this reaction from others,
the African Americans are adapting their identity accordingly.
… in this American world, - a world which yields him [the African American]
no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation
of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this
sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring
one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.
One ever feels this twoness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts,
two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged
strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.334
333
334
Du Bois, p.382
Du Bois, p.214 and p.215
147
Naturally, slavery is at the source of this problem – the generations
following the introduction of the slaves on American soil, who are born here are
divided between two nations: Africa, the country from which their predecessors
were forcefully abducted and America, the only home which they know and
which does not offer them the same rights as its other citizens. They are
trapped with a “double-consciousness” as Du Bois terms it, not really belonging
to neither country nor accepted by the others as they are perceived as different.
The fact that they are discerned as immoral hybrids as an aftermath of slavery
makes them outsiders in both worlds. Later generations will still have to
struggle with this issue as it is closely linked to a past in which they were
subjugated and people have a hard time coming to terms with it, as is
highlighted in the writings of later authors. “The African American is after all,
American and African; and the question was, and is, which is the more
important? Should the primary impulse be towards absorption into the dominant
culture or assertion of a separate national identity? Is assimilationism the
priority, or black nationalism?”335 In the same way as Du Bois strives to bring
his two identities together to form a unique one, his peers have to undergo a
similar process. Their doubleness brings about issues which need to be
addressed.
This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals,
has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand
thousand people, - has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false
means of salvation, and at times has even seemed about to make them
ashamed of themselves.336
As a matter of fact, the problems that he clearly makes out in The Souls of
Black Folk have to be solved, even though they seem to have evolved into an
impossible task. The abolition of slavery has offered an entire race an
opportunity to reshape itself; however, first of all it has to overcome its dreadful
past.
335
336
Gray, p.342
Du Bois, p.216
148
Nor was his [the African American’s] burden all poverty and ignorance. The
red stain of bastardy, which two centuries of systemic legal defilement of Negro
women had stamped upon his race, meant not only the loss of ancient African
chastity, but also the hereditary weight of a mass of corruption from white
adulterers, threatening almost the obliteration of the Negro home.337
By putting these thoughts down in writing, Du Bois attempts to leave this
past behind and concentrate on the future. He hopes that the new African
American will be able to form a distinct identity for himself, where he can just be
himself and where he does not have to feel torn between two distinct ideals.
The matter of the colour line has already been addressed and the fact that Du
Bois spends so much time reflecting on it, is an undeniable hint towards the
fact that colour cannot be separated from the identity controversy. “Despite the
end of slavery, the shadow still falls across every black man and woman in
America. Du Bois weaves together autobiography and analysis, mediation and
incantation, in this seminal account of African American dualism, the veil of
invisibility thwarting identity and true community.”338 It is obvious that this
invisible veil that separates the two races socially, morally and economically
needs to disappear, in order for both to find a way to be able to interact on an
equal footing and give the African American race the possibility to stand up and
create a new identity for itself.
Draw lines of crime, of incompetency, of vice, as tightly and
uncompromisingly as you will, for these things must be proscribed; but a colorline not only does not accomplish this purpose, but thwarts it. … for the Negro
to realize more deeply than he does at present the need of uplifting the masses
of his people, for the white people to realize more vividly than they have yet
done the deadening and disastrous effect of a color-prejudice that classes
Phillis Whatley and Sam Hose in the same despised class.339
Du Bois sees the need for destroying this line and abolishing the
segregation that the “Jim Crow” laws for example put into place. By pointing out
the importance of education and the necessity of providing the African
Americans civic rights and the ballot, the author tries to get his points across to
his audience and change the situation at hand.
337
Du Bois, p.218
Gray, p.352
339
Du Bois, p.336
338
149
In this sense, The Souls not only opened channels often sealed in the
antebellum slave narrative, it helped to pave the way for alternative models for
subsequent African American writers, models associated with at least two
objectives of modernism: to represent human consciousness and emotion, and
to question, if not reject, pre-existing modes of representation.340
His ideas and thoughts were welcomed by the academic world and his
concept of “double-consciousness” in relation to African American identity has
influenced the greater part of the authors that followed him, thus furthering the
evolution of the slave narrative and the slave fiction. His attempts at
denouncing the colour line and standing in for the equality of both races made
him a forerunner for the struggle of African American rights and by using his
narrative voice he tried to open his audience’s eyes, both black and white.
Despite all his achievements, Du Bois does not address the issues of every
“black soul” in his work. He links the problem of African American identity to the
colour line which again can be retraced to slavery. Naturally, slavery lies at the
heart of all these problems and can consequently be identified as its source. At
the same times, he denounces the systematic rape of black women, which had
one major goal: the accumulation of wealth on the master’s side, along with the
satisfaction of his sexual lust. Again, the reader can only agree with his
statements, especially as he highlights the “almost obliteration of the Negro
home”341 as a result of slavery, meaning that the sacred family unit as it should
have been, was defiled and corrupted by the institution and the power
discourse in place. However, Du Bois also mixes the “loss of ancient African
chastity”342 into the equation, which creates on the reader’s part a questioning
of ideology and its meaning.
340
Fisch, p.160
Du Bois, p.218
342
Du Bois, p.218
341
150
“Chastity” in itself can be defined as “the state or practice of abstaining
from extramarital, or from all, sexual intercourse”343, but depending on an
individual’s point of view and background, this concept might also change its
significance. The fact that in ancient Africa, a woman might have had more than
one husband would not have been accepted as chaste in continental Europe or
America, so which “chastity” does Du Bois refer to, the African or the European
conception, which is influenced by religion and in which only one husband is
suitable? And to what extent and in how far can a woman be described as
chaste? Has a sexually abused woman lost all of her virtue and chastity? Du
Bois does not answer any of these reflections, but remains stuck on the fact
that an entire community has lost its chastity due to rape. The answers to these
contemplations are entirely up to the eye of the beholder and his/her personal
background. While Du Bois clearly condemns the slaves’ rape and the reader
fully agrees with his statement concerning the sexual abuse of women, the
concept of “chastity” takes on a rather patriarchal point of view in his reflections,
which has to be questioned.
The same problem arises when Du Bois considers the education of “black
folk”. When he mentions the need for knowledge and the foundation of colleges
and universities for his community, he puts an emphasis on the “dignified
manhood call[s] for the guidance of skilled thinkers”344 and “the black men
[should be] emancipated by training and culture”345. While at first one might
think that he is alluding to the black race in general, it is later obvious that
unlike Washington, who advocates education for everyone, Du Bois makes
clear that his privileged elite should be male. “… W.E.B. Du Bois proposed from
the beginning that the American Negro Academy – a kind of think tank for that
intellectual black elite called the Talented Tenth – be open only to “men of
African descent.”346 Of course, this engenders reactions such as the following:
“Imagine, if you can, black women intellectuals and activists, who in the 1890s
had taken on such issues as the moral integrity of black women, lynching, and
343
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (Oxford: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2004)
Du Bois, p.283
345
Du Bois, p.283
346
344
151
the education of black youth, being considered social decorations.”347 Du Bois
does not appeal to all “the Souls of Black Folk” as suggested in the title of his
work, as he restricts the access to higher education to a matter of sex. At the
same time, he diminishes the value of women’s writing. “Women’s writing is
considered singular and anomalous, not universal and representative, and for
some mysterious reason, writing about black women is not considered as
racially significant as writing about black men.”348
Clearly, his theory of the “double-consciousness” applies to both sexes and
highlights the discomfort that African Americans feel about their identity. He
also offers a first step towards abolishing this problem, by erasing the colour
line and the segregation in place. His hopes are that this act will diminish racial
prejudice and be of help to his community. Moreover, he condemns slavery and
its repercussions on an entire nation. His “double-consciousness” theory
stimulates the thinking process, which should come to term with the issue of
identity and help future writers to concentrate on “represent[ing] human
consciousness and emotion”349 rather than to dwell on slave narratives and
their style of writing. Du Bois encourages his successors to take the matter of
identity and voice further on to a psychological and emotional level with a look
into “black souls”. Unfortunately, he did not manage to consider everyone in his
work and drew up a gender line by neglecting the women’s right to higher
education and a voice of their own.
347
349
Fisch, p.160
348
152
The Protest Novel and Urban Realism – depicting segregation in the city
A new African American literary era was created in the 1940s, which made
use of the theories of realism, naturalism and modernism. This brought about a
further set in the evolution of African American literature and gave it additional
depth. Its forerunner is Richard Wright, who published his novel depicting
segregation in the city, Native Son (1940) and leans heavily on urban realism in
his work. “… realism is taken broadly to refer to a faithful reproduction or
illusion of material “reality” ….”350 Wright depicts what city life is like for a
young, black teenager and demonstrates in how far he is affected by the
segregation present in the city, which does not only divide its premises
territorially, but where the colour line runs throughout society.
African American literary production from the 1940s to the 1960s is
empathically northern, urban, and set mainly in the black American culture
capitals: Chicago, Boston, and Harlem … In these cities, a black urban street
culture, the product of roiling social tensions, transformed the so-called cultural
(read white) mainstream.351
Wright has come a long way from the Southern plantation on which he was
born and offers his contemporaries, as well as his literary descendants, the
opportunity to further their thinking and go beyond.
The opinion widely shared is that Wright’s Native Son had almost singlehandedly birthed and shaped a radically new agenda and established for
African American writing a new center of gravity, one pitched toward the gritty
realities of urban living for black Americans and filtered through the lenses of
urban sociology and the conventions of naturalism.352
By linking realism to an urban setting, Wright does not only manage to
bring a new location into play, but also a new point of view. He continues the
development of the protest literature, which found its beginning in the slave
narratives, by depicting the dreadful repercussions that racial oppression has
on society. His attempt to open his audience’s eyes to the injustices at hand
can
350
be
found
in
352
351
the
very
graphical
writing
of
his
Native
Son.
154
Native Son by Richard Wright
‘Goddammit!’
‘What’s the matter?’
‘They don’t let us do nothing.’
‘Who?’
‘The white folks.’
‘You talk like you just now finding that out,’ Gus said.
‘Naw. But I just can’t get used to it,’ Bigger said. ‘I swear to God I can’t. I
know I oughtn’t think about it, but I can’t help it. Every time I think about it I feel
like somebody’s poking a red-hot iron down my throat. Goddammit, look! We
live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we
ain’t. They do things and we can’t. It’s just like living in jail. Half the time I feel
like I’m on the outside of the world peeping in through a knot-hole in the
fence…353
Richard Wright had to fight against segregation and racial prejudice his
entire life, which ended with his decision to find a new home in Europe, where
he lived in exile. Thus, it is not surprising that his Native Son deeply revolves
around the theme of race and consequently of identity. Being born on a
plantation and afterwards moving to an American city, has influenced him
greatly in his writing and as a result the reader cannot be surprised that his
work is also spiked with reflections on this, in an attempt to force his audience
in particular and the country in general to have a closer look at the racial
problems that are predominant in their society.
Given the dynamics of racial understanding and misunderstanding in 1940,
Wright’s novel was indeed a phenomenon, being just enough of a work of art
and just enough of a polemical treatise to keep readers off balance. Wright
made the nemesis of race in the United States the subject of his novel. 354
Wright has taken it upon himself to depict the issues of segregation and
voices his concerns, which are the apprehensions felt by an entire race. His
commercial and literary successes enable him to let the world know that while
slavery is no more, that the subjugation of this new generation of which Bigger
Thomas, his main protagonist, is part, will not do and that they will not remain
under the yoke forever. There will be social repercussions if they will not be
allowed their own voice and identity. He wants to awaken everyone and
353
354
Richard Wright, Native Son (London: Vintage Classics Random House, 2000), p.49 and p.50
Graham, p.176
attempts to make them aware of their responsibility. “Wright had created a new
kind of African American novel, one that invited not sympathy but pangs of
complicit, national guilt.”355 Bigger has turned into Wright’s spokesperson, even
though he is only a fictional character, a very unlikeable one at that and he
stands in as the cautionary illustration of what will happen to the entire society if
segregation is held in place. Through his composition, Wright has taken a
further step in the evolution of the African American literature, as his novel is a
fictional story within a realistic urban setting, nevertheless, the theme of slavery
and its aftermaths is still lurking in the background and is at the core of his
writing, waiting to be unleashed.
The significance of the novel’s publication lay in the new and daringly
defiant character of its content and in its adoption by the Book-of-the-Month
Club, which signalled for the first time since the nineteenth-century fugitive
slave narratives the willingness of a mainstream reading public to give ear to an
African American writer, even one who appeared unapologetic in his bald and
forthright representation of a large segment of African American culture.356
Bigger Thomas is in fact a twenty-year old coloured boy who has lost his
father at a young age and is now responsible for his mother’s and younger
siblings’ survival. He is disgruntled about his life and the opportunities he
misses out on, because he is black. He openly voices this rejection by society
when he talks to his friends, who are all members of the same gang.
‘I don’t know. I just feel that way. Every time I get to thinking about me
being black and they being white, me being here and they being there, I feel
like something awful’s going to happen to me…’
‘Aw, for chrissakes! There ain’t nothing you can do about it. How come you
want to worry yourself? You black and they make the laws…’
‘Why they make us live in one corner of the city? Why don’t they let us fly
planes and run ships…’
Gus hunched Bigger with his elbow and mumbled good-naturedly, ‘Aw,
nigger, quit thinking about it. You’ll go nuts.’357
355
Graham, p.177
357
Wright, p.50
356
156
The non-acceptance that Bigger struggles with fills him with incredible
hatred of white people, because they hold him back in life and he cannot fulfil
his dreams. He also voices the fact that he despises his family as he is
supposed to support them, given his status as the eldest child. Furthermore, he
loathes his coloured friends, seeing that they are his constant reminder of how
dreadful his life is and how hopeless with regard to his own wishes. This is
expressed in the games he plays with his friend Gus, in which both boys
pretend to be white men, holding positions which are unattainable to them.
Presently, Bigger cupped his hand to his mouth and spoke through an
imaginary telephone transmitter. … ‘This is the President of the United States
speaking,’ Bigger said.
‘Oh, yessuh, Mr President,’ Gus said.
‘I’m calling a cabinet meeting this afternoon at four o’clock and you, as
Secretary of State, must be there.’
‘Well, now, Mr President,’ Gus said, ‘I’m pretty busy. They raising sand
over there in Germany and I got to send ‘em a note…’
‘But this is important,’ Bigger said.
‘What you going to take up at this cabinet meeting?’ Gus asked.
‘Well, you see, the niggers is raising sand all over the country,’ Bigger said,
struggling to keep back his laughter. ‘We’ve got to do something with these
black folks…’
‘Oh, if it’s about the niggers, I’ll be right there, Mr President,’ Gus said.358
Bigger’s hate quickly turns into violence, when it is combined with fear. As
such he is most willing to rob black merchants with his gang, but when he
comes up with the plan to steal from a white shopkeeper, he starts a physical
fight with Gus in order to get out of it. Wright does not describe Bigger as an
appealling character, but as a very realistic one, shaped by his environment
and particularly by the racial segregation under which he suffers. The anxiety
and hatred which Bigger experiences whenever he is confronted with the
doings of white people is either expressed vocally by insulting those around
him or through violence. The fact that he has to live with his family in a oneroom, rat-infested apartment makes him feel inferior and he turns his loathing
onto his family and his brutality onto the rat that dares roaming around.
358
Wright, p.49
157
Bigger aimed and let the skillet fly with a heavy grunt. There was a
shattering of wood as the box caved in. … He kicked the splintered box out of
the way and the flat black body of the rat lay exposed, its two long yellow tusks
showing distinctly. Bigger took a shoe and pounded the rat’s head, crushing it,
cursing hysterically: ‘You sonofabitch!’ … Bigger laughed and approached the
bed with the dangling rat, swinging it to and fro like a pendulum, enjoying his
sister’s fear. ‘Bigger!’ Vera gasped convulsively; she screamed and swayed
and closed her eyes and fell headlong across her mother and rolled limply from
the bed to the floor.359
This scene depicts the duality of his reaction to the circumstances he faces
in his life. “It would appear that resorting to violence is the only way in which
Bigger is able to articulate his despair at the racially charged inequity which
daily threatens to consume his life.”360 His behaviour underlines his
helplessness and frustration; however, he refuses to go as far as defying the
race that is at the source of these problems and rather attacks his own. Wright
uses his narrative and Bigger’s actual voice to call attention to his protagonist’s
anguish and his fatalism. The turning point in Bigger’s life is the moment when
he watches a film about a rich, young white heiress, who spends a lot of money
and he realises that his job offer from the relief centre, which he has ignored up
until now, might improve his situation.
Several times Bigger nudged Jack in the ribs with his elbow as the giddy
young woman duped her husband and kept from him the knowledge of what
she was doing. … ‘Them rich chicks’ll do anything.’
‘Yeah. And she’s a hot looking number, all right,’ Bigger said. ‘Say, maybe
I’ll be working for folks like that if I take that relief job. Maybe I’ll be driving ‘em
around…’
… My ma used to work for rich white folks and you ought to hear the tales
she used to tell…’
‘What she say?’ Bigger asked eagerly.
‘Ah, man, them rich women’ll go to bed with anybody, from a poodle on up.
Shucks, they even have their chauffeurs. Say, if you run into anything on that
new job that’s too much for you to handle, let me know…’ They laughed. 361
After deliberating the subject with Jack, he sees the opportunity that might
come with this job.
359
Wright, p.36 and p.37
Wright, p.xiv
361
Wright, p.61
360
158
Those were smart people: they knew how to get hold of money, millions of
it. Maybe if he were working for them something would happen and he would
get some of it. He would see just how they did it. Sure, it was all a game and
white people knew how to play it. And rich white people were not so hard on
Negroes: it was the poor whites who hated Negroes.362
As a consequence, Bigger decides to present himself for the job interview
at the Daltons’. The reader immediately discerns the metamorphosis that he
goes through, when he steps over their threshold. Bigger loses his voice, partly
because he feels inferior to the white people living here in luxury and partly due
to the fact that he does not understand them. The first conversation at his new
workplace already depicts his subordinate conduct and his taciturnity further
enhances this feeling, as he is practically speechless.
He saw a white face. It was a woman.
‘Hello!’
‘Yessum,’ he said.
‘You want to see somebody?’
‘Er… Er… I want to see Mr Dalton.’
‘Are you the Thomas boy?’
‘Yessum.’
‘Come in.’ … With cap in hand and shoulders sloped, he followed, walking
over a rug so soft and deep that it seemed he was going to fall at each step he
took. He went into a dimly lit room.
‘Take a seat,’ she said. I’ll tell Mr Dalton that you’re here and he’ll be out in
a moment.’
‘Yessum.’363
It is not just that they do not use his vernacular, but they apply a completely
different pattern of behaviour, thought and speech. He retains his inner
musings and hatred; however, he is deprived of his voice in this environment,
restricted to answering and obeying orders.
362
363
Wright, p.64
Wright, p.75
159
‘I think it’s important emotionally that he [Bigger] feels free to trust his
environment,’ the woman [Mrs Dalton] said. ‘Using the analysis contained in the
case record the relief sent us, I think we should evoke an immediate feeling of
confidence…’
‘But that’s too abrupt,’ the man [Mr Dalton] said.
Bigger listened, blinking and bewildered. The long strange words they used
made no sense to him; it was another language. He felt from the tone of their
voices that they were having a difference of opinion about him, but he could not
determine what it was about. It made him uneasy, tense, as though there were
influences and presences about him which he could feel but not see. He felt
strangely blind.364
Bigger feels alienated in this environment, unable to understand it in the
same way as Mrs Dalton, his employer, is literally blind. He is deaf and dumb
as he cannot process the events into which he is dragged. Throughout his stay
at the Daltons’, he is submissive and does not utter his thoughts, which his
employers do not ask of him anyway, except for Mary, their daughter. Mary is
affiliated to the Communist Party through her friend Jan and wants to help the
black community in fighting for their civic rights. While Bigger hates his
employers, he deeply loathes Mary because she questions his desires and
wishes and requests him to express them in front of her, which is asking for the
impossible as he never thought he would be confronted to such a situation.
‘Bigger, do you belong to a union?’ she [Mary] asked. …
‘No’m,’ he mumbled, his head down and his eyes glowering.
‘And why not?’ the girl asked. … She’s making me lose my job! he thought.
Goddamn! He knew nothing about unions, except that they were considered
bad. And what did she mean by talking to him this way in front of Mr Dalton,
who surely, didn’t like unions?’ … She turned again to Bigger. ‘Isn’t he
[referring to her father] a capitalist, Bigger?’ Bigger looked at the floor and did
not answer. He did not know what a capitalist was.365
Mary crosses the colour line, which scares Bigger as he knows that he will
be held responsible for any trespasses, not her. After an evening with her, filled
with transgressions of the segregation rules on her part (sitting in the car next
to him, eating with him in a restaurant in the Black Belt part of the city), she
ends up drunk and he has to carry her to bed. Unfortunately, he is about to be
caught in her bedroom by her blind mother and therefore, as a way to quieten
364
365
Wright, p.77
Wright, p.83
160
her, he puts a pillow on her mouth and suffocates her. She remains voiceless
and dead on her bed, while all he was trying to do was to “shut her up”.
Bigger held his breath. Mary mumbled again; he bent over her, his fists
clenched in fear. He knew that Mrs Dalton could not see him; but he knew that
if Mary spoke she would come to the side of the bed and discover him, touch
him. … He felt Mary trying to rise and quickly he pushed her head back to the
pillow. … Mary mumbled and tried to rise again. Frantically, he caught a corner
of the pillow and brought it to her lips. He had to stop her from mumbling, or he
would be caught. … Mary’s fingernails tore at his hands and he caught the
pillow and covered her entire face with it, firmly. Mary’s body surged upward
and he pushed downward upon the pillow with all of his weight, determined that
she must not move or make any sound that would betray him. … Then
suddenly her fingernails did not bite into his wrists. Mary’s fingers loosened. He
did not feel her surging and heaving against him. Her body was still. 366
The fact that Bigger is in Mary’s bedroom would certainly have ended with
trouble for him as he is not supposed to cross the line and be in this precise
location, a white girl’s sanctuary. Unable to confront her mother, he attempts to
silence her and unintentionally kills her. The fact that he cannot speak up to
Mrs Dalton and explain the situation to her, is rooted in slavery. As there has
never been any bonding between master and slave, there was no room for
honest conversation and consequently, both races have not been able to
entertain a real sort of communication between them. The slave was subjected
and therefore could not voice himself and this situation is reflected here.
Already upon his arrival, Bigger is pushed into the role of the underling and
racially inferior. Additionally, he has never learnt to confront a white person on
an equal footing and therefore cannot relate the circumstances which led him to
putting Mary to bed. In fact, Mary’s death is the consequence of segregation
and Bigger’s speechlessness in this situation. The first chapter entitled “Fear”
ends upon Bigger’s return home after decapitating Mary so that she fits into the
Daltons’ furnace and describes how Bigger loses his voice over time, as soon
as he enters his white employers’ house. His thoughts are still related to the
reader through Wright; however, his protagonist’s dialogue is unquestionably
shortened.
366
161
In the second part of the novel, titled “Flight”, Bigger remains mostly
voiceless and submissive towards the white people surrounding him, even
though he also starts lying about what happened to Mary, after her parents
notice her disappearance. He is tight-lipped towards the private investigators
and the reporters, fulfilling the role of the quiet, dumb black who cannot be
asked for reliable information.
Bigger knew that this was it. This man was here to find out everything. This
was an examination. He would have to point his answers away from himself
quite definitely. He would have to tell his story. He would let each of the facts of
his story fall slowly, as thought he did not realize the significance of them. He
would answer only what was asked.
‘You drove her to school?’ He hung his head and did not answer.
‘Come on, boy!’
‘Well, mister, you see, I’m just working here…’
‘What do you mean?’ Mr Dalton came close and looked hard into his face.
‘Answer his questions, Bigger.’
‘Yessuh.’ … There was another silence. They wanted him to draw the
picture and he would draw it like he wanted it. He was trembling with
excitement. In the past had they not always drawn the picture for him?367
As he is no longer suspected, Bigger decides to take the affair further and
writes a ransom note addressed to the Daltons, asking money for the safe
release of their daughter. He makes Bessie, “his girl”, his accomplice, when he
reveals everything to her. In her apartment he can voice himself in this
secluded part of the city, which is reserved for coloured people. He does not
care if he hurts her physically or mentally, as she is only a black girl. “ ‘Yeah; I
killed the girl,’ he said. Now you know. You got to help me. You in as deep as
me! You done spent some of the money…’ She sank to the bed again, sobbing,
her breath catching in her throat.”368 When all the details are settled, he returns
to his employers and decides to use his voice here as well, but in a very subtle
way. He realises that he holds power over the Daltons and the investigators
when he manages to get them to suspect Jan, Mary’s communist boyfriend and
shifts the blame on him. He reclaims his voice at this moment, getting them to
believe his lies and to spin the truth whichever way he wants. His scarce words
hold an incredible persuasiveness in them, as the white people believe him
367
368
Wright, p.209
162
over someone of their own race, namely Jan, who belongs to the communist
party. Special emphasis is placed on the power of speech here, due to the fact
that Bigger reclaims his voice from those who subjugated him and uses their
prescribed words against them for his personal benefit.
‘Come on. Tell us some of the things he [Jan] said.’
Bigger knew the things that white folks hated to hear Negroes ask for; and he
knew that these were the things the reds were always asking for. And he knew
that white folks did not like to hear these things asked for even by white who
fought for Negroes. ‘Well,’ Bigger said, feigning reluctance, ‘he told me that
some day there wouldn’t be no rich folks and no poor folks…’
‘Yeah?’
‘And he said that a black man would have a chance…’
‘Go on.’
‘And he said there would be no more lynching…’369
After playing out all of his trumps vocally, Bigger has managed to convince
the authorities and Jan is put into prison. He has furthermore deceived
everyone that his is just a stupid black boy.
‘Say, boy, what do you think of public ownership? Do you think the
government ought to build houses for people to live in?’
Bigger blinked. ‘Suh?’
‘Well, what do you think of private property?’
‘I don’t own any property. Nawsuh,’ Bigger said.
‘Aw, he’s a dumb cluck. He doesn’t know anything,’ one of the men
whispered in a voice loud enough for Bigger to hear.370
Everything could have worked out for Bigger, but unfortunately for him,
evidence of Mary’s death is retrieved from the furnace, some of her bones and
her earring. While the suspicions do not immediately fall upon him, his wordless
flight from the premises speaks for itself. He seeks refuge at Bessie’s, who
starts questioning him. He only answers in short replies, as if he has already
given up. Nevertheless, he still manages to get her to run away with him by
giving her clear orders to follow. In this particular section of the novel Bessie
takes over the talking and moaning over her unhappy fate, while Bigger
remains mainly voiceless. He returns to violence, dragging her about without
uttering a word and ultimately raping her in a discarded building. Throughout
369
370
Wright, p.226
Wright, p.243
163
the raping scene he does not say anything and the reader is only confronted
with Bessie’s exclamations of refusal. “… he heard: don’t Bigger don’t don’t. At
a moment he could not remember, he had fallen; and now he lay, spent, his lips
parted. He lay still, feeling rid of that hunger and tenseness and hearing the
wail of the night wind over and above his and her breathing.”371 This scene and
the one that follows, Bessie’s murder, is described through his thoughts and
again he does not say anything. Both situations do not require any words from
Bigger as Wright’s narrative voice takes over.
Again, he was ready. … Then he took a deep breath and his hand gripped
the brick and shot upward and paused a second and then plunged downward
through the darkness to the accompaniment of a deep short grunt from his
chest and landed with a thud. Yes! There was a dull gasp of surprise, then a
moan. No, that must not be! He lifted the brick again and again, until in falling it
struck a sodden mass that gave softly but stoutly to each landing blow. 372
After discarding her seemingly lifeless body, he returns down into the street
and remains speechless during his flight (except for when he buys bread at a
shop), until he is caught and arrested. His voice which had been so
predominant in the first chapter of the novel had been taken away from him
when he entered the Daltons’ service and he reclaimed it for himself after
Mary’s unintentional murder by spinning the investigation his way through his
statements. However, the passivity of his voice returns as soon as he rapes
Bessie and it does not leave him during his inquest, nor his trial. The only time
he opens up is when he tries to get his lawyer, Max, a communist friend of
Jan’s, to understand him. Fatalism has won him over, he is aware that he will
be executed for Mary’s death and Bessie’s murder will give the court all the
circumstantial evidence they need to judge him. Bessie’s corpse has turned
into proof of his guilt with regard to Mary’s. During the trial, all of the white
people implicated (judge, jury, the Daltons, …) take over and Bigger is only a
quiet witness to the proceedings. His speechlessness is overridden by Wright’s
omnipresent narrative voice (and Max’s pleading for his defendant) as he
depicts the proceedings and the behaviour of all concerned. He knows that
Bigger has given up and the few conversations in which he partakes, with his
371
372
Wright, p.264
Wright, p.267
164
family or the priest, are effectively useless with regard to the outcome of the
trial. Determination not to weaken in front of the white race has robbed Bigger
of his voice; however, Wright is there to reclaim it from his main protagonist, in
order to protest against the unfair bias of the court and the racial prejudice that
prevails. The unintentional killing of the white heiress takes precedence over
the rape and murder of a poor black girl and this aspect should give the reader
food for thought. Additionally, one cannot forget the circumstances which led to
Bigger’s first homicide as he is the product of segregation, a violent young boy,
bereft of any expectations for the future, voiceless in white surroundings and
unable to speak up for himself there under normal conditions; ever the base,
servile driver.
Bigger may finally lack the ‘words’, the capacity properly to articulate and
so understand his plight. Utterly the reverse is true of his creator who, in finding
precisely the right words, wrote one of the most complex yet coherent works
about the indelible connection between where and who we are – our being in
the world and our knowledge of ourselves.373
In the same way as Bigger is voiceless through segregation, his identity is
also shaped by the same phenomenon. For Wright, the subject of identity is of
utmost importance, because he also had to suffer from the limitations that
society pressed upon him, as the concept of identity is in effect a social
construct. Who we are seen as is to a great extent prescribed by society.
… he [Wright] was denied a sense of his own humanity and identity as he
grew up. ‘Not only had the southern whites not known me,’ he explained in
retrospect, ‘but, more important still, as I had lived in the South I had not had
the chance to learn who I was.’374
Slaves were denied their identity by their masters and were shaped by
them. They were not allowed to find their own self but had to adapt themselves
and this is still the case for the generations that followed. Although slavery has
been abolished and the slaves were given their freedom, a new set of rules
applies and it is difficult for black people at the time to create themselves,
according to their own beliefs and wishes.
373
374
Gray, p.536
Gray, p.533 and p.534
165
For him [Wright] identity was a social construct, cultural not natural: it had
to be ‘won, struggled, and suffered for’. And, just as he had been denied the
chance to learn who he was while he stayed in the South, so, he felt, African
Americans had been denied a similar knowledge. The cruellest blow white
society dealt them was to exclude them from a sense of fully being in the
world.375
The slaves’ loss of identity affects the entire society and produces
characters such as Bigger. When the reader first meets Bigger, he is seen as
the violent, heartless teenager in the apartment where he has just killed a rat.
He is annoyed by his family and their needs. Soon afterwards, his inert hatred
of white people is revealed and the fact that he misses out on opportunities,
because he is black. His identity, his living conditions and his expectations are
shaped by society and the rules which it set up and which he has to follow by
the letter. “ ‘I could fly a plane if I had a chance,’ Bigger said. - ‘If you wasn’t
black and if you had some money and if they’d let you go to that aviation
school, you could fly a plane, Gus said.”376 They are aware of the limitations
under which they have to exist. Furthermore, Bigger has realised that he suffers
from the constant appraisal of the white supremacy, even if he does not clearly
understand it and neither do his friends.
‘You know where the white folks live?’
‘Yeah,’ Gus said, pointing eastward. ‘Over across the “line”; over there on
Cottage Grove Avenue.’
‘Naw; they don’t,’ Bigger said.
‘What you mean?’ Gus asked, puzzled. ‘Then, where do they live?’
Bigger doubled his fist and struck his solar plexus. ‘Right down here in my
stomach,’ he said.
Gus looked at Bigger searchingly, then away, as though ashamed. ‘Yeah; I
know what you mean,’ he whispered.
‘Every time I think of ‘em, I feel ‘em,’ Bigger said.
‘Yeah; and in your chest and throat, too,’ Gus said.
‘It’s like fire.’
‘And sometimes you can’t hardly breathe…’377
375
Gray, p.534 and p.535
377
Wright, p.51
376
166
The boys can feel the tension that reigns between both races and Bigger is
quite conscious that his every move is policed by the segregation rules in place
and that any of his trespasses will have dire consequences. Wright depicts him
as a brutal person as violence is a way for him to express his built-up fear
which is created by the social injustice he feels.
His confused emotions had made him feel instinctively that it would be
better to fight Gus and spoil the plan of the robbery than to confront a white
man with a gun. But he kept this knowledge of his fear thrust firmly down in
him; his courage to live depended upon how successfully his fear was hidden
from his consciousness.378
His identity is shaped by his fear and his hatred and the perception of
others. “He grew angry. Why had he come to take this goddamn job? He could
have stayed among his own people and escaped this fear and hate. This was
not his world; he had been foolish in thinking that he would have liked it.” 379
Bigger’s entire life revolves around these feelings and he has to do his utmost
to bottle them up when confronted with the objects of his antagonism. “…
Wright boldly outlined a frightening aspect of race in America: the possibility
that incipient pathology among young adolescents who were consistently
denied the chance to develop healthy psycho-social identities might manifest
itself in extreme violence. Native Son asserted that deferred dreams might
explode in the Bigger Thomases of America.”380 As a consequence, the reader
is wondering what else will happen when Bigger is entirely submerged into this
white world, working for an employer, where he can no longer voice his anger
and violence openly. “He wanted to wave his hand and blot out the white man
who was making him feel like this. If not that, he wanted to blot himself out.” 381
In fact, as soon as he enters it, more tension about his identity arises, as he
feels alienated by those around him. Mrs Dalton wants to reshape him
according to her own wishes and therefore decides on the spot that he should
go back to school, to further himself, entirely disregarding his own desires.
378
Wright, p.72
Wright, p.74
380
Graham, p.177
381
Wright, p.79
379
167
‘How far did you say you went in school, Bigger?’
‘To the eighth grade, mam.’
‘Did you ever think of going back?’
‘Well, I gotta work now, mam.’
‘Suppose you had the chance to go back?’
‘Well, I don’t know, mam.’
‘The last man who worked here went to night school and got an education.’
‘Yessum.’
‘What would you want to be if you had an education?’
‘I don’t know, mam.’ … The difference in his feelings toward Mrs Dalton
and his mother was that he felt that his mother wanted him to do the things she
wanted him to do, and he felt that Mrs Dalton wanted him to do the things she
felt that he should have wanted to do. But he did not want to go to night school.
Night school was all right; but he had other plans. Well, he didn’t know just what
they were right now, but he was working them out.382
Mrs Dalton attempts to recreate him to incorporate her personal
expectations. He is an outsider in this world and will never be completely
accepted in it, nevertheless, he is supposed to stick to their rules and beliefs.
After Mrs Dalton, Jan and Mary believe that they can make him into the person
they think he wants to become based on their political beliefs. However, Bigger
is scared and confused by their behaviour towards him. They cross the colour
line by having him shake their hands, as “colored people and white people do
not as a rule shake hands in pulic”383, seating him between them in the car and
eating in a coloured restaurant where he is well known, which is a clear offence
to the rules established. “Eating with a person has strong symbolic value in
many societies, and usually signifies social acceptance. … for colored and
white adults to eat together under ordinary conditions is practically unheard
of.”384 While Mary and Jan feel at ease in this location, Bigger knows about the
transgression which they committed and cannot be at ease with it.
382
Tomas R. Frazier, The Private Side of American History: Readings in Everyday Life (New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1983), p.240
384
Frazier, p.239
383
168
The people in Ernie’s Kitchen Shack knew him and he did not want them to
see with these white people. He knew that if he went in they would ask one
another: Who’re them white folks Bigger’s hanging around with? … Bigger felt
trapped. Oh, goddamn! He saw in a flash that he could have made all of this
very easy if he had simply acted from the beginning as if they were doing
nothing unusual. But he did not understand them; he distrusted them, really
hated them. He was puzzled as to why they were treating him this way. 385
It is only natural that Bigger experiences this confusion, he has never learnt
any other social behaviour and this goes by far beyond what he was supposed
to assimilate. All three want to change him, unfortunately, they forget him, as an
individual, in the process. He is not permitted to have a personal identity,
neither by society, nor by those who supposedly want to assist him in his
development.
Just as Bigger’s black world sees him one way … so the white world he is
seen only through part of his identity, as some preferred invention like the
recipient of Mr Dalton’s self-serving largesse, or the proletarian black worker
imagined by Mary and her lover Jan, or Mr Max’s example of how ‘scientific’
history shapes the individual consciousness.386
After Mary’s accidental killing, Bigger realises that society will stamp him as
the stereotypical “Negro murderer”387 and that this identity is forced onto him
without his consent and without questioning the circumstances surrounding the
heiress’ death. “… she was dead; she was white; she was a woman; he had
killed her; he was black; he might be caught; he did not want to be caught; if he
were they would kill him.”388
After realising the consequences that will await him if he is discovered,
Bigger uses the murder to create his own identity. Even though he acted
involuntarily and ended a woman’s life, he decides to claim it for himself and
through the events that follow (burning Mary in the furnace and destroying
other evidence), he acquires an own personality that sets him aside from the
white world.
385
Robert A. Lee, Designs of Blackness: Mappings in the Literature and Culture of Afro-America (London: Pluto
Press, 1998), p.103
387
Wright, p.119
388
Wright, p.121
386
169
The thought of what he had done, the awful horror of it, the daring
associated with such actions, formed for him for the first time in his fear-ridden
life a barrier of protection between him and a world he feared. He had
murdered and had created a new life for himself. It was something that was all
his own, and it was the first time in his life he had had anything that others
could not take from him.389
He has taken on individual responsibility and the murder has shaped him,
he now defines himself through his actions. He uses Mary’s death as an act of
personal development he undertakes and as a result he formulates his new
self. He sees himself now as an individual as he has killed a rich, white heiress,
and as a consequence, he is no longer an anonymous face in the crowd
anymore.
He felt that he had his destiny in his grasp. He was more alive than he
could ever remember having been; his mind and attention were pointed,
focused toward a goal. For the first time in his life he moved consciously
between two sharply defined poles: he was moving away from the threatening
penalty of death, from the death-like times that brought him that tightness and
hotness in his chest; and he was moving toward that sense of fullness he had
so often but inadequately felt in magazines and movies.390
He continues by playing the subdued servant during the investigation,
putting on display the racially-coded behaviour that is expected of him. When
he reveals the truth about Mary to Bessie, she shocks him by stating that a new
type of identity will be pressed upon him by society, that of a rapist.
‘They’ll … They’ll say you raped her.’ … They would say he had raped her
and there would be no way to prove that he had not. … But rape was not what
one did to women. Rape was what one felt when one’s back was against a wall
and one had to strike out, whether one wanted to or not, to keep the pack from
killing one. He committed rape every time he looked into a white face. He was a
long, taut piece of rubber which a thousand white hands had stretched to the
snapping point, and when he snapped it was rape. But it was rape when he
cried out in that deep in his heart as he felt the strain of living day by day. That,
too, was rape.391
Bigger has taken on the role of the creator as he has reinvented himself;
however, his personal freedom comes at the cost of others’ lives.
389
Wright, p.135
Wright, p.179
391
Wright, p.258
390
170
He may be a victim of his circumstances, but Bigger is proactive and he
relishes the destructive force that he unleashes for he grows to understand that
whites cannot control it. In other words, Bigger Thomas makes the unsettling
discovery that it is the very act of violence that, in fact, sets him free.392
After running away with Bessie, he completes the vicious circle of prejudice
within which society holds him captive as he becomes what society believes
him to be, namely a rapist. He misuses Bessie mentally and physically and
consequently, he also takes her identity from her. He moulds her the way he
wants to and by doing this he ascertains his own power. All Bessie ever wanted
was to have a peaceful life, but Bigger first takes her dignity by using her
sexually and then to top everything, he ends up appropriating her life. Their
relationship starts off as being clearly reciprocal, as Bessie needs alcohol to
forget her despair and she gets it from Bigger by supplying him with sex.
She worked long hours, hard and hot hours seven days a week, with only
Sunday afternoons off; and when she did get off she wanted fun, hard and fast
fun, something to make her feel that she was making up for the starved life she
led. It was her hankering for sensation that he liked about her. Most nights she
was too tired to go out; she only wanted to get drunk. She wanted liquor and he
wanted her. So he would give her the liquor and she would give him herself.393
He then forces her into helping him with the ransom preparations. She is a
weak person, who is alone in the world and no one is there to look after her.
Bigger takes advantage of this situation and makes her do things that she does
not want to. The dominance he exerts over her strengthens him and his
personality.
She’ll be alright. … The shame and fear and hate which Mary and Jan and
Mr Dalton and that huge rich house had made rise so hard and hot in him had
now cooled and softened. Had he not done what they thought he never could?
His being black and at the bottom of the world was something which he could
take with a newborn strength. What his knife and gun had once meant to him,
his knowledge of having secretly murdered Mary now meant.394
392
Wright, p.xv
Wright, p.169
394
393
171
His killing Mary and not yet being caught, empowers him further and he
gloats about it. When he meets Bessie to compose the note, he is irritated by
her because she opposes him. “He began to doubt her; he had never heard
this tone in her voice before. … He could take the butcher knife and cut her
throat.”395 In spite of his thoughts he finds another way to subjugate her for the
moment, by using her free will and character against her. “He carried the bottle
to her lips; she drank a small swallow. When he attempted to put the bottle
away, she took it from him.”396 After the discovery of Mary’s remains, Bigger
returns to Bessie and tells her everything about his deed. As a consequence,
he comprehends that she does not have the strength to cover for him. He has
to use his power over her, to make sure that no one catches him, not now that
he has acquired an identity for himself. “There was no way for her but to come
with him. If she stayed here they would come to her and she would simply lie
on the bed and sob out everything.”397
During their escape he turns into the rapist that society has already made
out of him. “Her breath went in and out of her lungs in long soft gasps that
turned finally into an urgent whisper of pleading. ‘Bigger … Don’t!’ Her voice
came to him now from out of a deep, far-away silence and he paid her no
heed.”398 Following this act, he adds a second murder to his count, which is not
accidental at all, but rather a conscious decision. This deed does not abash
him, which would be natural as he has just ended his girlfriend’s life, but it
empowers him as it further shapes his independent identity.
And, yet, out of it all, over and above all that had happened, impalpable but
real, there remained to him a queer sense of power. He had done this. He had
brought all this about. In all of this life these two murders were the most
meaningful things that had ever happened to him. … Never had he had the
chance to live out the consequences of his actions; never had his will been so
free as in this night and day of fear and murder and flight.399
395
Wright, p.209
Wright, p.210
397
Wright, p.256
398
Wright, p.264
399
Wright, p.270
396
172
He is shaped by his actions, he even accepts the repercussions that will
await him, because they are his own. In fact, his instincts and desires had taken
over when he killed Bessie, as he reflected all his hatred of white people onto
her. He has already murdered a white girl, so the black one does not matter
anymore, as far as the judicial authority is concerned.
He had killed twice, but in a true sense it was not the first time he had ever
killed. He had killed many times before, but only during the last two days had
this impulse assumed the form of actual killing. Blind anger had come often and
he had either gone behind his curtain or wall, or had quarrelled and fought.400
The newspapers which are reporting Mary’s death, readily brand him as a
murderer and rapist, even though he did not abuse Mary and only accidentally
killed her. Consequently, he is chased by every white person in the city, due to
the identity that is forced upon him. When he is arrested he is beaten up and
nearly lynched which is a direct outcome of the image that he received by the
press. After his apprehension, he gives up on himself, by pushing everything
from him. “He was not so much in a stupor, as in the grip of a deep
physiological resolution not to react to anything.”401 However, he is not left in
this state for long as the society that had made him an outsider to the white
world, now demands his accountability for his transgressions. “His defense of
indifference could protect him no longer.”402
In fact, he has infringed the boundaries of racial segregation and for that
reason he needs to be stripped of his newly acquired identity and freedom, in
order to be brought back under the yoke and to supress others who might
desire to follow Bigger’s example.
Though he could not have put it into words, he felt that not only had they
resolved to put him to death, but that they were determined to make his death
mean more than a mere punishment; that they regarded him as a figment of
that black world which they feared and were anxious to keep under control.403
400
Wright, p.270
Wright, p.304
402
403
Wright, p.306
401
173
However, he refuses to stand in as what they try to make of him and gives
up on his physical and mental indifference, even if he cannot voice his
contempt for the white authority.
And as he felt it, rebellion rose in him. He had sunk to the lowest point this
side of death, but when he felt his life again threatened in a way that meant that
he was to go down the dark road a helpless spectacle of sport for others, he
sprang back into action, alive, contending.404
The papers continue to define him as a “Negro sex-slayer”405 and turn him
into a brute, “an ape”406, who “… seems [to be] a beast utterly untouched by the
softening influences of modern civilization. In speech and manner he lacks the
charm of the average, harmless, genial, grinning southern darky so beloved by
the American people.”407 He is further debased by society in the same way as
the slaves were by their masters. The detail that shocks the reader the most is
when the issue of race comes into play, with regard to Bigger’s identity. “I think
it but proper to inform you that in many quarters it is believed that Thomas,
despite his dead-black complexion, may have a minor portion of white blood in
his veins, a mixture which generally makes for a criminal and intractable
nature.”408 It is entirely believable that the public can thus accuse Bigger for
having a mixed-raced background as slavery is the source of this problem and
now those at fault use it for their purposes. “He is a modern instance, a product
of certain racial, social and economic practices. He is a historical paradigm, in
that Wright clearly asks us to connect the paths of ‘hate’ and ‘hope’ to the
larger, historic possibilities of fascism and socialism, the black nationalist
movement and internationalism.”409 Society and his family demand of him to
take on the rule of the demure “Negro” who apologizes to those he injured,
namely the Daltons and the white community, and pray for his salvation.
404
Wright, p.306
Wright, p.309
406
Wright, p.309
407
Wright, p.310
408
Wright, p.311
409
Gray, p.536
405
174
However, Bigger refuses to back down. Max attempts to explain Bigger’s
action to the Daltons, who see their charity work as being essential to the black
community are fruitless. They do not grasp the absurdity of sending pingpong
tables as charity in relation to the racial problem.
‘I tired to help him,’ Mr Dalton said.
‘We wanted to send him to school,’ said Mrs Dalton faintly.
‘I know,’ Max said. ‘But those things don’t touch the fundamental problem
involved here. This boy comes from an oppressed people. Even if he’s done
wrong, we must take that into consideration.’
‘I want you to know that my heart is not bitter,’ Mr Dalton said. ‘What this
boy has done will not influence my relations with the Negro people. Why, only
today I sent a dozen pingpong tables to the South Side Boys’ Club…’
‘Mr Dalton!’ Max exclaimed, coming forward suddenly. ‘My God, man! Will
ping-pong keep men from murdering?410
Bigger’s family shames him as his mother begs the Daltons for his pardon,
but he denies the white folk present the joy of seeing him as a weakling as he
will not plea for his life. He will also not admit to any murders that he did not
commit and he does not want to open up emotionally to the state attorney but
only relates the true facts about Mary’s death.
It is Max who attempts to open the public’s eyes to the issues that the black
community has to struggle with, but to no avail. Bigger trusts Max and tells him
about what he did, how he feels and how the colour line affects his identity.
“They draw a line and say for you to stay on your side of the line. They don’t
care if there’s no bread over on your side. They don’t care if you die.”411 Max
understands him and his desire to keep the identity that he established for
himself, regardless of the consequences. Bigger takes responsibility for himself
by deciding to accept his sentence, defying the authorities which want to
incriminate him further and by denying them the pleasure to see him crumbling.
When he says good-bye to Max before his execution, he has accepted that his
individuality comes with a price and he complies with it. “He still held on to the
410
411
Wright, p.324
Wright, p.381
175
bars. Then he smiled a faint, wry, bitter smile. He heard the ring of steel against
steel as a far door clanged shut.”412
Native Son is certainly a work whose goal it is to awaken its readership to
the injustices that prevail in society. “A fiction burning with a fierce sense of
racial and social injustice, it is also a major historical novel and a narrative fully
and provocatively in the American grain.”413 Wright has managed to point
towards racial prejudice and highlight the inequity connected to it. When his
protagonist’s voice fails due to the social restrictions, his narrative voice takes
over and delivers summary statements that are meant to steer his readership in
the “right” ideological direction. Although Bigger establishes an identity through
murder, Wright is able to persuade the reader that this is due to the boundaries
that society set up.
Nevertheless, the reader cannot forget that it is ultimately Wright who locks
up his main protagonist. It is his decision to entrap Bigger in this sphere of
violence, which he cannot escape from, not even after leaving his gang and its
criminal influence behind. While we understand the hatred that drives Bigger
and its source, Wright could have offered his character the possibility to build a
new life for himself through hard work, even if he would have had to toil for a
white person. This, however, would have put him in conflict with the author’s
political beliefs. Throughout the novel the reader realises that a communist
ideology is at work, which is not surprising, as Wright was a fervent adept of
these beliefs at the time when he was composing his novel. It is therefore
perfectly logical that the only kind-hearted white men depicted in the plot are
communists, namely Jan, Mary’s boyfriend who forgives Bigger his wrongful
accusations, and Max, the lawyer who attempts everything in his power to get
Bigger a fair trial. Not only is Bigger locked up in a racial discourse and a
discourse of violence, but also entrapped in a political one.
412
413
Wright, p.454
Gray, p.536
176
Wright is influenced and even indoctrinated by his beliefs to such an extent
that he introduced several slogans of the communist party in the novel and
describes its benefits to the black race in detail in Max’s defence for Bigger. As
Wright himself puts it “…“It is through a Marxist conception of reality and
society that the maximum degree of freedom in thought and feeling can be
gained for the Negro writer.” Negro writing, in other words, could fulfil itself only
by becoming at once black and red.”414 As a consequence, the reader has to
critically question the issue of identity in Bigger once more. One has to actually
wonder if Bigger was ever given a chance to become an individual or if his fate
was decided upon by his creator, before he even had an opportunity to act for
himself. He is depicted as a violent teenager who tries to get out of his life and
selfishly destroys everything and everyone on his path to self-realization. He
cannot be saved, due to his crimes regarding Bessie, but Wright uses him as a
model, to illustrate what will happen if society does not change. The author
believes that without the influence of communism and its freeing thoughts,
society will remain the same and the power discourse in place will not be
replaced. This is precisely why Bigger has to be sacrificed on the altar of
ideology. He has to be sentenced so that the public can discern the
wrongfulness of the situation and by accomplishing this, the hypocrisy of
benefactors, such as Mr Dalton can also be highlighted. The ultimate goal is to
open the public’s eyes and bring about a change, naturally with the help of the
communist party.
Wright never questions Bigger’s behaviour or even his moral responsibility.
Of course, we realise that Mary’s death was accidental, not premeditated and
the result of unforeseen and unhappy coincidences. However, the fact that
Bigger uses these circumstances as a background to commit other felonies is
described as a matter of fact in the novel and is never really pondered upon,
from a moral or ethical point of view. Bigger sees Mary’s murder as a way out
of his financial situation, as it enables him to blackmail her parents, but is it truly
such an act of self-liberation? Bigger finds himself forever caught up between
his two defining characteristics, his “double-consciousness” as Du Bois termed
414
177
it, torn between being an African and an American. He sees the wealth of the
white population, the possibilities they have access to and the success that
comes along with it. He views them as Americans, whose ultimate goal it is to
be powerful and rich, and who succeed in their projects. The main protagonist
wants to be like them or even be them, but he is deprived of this prosperity, due
to his racial background and consequently, a multitude of opportunities are
denied to him. This is the reason why he constantly feels the gaze of the “other”
upon him, why he suffers physically and emotionally from the restrictions the
white authority puts onto him. He is forced behind the colour veil and is unable
to bring together his “two consciences”, which fills him with hatred and despair.
Nonetheless, he is not the only one suffering from this phenomenon.
Mary’s death offers him the opportunity to do something with his life that is not
prescribed by society and thus gives him a certain amount of freedom and selfdetermination. What he ultimately does, cannot be seen as morally correct.
One cannot pity Bigger and his fate, because of Bessie’s cruel rape and
assassination, even if to a certain extent, his reactions are understandable. The
question as to its rightfulness is never asked by Wright, which is deeply
disturbing in itself.
Is the rape and murder of a black woman somehow a correlative to the
black man’s quest for manhood, a figure for the defeminisation Wright calls for
in his blueprint for a literature that would no longer go “curtsying to show that
the Negro was not inferior”? If the novel makes a plea for Bigger’s victimization,
does it implicitly excuse his treatment of the black woman? Does racism explain
away the novel’s careless misogyny?415
Ultimately, it is not Bigger who is sacrificed, but Bessie. She becomes mere
evidence in another girl’s trial as she is exposed and turned into an object.
Bigger abuses her to find himself and no one is there to defend her. In the end,
she is really the silenced victim of this society, which can look upon a corpse
and simply identify it as proof.
415
178
Wright managed to create a deeply conflicting character, namely Bigger
Thomas, (whom he, on a first glance, offers the possibility of a voice and an
identity); however, he did not take into account the fact that his ideological
beliefs and his negligence of moral responsibility would upset his readers in
their appreciation of the novel. One can clearly see that Wright wanted to bring
about a change for society and highlight the unfairness of the colour line, but
unfortunately the reader cannot hinder himself/herself from pointing out
Bigger’s deficiencies as an individual, which are caused by the author himself.
Nonetheless, one should not forget that by linking the racial segregation to its
historical origins, namely slavery, Wright has taken a further important step in
the evolution of African American literature and that his novel was of great
literary importance and achieved the goals that he had set himself, namely a
change in society’s attitude towards one another.
179
180
The late twentieth-century and the Neo-slave narrative - revisiting the
plantation
The twentieth-century African American literature is filled with authors
engaging new themes, such as the phenomenon of passing or the urban
realism. All of them take on the predominant issues that they are confronted
with by society and the boundaries that are imposed on them by others.
Political and social groups and their fight for racial equality (for example the
Black Power Movement) have influenced the writing produced at this time.
Underneath all of these problems that the writers address still looms the
haunting spirit of slavery, which is the actual source of the African American
predicament. As mentioned before, Richard Wright attempted to open his
public’s eyes to the injustice of the colour line established in the city, while
other writers tried to use different approaches to tackle the same matter. In the
twentieth-century, the modern neo-slave narrative made its appearance or
rather reappearance. Identified as slave fiction before, it now changed its form
and enlarged its realm in order to fit in with the new demands made on it.
Neo-slave narratives are modern or contemporary fictional works
substantially concerned with depicting the experience or the effects of New
World slavery. Having fictional slave characters as narrators, subjects, or
ancestral presences, the neo-slave narratives’ major unifying feature is that
they represent slavery as a historical phenomenon that has lasting cultural
meaning and enduring social consequences.416
By revisiting and reliving their slave heritage, the writers strive to come to
term with their legacy and show the world that their suffering and struggling to
make a place for themselves in this world is justified and that others have to
start making concessions and accept them into every sphere of society as
equals. One example of this modern neo-slave narrative is Toni Morrison’s
Beloved (1987), which revolves around the aftermaths of slavery, the pain and
exertion of former slaves and their seemingly sheer inability to deal with their
inner emotions in a world that used and debased them and which now
demands of them to behave as if nothing had happened. Morrison’s work is
one amongst many of the modern neo-slave narrative; however, it is the most
416
acclaimed by critics and audiences alike and the most famous of them, winning
its author “a Pulitzer Price in 1988 and is an accurate portrayal of the black
slave woman’s experience.”417 As a consequence, this novel will be reviewed in
the next section as a further progression of the slave narrative, by considering
its treatment of the themes of voice and identity.
417
182
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin
was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping
snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way, he thought, they
were right. The more coloredpeople spent their strength trying to convince them
how gentle they were, how clever and loving, how human, the more they used
themselves up to persuade whites of something Negroes believed could not be
questioned, the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside. But it wasn’t
the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other (liveable) place.
It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread.418
Toni Morrison, was born Chloe Anthony Wofford and graduated from
Howard
University,
America’s
most
distinguished
black
university
in
Washington. She returned to this university later on to teach after completing a
Master’s degree at Cornell University. Most of her early life is spent in
academia and in an educational environment and she only publishes her first
novel, The Bluest Eye, at the age of 30. She is well aware of her status as both
an African American and a woman and knows that these facts might hinder her
literary recognition and success. Naturally, she is confronted with misogynistic
resentment and racist outrage from the start of her career; however, the
acclaim that she has received from the critics and the audience make up for
any begrudging criticism that she receives. As she is conscious of the
resistance in the literary world that she will encounter from the outset of her
artistic profession, she attempts everything to make it as smooth a transition as
possible, even taking into account that she will have to transform her persona
as an author in order to be accepted, and will even have to supress her
personal identity, in order to safeguard her privacy.
… she was conscious of herself as a black woman entering a field where
the high ground was held by whites. Not wanting her employer to know she
was publishing with another press, when the book [The Bluest Eye] was
eventually published her new identity emerged along with it because she had
changed her name and even withheld her photograph from the book jacket.
Given the recurring concern in her work with the search for identity and with the
significance of names for black people, this is probably one of the most
interesting biographical details about her as far as the novels are concerned.419
418
419
Morrison, p.198
Peach, p.6
The themes of voice and identity recur on a regular basis in Morrison’s
writing as they are essential to African American literature in general and to her
as a writer in particular. She revisits slavery and its aftermaths in Beloved and
does not only point out its atrocities, but also indicates in what way the former
slaves tried to create a community for themselves or how they attempted to
reintegrate the existing social structures that were accessible to them. Her
writing illuminates the fact that female African Americans do not only suffer
from the double-consciousness, which W.E.B. Du Bois dissected in this works,
due to which people have to come to terms with their African roots and their
American upbringing, but she also points out the fact that women are even
more inhibited by the restrictions laid upon them by society. “Being black, the
African women suffered from racism; being females they were the victims of
sexual atrocities at the hands of the white patriarchs as well as the blacks and
being former slaves, the white establishment forced them to live on meagre
resources and were compelled to remain poor.”420
By exploring the historical background of slavery and using a precise case
as a fictional background, namely the story of Margaret Garner, a runaway
slave who killed her daughter to save it from returning to its life in bondage and
who tried to do the same to her other children 421 and by developing its essence
into a tale, Morrison manages to visualise all the atrocities connected to it. “It
[Beloved] represents the quotidian realities of family life under slavery: absent
men, a loosely matriarchal family, the family as buffer. It also embodies the
extremity of the Margaret Garner story: the tearing of the family by oppression,
punishment and infanticide.”422 The family as a core element does not exist as
a unity on the plantation, as the masters did not wish their property to feel
obliged and attached to one another. This would have made their selling and
buying more difficult and by ignoring any, even filial attachments, the financial
transactions were made easier on their conscience, and thus destroyed the
archetypal sense of commitment to the family.
420
K. Sumana, The Novels of Toni Morrison: A Study in Race, Gender and Class (London: Sangam, 1998), p.22
Gray, p.693
422
Reynolds, p.204
421
184
… the casual yet horrifying economy of slavery, its temporal regulations for
when a black man may see and linger over his black wife (only on Sundays), its
refusal to recognize black marriage as ceremonial, the reason being that the
offspring of such coupling belong to the white master, not the black parents.423
In more ways than one, this approach secures the masters’ hold on their
property. Morrison, however, sets successfully about to destroy the belief that
relatives did not care about each other and highlights the fact that family
members experienced extreme distress, due to separation and would have
rather killed their own children or relatives than to know that they are hurting far
away under similar hardships, left to their own devices, without anyone to look
after them. Morrison continues by disclosing how the legacy of slavery has
changed society and how the ghosts of slavery come back to haunt it. It goes
without saying that this work and the implications it draws, was one amongst
many reasons why Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature as the
first African American writer ever. “Co-extensive with Morrison’s concern with
the psychosocial consequences of racism is her interest in what she calls
‘silence and evasion’: the shadows and absences, the gaps and omissions in
American history.”424
By dedicating her novel to “sixty million and more”,425 Morrison already
points to those souls that were lost in the Middle Passage between Africa and
America and honours their memory, by remembering them. She gives them a
voice, which they did not have, as well as trying to create a collective
consciousness, which they were deprived of, alongside it. This voice speaks for
every human being who has died on his/her way into slavery, along with those
who suffered from it on a first hand basis and those generations who felt its
consequences. It establishes a link between the past and the present in
Beloved, and invokes the future as well. The story is structured to evoke
remembrance, as it does not simply give a synopsis of the plot, but spirals
around the issue and only slowly reveals to the reader what really lies at its
core, by recalling memories, not only those of the main characters but also
423
Philip M. Weinstein, What else but love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1996), p.176
424
Gray, p.692
425
Morrison, dedication
185
those of an entire community. The readers of the novel have to analyse what
the text says and what it hides, what is written between the lines and what it
wants the reader to discover. The explicit and the implicit in the storyline merge
and it is the reader’s task to untangle them and to reveal the meaning of the
words displayed on the page. One example of this phenomenon is when the
voice in the story tells its audience at the end that “This is not a story to pass
on.”426, while in fact one has already realised at the beginning of the novel that
it is a story to keep in mind and that it cannot be passed over. This omniscient
voice, which does not disclose its findings from the start and which also likes to
induce its listeners to make up their own mind about its content, is not the only
one in the text, as the main characters’ voices tend to blend in with it. In the
same way as slavery denied the individual’s voice, this collective one attempts
to reclaim it for its entire community, by merging the voices of distinctive
characters, in such a way that they are recollected as one. The strategy which
Morrison resorts to in this context, enables her to denounce the atrocities of
slavery and its repercussions which African Americans had to endure.
On the one hand, she [Morrison] has charted a specifically black history,
giving voice to the silence: pointing to the culpability for it of white America’s
‘failure’ to apportion human rights equally, while simultaneously celebrating that
history’s achievements and identifying its own failings. On the other, she maps
out a general history of America from the readjusted perspective, the angle of
black experiences.427
This approach is certainly very different to the one used by the authors of
slave narratives and slave fiction, as it revolves around the community’s
experience and not only around that of one individual. Morrison’s choice of
words draws the reader in from the beginning, as the first lines of the novel
already state that “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom.”428 The reader is
curious to find out what “124” is and how an object can be “spiteful”, especially
one that is supposed to be filled with “baby’s venom”. A baby is usually seen as
the archetype of innocence and is clearly not connected to poison. As a
consequence, the voice immediately catches our attention and leads in with
426
Morrison, p.175
Gray, p.691
428
Morrison, p.3
427
186
explicit in addition to implicit statements and thus creates an uncertain vacuum,
in which everything needs to be discovered and questioned. Shortly afterwards
we are told that a baby haunts house number 124, Sethe’s dead daughter, who
refuses to be forgotten by the living, in the same way as the lost souls from the
Middle Passage and their descendants should be honoured in our memory.
This ghost or reincarnation of an infant is voiceless at the start of the story,
which is logically explained by its mother. “She wasn’t even two years old when
she died. Too little to understand. Too little to talk much even.”429 By providing
this rational sounding justification, Morrison manages to make the readers
believe that such a phenomenon as the phantom of a child roaming a house
exists and that its existence carries an important weight on the conscience of
an entire community.
Sethe and her mother-in-law Baby Suggs strive in vain to forget their past
spent in bondage and this speechless baby constantly reminds them of it,
especially as they are unable to voice their experiences. “As for the rest, she
[Sethe] worked hard to remember as close to nothing as was safe.
Unfortunately her brain was devious.”430 The baby’s presence makes it
impossible for them to forget. After her mother-in-law’s death, Sethe continues
to live in the house, with her last remaining daughter, Denver, (her two sons ran
away from her, unable to cope with the haunting and its origins), until one day a
former slave who lived on the same plantation as her, Paul D, appears on her
porch. With him the remembrance of Sethe’s antecedent life starts, a past filled
with anguish, which is revealed as soon as Paul D enters the house. “Walking
through it, a wave of grief soaked him so thoroughly he wanted to cry. It
seemed a long way to the normal light surrounding the table, but he made it dry-eyed and lucky.”431 The baby cannot utter its thoughts, therefore they are
transmitted through its emotions, which it shares with the inhabitants of 124.
Paul D brings back repressed memories about Sweet Home, the plantation in
Kentucky, and insecurities, as Denver fears that by reuniting with her mother,
Paul D will ban her into loneliness. Denver cannot voice this anxiety and as a
429
Morrison, p.4
Morrison, p.6
431
Morrison, p.9
430
187
result accuses her mother of being at the source of all her problems, in
particular with relation to the manifestation. When Paul D opposes the baby,
who demonstrates its disapproval of Paul’s touching Sethe intimately, Denver
suddenly finds herself truly alone as it seems that the baby has given up.
Somehow he managed to stand at an angle and, holding the table by two
legs, he bashed it about, wrecking everything, screaming back at the screaming
house. “You want to fight, come on! God damn it! She got enough without you.
She got enough!” The quaking slowed to an occasional lurch, but Paul D did
not stop whipping the table around until everything was rock quiet. Sweating
and breathing hard, he leaned against the wall in the space the sideboard left.
… It was gone. … Now her mother [Sethe] was upstairs with the man [Paul D]
who had gotten rid of the only other company she [Denver] had.432
As the baby had no voice for itself, Paul D was able to stop it by screaming
at it and fighting back. With this behaviour, he manages to get rid of it and
takes its place in the family. This hurts Denver, because Sethe and Paul D
share a common past, which connects them and leaves her out. Naturally, the
memories come at a price as Sethe and Paul D have been apart for so long
that they do not know how to talk to each other and therefore silence reigns
between them at first, especially as their first sexual encounter after removing
the baby’s spirit can only be defined as disastrous. Slowly, they get
accustomed to each other and Sethe even manages to tell Denver about her
past.
Where I was before I came here, that place is real. It’s never going away.
Even if the whole farm - every tree and grass blade of it dies. The picture is still
there and what’s more, if you go there - you who never was there - if you go
there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there
for you, waiting for you. So, Denver, you can’t never go there. Never. Because
even though it’s all over - over and done with - it’s going to always be there
waiting for you. That’s how come I had to get all my children out. No matter
what.” Denver picked at her fingernails. “If it’s still there, waiting, that must
mean that nothing ever dies.” Sethe looked right in Denver’s face. “Nothing
ever does,” she said.433
432
433
Morrison, p.18 and p.19
Morrison, p.36
188
Sethe is unsure if she wants Paul D in her life as they have shared history
and “To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay.” 434 This
leads to their first heated argument, where Sethe voices her uneasiness and
Denver expresses her jealousy. To Paul D this might be the start to a better
future and he convinces Sethe to at least try it out. “We can make a life, girl. A
life.” - “I don’t know. I don’t know.” - “Leave it to me. See how it goes. All right?”
- “All right.” - “You willing to leave it to me?” - “Well - some of it.” - “Some?” he
smiled.”435 When the three of them leave to visit the carnival in town, Sethe
discerns signs of a future for them as a family, but does not tell anyone about
her hopes. “Nobody noticed but Sethe and she stopped looking after she
decided that it was a good sign. A life. Could be.”436 Unfortunately, the narrative
voice interrupts her internal musing by repeatedly pointing out the smell of dead
roses on their way to the family festival. “All, like Paul D, were in high spirits,
which the smell of dying roses (that Paul D called to everybody’s attention)
could not dampen.”437 Paul D’s presence pacifies the community’s ill feelings
towards Sethe and Denver, convincing even the resentful girl that he might
have his advantages as people acknowledge them good-heartedly. “Soothed
by sugar, surrounded by a crowd of people who did not find her the main
attraction, who, in fact, said, “Hey, Denver,” every now and then, pleased her
enough to consider the possibility that Paul D wasn’t all that bad.” 438 Clearly, it
seems that the three have the opportunity to leave their sorrowful past behind
and start anew into a better life. “Paul D made a few acquaintances; spoke to
them about what work he might find. Sethe returned the smiles she got. Denver
was swaying with delight. And on the way home, although leading them now,
the shadows of three people still held hands.”439
434
Morrison, p.42
Morrison, p.46
436
Morrison, p.47
437
Morrison, p.47
438
Morrison, p.48
439
Morrison, p.49
435
189
However, the baby ghost who could only manifest its presence through
signs will not be deprived of its power any longer. As a consequence, it returns
to 124, not as an invisible spectre, but as a young woman. “A fully dressed
woman walked out of the water.”440 She claims a voice for herself, as she will
not be driven away by Paul D’s aggressions against her. Sethe invites her in,
believing her to be a defenceless and frightened girl, even though Paul D is
wary of her from the start. Beloved, as she is called, slowly has to gain her
voice and this is as much a physical as an emotional act for her.
“What might your name be?” asked Paul D. – “Beloved,” she said, and her
voice was so low and rough each one looked at the other two. They heard the
voice first - later the name. “Beloved. You use a last name, Beloved?” Paul D
asked her. “Last?” She seemed puzzled. Then “No,” and she spelled it for
them, slowly as though the letters were being formed as she spoke them.441
Gradually, Beloved weaves her way into Sethe’s life, gaining her trust and
getting her to tell stories about her past and thus claiming her for herself and
alienating her from Paul D.
It became a way to feed her. Just as Denver discovered and relied on the
delightful effect things had on Beloved, Sethe learned the profound satisfaction
Beloved got from storytelling. It amazed Sethe (as much as it pleased Beloved)
because every mention of her past life hurt. Everything in it was painful or lost.
She and Baby Suggs had agreed without saying so that it was unspeakable; to
Denver’s inquiries Sethe gave short replies or rambling incomplete reveries. …
Perhaps it was Beloved’s distance from the events itself, or her thirst for
hearing it - in any case it was an unexpected pleasure.442
It seems that Beloved feeds on these tales and as a result, her own ability
to speak and capturing others increases, even if her voice has a strange ring to
it as Sethe and Denver observe. “After four weeks they still had not get used to
the gravelly voice and the song that seemed to lie in it. Just outside music it lay,
with a cadence not like theirs.”443 Denver is suspicious of Beloved’s need for
Sethe’s memories to be voiced openly and does not understand its source nor
its purpose. “Denver noticed how greedy she was to hear Sethe talk. Now she
noticed something more. The questions Beloved asked: “Where your
440
Morrison, p.50
Morrison, p.52
442
Morrison, p.58
443
Morrison, p.60
441
190
diamonds?” “Your woman she never fix up your hair?” And most perplexing:
Tell me your earrings. How did she know?”444 While Denver accepts Beloved,
Paul D grows more and more restless with regard to her, as she has such an
incredible influence on Sethe who retells her past, which she did not really want
to do with him as it would have been too painful to both of them. None of the
main characters realise how important it is to recall these memories and
discuss them. “It is by sharing memories that recovery is made possible.” 445 At
this point in time, they do not realise that this act of sharing will help them in
their healing process. Consequently, the recollections are kept in Beloved’s
possessions, until Sethe and Paul D are ready to open themselves to each
other. Both are aware that at some point they have to voice their past in order
to stay together, but the time is not yet ripe.
… she wanted Paul D. No matter what he told and knew, she wanted him
in her life. … Her story was bearable because it was his as well - to tell, to
refine and tell again. The things neither knew about the other - the things
neither had word - shapes for - well, it would come in time: where they led him
off to sucking iron; the perfect death of her crawling-already? baby.446
Their story needs to be told and so the narrative voice takes over,
whenever the protagonists cannot do this and this is mostly the case for Paul D,
who cannot relate his experiences of the chain-gang in which he was
imprisoned, where he was sexually abused by the guards and where he nearly
died and finally escaped from. Sethe suffers from the same problem, she is
unable to recount her attempt to kill her children, because she is afraid that he
will leave her. When the schoolteacher, her new owner came to retrieve her as
a runaway slave, she decided to safeguard her kids from a life in slavery, by
wordlessly murdering them.
444
Morrison, p.63
Graham, p.103
446
Morrison, p.99
445
191
Right off it was clear, to schoolteacher especially, that there was nothing
there to claim. The three (now four - because she’d had the one coming when
she cut) pickaninnies they had hoped were alive and well enough to take back
to Kentucky, take back and raise properly to do the work Sweet Home
desperately needed, were not. Two were lying open-eyed in sawdust; a third
pumped blood down the dress of the main one - the woman schoolteacher
bragged about, the one he said made fine ink, damn good soup, pressed his
collars the way he liked besides having at least ten breeding years left. But now
she’d gone wild, due to the mishandling of the nephew who’d overbeat her and
made her cut and run.447
Sethe simply cannot give an account of these events, due to her grief and
the guilt she feels. The community, nonetheless, has not forgotten her
transgressions and one of its members, Stamp Paid, decides that the
community’s avoidance is not punishment enough, so he reveals to Paul D
what Sethe did. Stamp Paid does not use his own words, but as proof reads a
newspaper article to Paul D, as Paul D himself is illiterate.
So Stamp Paid didn’t say it all. Instead he took a breath and leaned toward
the mouth that was not hers and slowly read out the words Paul D couldn’t. And
when he finished, Paul D said with a vigor fresher than the first time, “I’m sorry,
Stamp. It’s a mistake somewhere ‘cause that ain’t her mouth.”448
Paul D is convinced that it cannot be Sethe because the woman in the
newspaper picture has a different mouth, according to him. As a consequence,
he asks her about it, expecting her to deny everything. Instead, she tells him
everything, for the first time she talks to him about the baby and what
happened and this results in Sethe’s longest monologue that is printed within
the novel. Her words have a disturbing effect on him.
It made him dizzy. At first he thought it was her spinning. Circling him the
way she was circling the subject. Round and round, never changing direction,
which might have helped his head. Then he thought, No, it’s the sound of her
voice; it’s too near. … Perhaps it was the smile, or maybe the ever-ready love
she saw in his eyes - easy and upfront, the way colts, evangelists and children
look at you: with love you don’t have to deserve - that made her go ahead and
tell him what she had not told Baby Suggs, the only person she felt obliged to
explain anything to. Otherwise she would have said what the newspaper said
and no more.449
447
Morrison, p.149
Morrison, p.158
449
Morrison, p.161
448
192
Paul D is unable to process her statements and decides to leave, rather
than to deal with them and understand their meaning. His disappearance
allows Beloved to completely take over 124. She had tried to get rid of him by
seducing him and driving a stake between him and Sethe; however, it is
Sethe’s tale that finally parts them. Now Beloved can reveal her true self and
she chooses to do so by singing.
It was then, when Beloved finished humming, that Sethe recalled the click the settling of pieces into places designed and made especially for them. … “I
made that song up,” said Sethe. “I made it up and sang it to my children.
Nobody knows that song but me and my children.” Beloved turned to look at
Sethe. “I know it,” she said.450
The revelation that Beloved is the reincarnation of the infant that Sethe
killed eighteen years ago, fills Sethe with happiness. She does not have to tell
Beloved why she committed this act, nor what she did, because the girl already
knows. There is no need for her to speak and go through those painful
recollections again. As a result, the narrative voice takes over for her and
completes the task for her. “Thank God I don’t have to rememory or say a thing
because you know it. All. You know I never would a left you. Never. It was all I
could think of to do.”451 Despite this, the things that Sethe does not articulate,
come back to haunt her as it eats the entire family up. Sethe is voiceless,
Beloved is the personification of Sethe’s unexpressed memories and Denver
has to cope with the details that no one has revealed to her. “Her surviving
daughter, Denver, who has no recollection of slavery, must strive to understand
the “unspeakable things unspoken” that constitute their history.” 452 Clearly, this
environment in which everything is suppressed is not a healthy one and is only
a disaster waiting to happen, which is highlighted by the narrative voice.
When Sethe locked the door, the women inside were free at last to be what
they liked, see whatever they saw and say whatever was on their mind. Almost.
Mixed in with the voices surrounding the house, recognizable but
undecipherable to Stamp Paid, were the thoughts of the women of 124,
unspeakable thoughts, unspoken.453
450
Morrison, p.175 and p.176
Morrison, p.191
452
453
Morrison, p.199
451
193
The next chapters are transmitted as Sethe’s thoughts, who deliberates
about Beloved, her daughter, and Denver’s musing about Beloved as her
sister. Before Beloved talks about herself, she retells the story of the Middle
Passage through memories. It is an act of collective consciousness in which
her voice is cut up and transmits the fear and horror slaves experienced on
their journey from Africa to America. “I am always crouching
face is dead
locked
his face is not mine
the man on my
his mouth smells sweet but his eyes are
some who eat nasty themselves
skin bring us their morning water to drink
I do not eat
we have none.”
the men without
454
The peace and quiet in 124 cannot last forever as too much is hidden and
left unspoken. As a result, Sethe and Beloved start arguing, Beloved
reproaching her mother and Sethe forever apologizing. Sethe quits her job and
suffers from hunger as she selflessly offers everything to Beloved, who cannot
forgive. Denver becomes collateral damage in the process, but manages to
claim a voice for herself. She decides to ask the community for help and leaves
the house to do so. Slowly, they accept her and offer her food, even if it is not
asked for and she begins to meet them to give her thanks. In the end, she even
opens up and tells Janey Wagon what is happening at home. “It was a little
thing to pay, but it seemed big to Denver. Nobody was going to help her unless
she told it - told all of it. … So Denver told this stranger what she hadn’t old
Lady Jones ….”455
The rumours are circulating as a consequence and the women of the
community decide to exorcize Beloved. This happens, but not as planned,
because Sethe does not give up Beloved and rather attacks a white man,
Denver’s new employer, believing him to be her old slaveholder, returned to
claim his property. Denver saves her employer and Beloved is banished. Sethe
gives up on herself, surrenders her being and her voice and retires to her bed,
ready to die. Paul D who has been convinced by Stamp Paid that there might
be a future for them, returns to retrieve her. “Only this woman Sethe could have
454
455
Morrison, p.210
Morrison, p.253
194
left him his manhood like that. He wants to put his story next to hers.” 456 He
manages this as he believes that their future needs to be claimed by them,
through the stories that lie in their past and the voice that slavery deprived them
of. They need to ascertain their future by coping with their past and passing
their story on, in order to heal. “And it is by sharing those stories and that
history with their readers that the neo-slave narrative authors perhaps hope to
heal a nation that in many ways still denies its original wound.” 457 In the end,
Sethe and Paul D reclaim their voices and by doing so their past and their
future and through Morrison’s work an entire community attempts to complete
the same act. “A storyteller with an abiding moral vision, Morrison confronts
contemporary issues of racism, sexism, class exploitation, and imperialism by
exploring her characters’ emotional and psychological response to these
structures of domination.”458 In order to verify this thesis, a closer look will be
given to the theme of identity in relation to the main characters and their
dealings with slavery.
Due to the fact that Sethe is one of the main protagonists in the novel and
that her personal story is revealed in most detail, the analysis concerning the
construction of identity and its reconstruction will focus on her persona, even
though other characters are as valuable for an examination as she is. In order
to make it easier for the reader, the claim on her identity will be reviewed from a
chronological point of view, therefore disengaging itself from the way in which
Morrison structured it.
Not many elements of Sethe’s family background are revealed, as her
parents are not named and her biological and geographical origins are
unknown, before her setting her feet on the Sweet Home plantation. The only
fact that is disclosed is the manner in which her mother dies – she is hung
when Sethe is 8 – but the reason as to why this happens is not divulged to the
reader. Sethe herself has only vague memories of her mother, as she was
nursed by another woman on the plantation where she was born. Her clearest
456
Morrison, p.273
Graham, p.103
458
457
195
recollection of the woman who birthed her is a slap that she received, without
understanding why at that point.
Back there she [Sethe’s mother] opened up her dress front and lifted her
breast and pointed under it. Right on her rib was a circle and a cross burnt right
in the skin. She said, ‘This is your ma’am. This,’ and she pointed. ‘I am the only
one got this mark now. The rest dead. If something happens to me and you
can’t tell me by my face, you can know me by this mark.’ … ‘But how will you
know me? How will you know me? Mark me, too,’ I said. ‘Mark the mark on me
too.’” Sethe chuckled. “Did she?” asked Denver. “She slapped my face.” “What for?” - “I didn’t understand it then. Not till I had a mark of my own.” 459
As a slave, Sethe is rendered an orphan, her father’s identity is unknown,
her mother is a strange being which scares her with its scars. She is not
allowed a personal identity, but has to adhere to the one that society
constructed for her, as a slave she is not allowed to feel any bond between her
family and herself. In fact, Sethe was never given an opportunity to know what
a mother-daughter relationship is like, as she was deprived of her parents early
on. This certainly plays a role in the way in which she acquires her identity as a
mother for herself.
The reader is not aware of the origin of Sethe’s name, it does not seem to
be an act of renaming as it is the case for Baby Suggs, who refuses to accept
the label that her old slaveholder gave her “Jenny Whitlow”, but rather goes on
to live with the nickname “Baby” her beloved husband gave her and his
surname “Suggs”. Even her new master’s objections on her manumission
cannot make her change her choice. “ “Well,” said Mr Garner, going pink again,
“if I was you I’d stick to Jenny Whitlow. Mrs Baby Suggs ain’t no name for a
freed Negro.” Maybe not, she thought, but Baby Suggs was all she had left of
the “husband” she claimed.”460 The acquisition of their own names is a very
important process for the former slaves. “The reclamation of true identity has
been crucial to black people who in slavery were named by others.”461 Nor is
Sethe named after her owner, like Paul D, who is one of many Pauls on Sweet
Home who receive an alphabetical middle name initial to indicate their time of
459
Morrison, p.61
Morrison, p.142
461
Peach, p.72
460
196
arrival on the plantation. Bearing in mind Morrison’s preoccupation with names
it is interesting to notice the similarity between Sethe and Lethe, which
originates from the Greek and stands for “the Ancient Greek personification of
oblivion”462 and also relates to the “Orphic mysteries [in which] it was believed
that the newly dead who drank from the River Lethe would lose all memory of
their past existence.”463 Even if Sethe did not choose this name for herself, it
certainly fits in with her numerous efforts to put everything in the past behind
her and to forget her dreadful experiences.
When Sethe arrives on Sweet Home in Kentucky, she is the only female
slave there. While reflecting on the way in which women were treated on other
plantations, namely as valuable breeders, the reader is surprised that this does
not seem to be the case here. She is “allowed” to choose which of the five men
she will couple with and even though she takes her time (an entire year – by
which time she is fourteen), the men and her owner, Mr Garner, do not touch
her.
The five Sweet Home men looked at the new girl and decided to let her be.
They were young and so sick with the absence of women they had taken to
calves. … A year of yearning, when rape seemed the solitary gift of life. The
restraint they had exercised possible only because they were Sweet Home men
- the ones Mr Garner bragged about while other farmers shook their heads in
warning at the phrase.464
Due to their special status as Sweet Home men, the identity forced upon
them by their owner, the slaves behave within boundaries. They are allowed
certain privileges, but are nevertheless imprisoned by slavery, even if their
master believes himself to be gracious towards them, they lack any personal
freedom, for example finding a woman for themselves on a different plantation,
as they are forbidden to leave the premises.
462
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
464
Morrison, p.10
463
197
As a result, Sethe can choose from those who are present, she is not
sexually abused and her body remains her own, as far as it is allowed within
the limits of slavery. At this point she is the mistress of her own body. “Another
means by which the writers of contemporary narratives of slavery talk about
cultural appropriation is by focusing on the physical appropriation of the slave’s
body.”465 This situation changes as soon as Mr Garner dies and his brother, the
schoolteacher, enters Sweet Home to reign over it. His sister-in-law, Mrs
Garner, is too weak to protect her slaves and thus they end up at his mercy.
The identity of a mother who can work and look after the children and her
husband Halle are taken from Sethe as soon as the schoolteacher enters the
picture. Even though Sethe was denied the status of a wife by her mistress, as
Mrs Garner did not see the need in having one, she claimed it for herself in a
make-do service in the past; however, such actions are not possible any longer.
There should be a ceremony, shouldn’t there? A preacher, some dancing,
a party, a something. She and Mrs Garner were the only women there, so she
decided to ask her. … “Is there a wedding?” Mrs Garner put down her cooking
spoon. Laughing a little, she touched Sethe on the head, saying, “You are one
sweet child.” And then no more. Sethe made a dress on the sly and Halle hung
his hitching rope from a nail on the wall of her cabin.466
Sethe is too naïve to realise that social conventions do not apply to her as
a slave; however, she will not let them hinder her and thus she steals pieces of
clothing to make a dress for herself and fulfilling her need to make this an
official affair. Even if the slaves are treated well on the plantation by Mr Garner,
there is a systematic denial of their humanity in place, which is supposed to
hinder them from obtaining a personal identity, other than the one he imposes
on them. With the birth of her first son, Sethe acquires the role of a mother and
as the Garners seem to be unaware of how these things are settled and how
female slaves should be considered as breeders and not as mothers, they let
her be. She teaches herself how to be a mother and tries her best.
465
466
Graham, p.101
Morrison, p.26
198
I wish I’d known more, but, like I say, there wasn’t nobody to talk to.
Woman, I mean. So I tried to recollect what I’d seen back where I was before
Sweet Home. How the women did there. Oh they knew all about it. … It’s hard,
you know what I mean? by yourself and no woman to help you get through.467
Every year she is pregnant and by the time of her fourth pregnancy, the
schoolteacher has arrived. A new set of rules comes into being and the slaves
lose all their former rights and their last shred of humanity is quelled out of
them. “Clever, but schoolteacher beat him [a slave who proposed a logical
explanation for stealing food] anyway to show him that definitions belonged to
the definers - not the defined.”468 The Sweet Home men are labelled as animals
and the same fate awaits Sethe and her children. Even though she is naïve and
she has no literary ability as such, she realises that something is amiss when
she hears how the schoolteacher and his two pupils, his own nephews, analyse
the slaves and put them on the same level as mere animals.
He [Schoolteacher] was talking to his pupils and I [Sethe] heard him say,
“Which one are you doing?” … when I heard him say, “No, no. That’s not the
way. I told you to put her [Sethe’s] human characteristics on the left; her animal
ones on the right. And don’t forget to line them up.”469
Sethe does not understand the significance of “characteristics” and
therefore questions Mrs Garner. Although she is not aware of its meaning she
realises that something is wrong, because she is frightened by it. “A
characteristic is a feature. A thing that’s natural to a thing.” – “Can you have
more than one?” – “You can have quite a few. You know. Say a baby sucks its
thumb. That’s one, but it has others too.”470 At this point, Sethe becomes aware
of the fact that “Him and her [Mr and Mrs Garner] … they ain’t like the whites I
seen before. The ones in the big place I was before I came here.” 471 and the
circumstance that “schoolteacher measured me”472 makes her uneasy. “One of
the reasons Sethe escapes slavery is that Schoolteacher, the white man in
charge of the plantation, writes a pseudo-anthropological document in which he
467
Morrison, p.160
Morrison, p.190
469
Morrison, p.193
470
Morrison, p.195
471
Morrison, p.195
472
Morrison, p.195
468
199
lists the “human characteristics” of the slaves alongside the “animal ones”.”473
Sethe decides to run away and in order to achieve this there are plans to be
made and precautions to be taken. For this reason, she is still on the plantation,
when the nephews have made up their mind to discover in how far she is
animalistic and if there is a hint of humanity in her. Sethe is pregnant with
Denver and so the nephews decide to test her properties. “After I left you, those
boys came in there and took my milk. That’s what they came in there for. Held
me down and took my milk.”474 They abuse her and “The nephew, the one who
had nursed her while his brother held her down, didn’t know he was shaking.
His uncle had warned him against that kind of confusion, but the warning didn’t
seem to be taking.”475
After this horrible experience, Sethe runs away with her children,
unknowingly leaving her husband behind, who has completely given up on
himself as he has witnessed the scene. He has lost the last piece of his
manhood and dignity, because he was unable to stop two white teenagers from
transgressing the sexual boundaries that should have protected his wife. As a
consequence of this act and the desire to keep her children safe, Sethe
decides to declare herself a mother, through unconditional love and emotion,
she establishes a new identity for herself, as a parent. “Indeed, women’s sense
of self becomes very much organized around being able to make and then to
maintain affiliations and relationships.”476 Her notions on love are rather
restricted, not having known any for herself, but they are also strict and cannot
be deviated by anyone. “A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown?
What’s that supposed to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing. … I’ll protect
her while I’m live and I’ll protect her when I ain’t.”477 Paul D is of the opinion that
her love is somehow unnatural and goes far beyond anything that is supposed
to be. “Beloved … was clearly about excesses of mother love.”478
Many
readers have agreed with Paul D that the act of killing her own daughter and
473
Graham, p.100 and p.101
Morrison, p.16
475
Morrison, p.150
476
Nancy Baker Jones, On solid ground: The Emergence of the self-created woman in contemporary American
literature (Ann Arbor Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1988), p.11
477
Morrison, p.45
478
Graham, p.228
474
200
trying to murder her three other children have turned Sethe into an animal. This
he states after hearing her explanation of the newspaper article to him.
“What you did was wrong, Sethe.” – “I should have gone on back there?
Taken my babies back there?” – “There could have been a way. Some other
way.” – “What way?” – “You got two feet, Sethe, not four,” he said, and right
then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet.479
She rejects these characteristics in the same way as she refused those
imposed on her by the schoolteacher. For her, the murder was a deed of love,
she defined herself through it by deciding for herself that morally she could
commit this gesture and remain the mother that she had become. It was an act
of utter despair, as Sethe refused to give up what she claimed for herself, her
children and as a result, her identity as a mother. “The novel is important for
depicting the concern slave mothers had for their children and their
determination to win freedom for themselves and their offspring.” 480 Her deed is
not only an ascertainment of herself but also a sign of refusal of slavery. “In that
sense, the mother/daughter relationship that Morrison characteristically focuses
on here is at once a denial of the institution of slavery and a measure of its
power.”481 The community in which she lives does not understand the reasons
for her actions and neither does Paul D.
However, as soon as Paul D becomes aware of the need for Sethe to
create an identity for herself in order to survive, he returns and supports her in
her recovery. For Beloved, Sethe turns into a docile, subservient creature,
eaten up by guilt, giving herself up in the process. The community supports her
family and peace returns to 124, after Beloved’s departure. Nevertheless, it is
ultimately Paul D who brings Sethe back to life, on the first day of their
encounter by soothing the scars on her back, a reminder of the corporal
punishment she received by the schoolteacher after telling Mrs Garner of his
nephews’ actions and at the end of the novel, when he decides to rub her feet
and get her out of bed, which she had chosen as her last resting place.
479
Morrison, p.165
481
Gray, p.693
480
201
Turning the language of commodification against itself (from the value of a
slave to human value), turning scar tissue into flesh recovered by intimacy, are
a few ways that these artists show that the body is not only brutalized but
reclaimed. … In various ways and with different emphases, these artists show
in painful detail the ways that black women’s bodies were scarred and
dismembered by slavery, and then salvaged and remembered in the acts of
free love.482
By reclaiming her body for her, Paul D is able to re-establish Sethe’s
identity, in the same way as she restores his manhood to him. The characters
in Beloved reclaim a voice for themselves and also create an identity, which
they were deprived of by slavery. “No one who has imagined the damage done
to individual identity by the institution of slavery – the attack upon sustaining
psychic boundaries, the undoing of one’s self-possession, the imposition of
impotence – will discount the preciousness of self-owing and thus the power of
the freed.”483 The author wants to offer her characters the possibility of an own
life, where they can make their own individual choices, especially after being
burdened by slavery.
Furthermore, Morrison’s writing attempts to give a voice to an entire
community, which was rendered speechless, due to the power discourse in
place. In particular, she wants women to speak up as they suffered greatly
under the yoke of slavery. In order to highlight this fact, she uses the ghost of
Beloved to haunt an entire community.
Existing in the flesh, yet subsumed by language, law, tradition and thought
into the identities of men, women have been made ghosts – when present,
invisible, when visible, of no substance. The most significant single
consequence of this condition has been the silencing of women’s voices, the
muting of their special expression. … The silenced voices are “there” but
cannot be “realized” in the language of the dominating structure. To speak out,
then, to find her own language and to tell the story of her own experience in her
own words, becomes one of the primary characteristics, and one of the most
difficult tasks, of the self-created woman.484
482
Graham, p.102
Weinstein, p.94
484
Baker Jones, p.12 and p.13
483
202
Morrison portrays Sethe as a lost being, a mother driven to such a cruel act
by society that she cannot voice her past any longer. As a slave, Sethe did not
own herself and was not allowed to be or define herself. When she became a
mother, she took on this part of her identity and would not let anyone take it
away from her. “The economy of slavery circumscribes not only the process of
individuation and subject formation, but also heightens and intensifies the
experience of motherhood – of connection and separation. It raises questions
about what it means to have a self, and to give that self away.” 485 But does that
mean that Sethe can only be viewed as a mother, that her identity is restricted
to her seeing herself as a creator of life who needs to supply for others? “…
black communities themselves are sexist. … motherhood [is criticised] as the
black community’s primary definition of women.”486 Clearly, Sethe is only ever
described in relation to her children. Her husband is left behind, she is never
really described as a lover and when she dares to have sex with Paul D,
Beloved comes back with a vengeance. So does Sethe really have a personal
identity that goes beyond motherhood? The reader has to question this,
because after Beloved’s departure and Denver’s leaving 124, Sethe retires to
her bed to die, as she does not see any sense in her life any longer.
Holding her fingers, he enables Sethe for the first time to see herself as
subject, as mother and subject both: “Me? Me?” She says tentatively, and thus
enables the mother’s voice and subjectivity to emerge, allowing herself to
question, at least for a moment, the hierarchy of motherhood and selfhood on
which her life, until that moment, had rested. However, she can do so only in
the context of another human bond; she can do so only because Paul D is
holding her hand.487
Effectively, Sethe does not achieve a completely independent identity, but it
remains fractured. She was deprived of a self through slavery, then completely
defined herself through her children; when she was denied her children, she fell
off the wagon and tried everything to get them back and repressed her past, in
order to continue with her life. In the end, she needs Paul D, a man to help her
to restore her self. Paul D is not only her human support, but also her trigger to
retrieve her repressed memories. Morrison uses Freud’s theory of self in
485
Gates JR, Reading black, reading feminist: a critical anthology, p. 365
487
486
203
Sethe’s case to highlight the importance of memory in connection to the
formation of identity.
Freud’s preeminent concern is self-knowledge. He believes that the
techniques of psychoanalysis enable us to dredge forgotten experiences from
the bottom of the unconscious mind and to bring them to the surface of
conscious understanding. To know oneself is to return to these origins of
experience. Obliging the unconscious to return to the conscious mind its
concealed memories of our past experiences is liberating, for therein we
discover the forgotten influences that have made us what we are. The
memories recalled re-establish our sense of continuity with the past and hence
show us the truth about ourselves. Freud’s theory of the self, therefore,
underscores the historical significance of memory as the foundation of identity.
In reaching back to origins to recollect lost fragments of our experience,
memory makes us whole once more by reaffirming our connection with the
past.488
For Sethe, this is not really the case during the novel. Sethe tries to forget
her past; she does not speak about it to any of her relatives, as she believes
that it does not have any impact on her future. However, she is mistaken; her
past still influences her present and ultimately her future. She does not want to
remember her past and represses it into her unconscious. When Beloved
appears on the doorstep, the memories resurge and she is supposed to deal
with them consciously.
The unspeakable is spoken, her memories are retrieved; however, she has
not managed to work through them. Her inability to come to terms with her past
paralysed her with fear of the future to such an extent that she hides from the
outside world. She remains crippled in bed after fighting her repressed
memories and needs Paul D’s support to establish her own identity and handle
the past and the future. Consequently, one might speculate that Freud’s theory
did not work out for Sethe within the confines of the novel, as she remains
fractured at the end. We do not know what the future holds for her, as we are
not told; therefore, we are unable to speculate on the construction of her
identity and its extent. Nonetheless, it seems that Paul D will be able to
establish an identity for himself, as he feels his manhood return and he
believes that he will be able to help Sethe and have a future with her.
488
Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman and Patrick H. Hutton, eds. Technologies of the Self – A Seminar with Michel
Foucault (Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), p.138
204
So the question arises why Morrison brings this theory of the self into play,
if it does not have any immediate effect or use on Sethe? Here the collective
voice that has been mentioned before resurfaces. Morrison wants her audience
to remember slavery and help the community to come to terms with it. The
“sixty million and more” have a right to be remembered and this theory enables
her to achieve this goal. She highlights the repercussions of slavery on
individuals and attempts to support others in their strive for self-realization.
Beloved is a reminder of the atrocities that took place, the pain that slaves felt
and attempts to revisit it in an emotional and psychological manner. Slavery
should not be forgotten. Her novel was composed in order to bring back
collective memories and get her audience to question this institution and the
effects it had on society. It is supposed to open her readers’ eyes to the
importance of a personal identity and the need to establish one, no matter who
we are or in which circumstances we find ourselves. Toni Morrison herself puts
it this way:
We are the subjects of our own narrative, witnesses to and participants in
our own experience, and, in no way coincidentally, in the experience of others
with whom we have come into contact. We are not, in fact, ‘other’. We are
choices. And to read imaginative literature by and about us is to choose to
examine centers of the self and to have the opportunity to compare these
centers with the ‘raceless’ one with which we are, all of us, most familiar.489
489
205
206
Conclusion
Slavery and its terrible repercussions on an entire society lie at the heart of
this dissertation. By retracing its devastating effects on the black community of
the United States in particular, it attempts to uncover the issues that revolve
around the perception of self in the African American community and its literary
works. This dissertation follows each author’s creative attempt to develop
his/her character’s voice and identity and looks at the different methods used to
make sure that the protagonist is in possession of his/her own self. After
identifying the writer’s process, his/her construction of identity has been
critically evaluated and the possible deficiencies have been highlighted. It is not
the goal of this dissertation to disparage or merely call into question the literary
value and importance of the works it analyses, but it is rather an attempt to
retrace and critically assess the efforts of African American literature to recover
from slavery and construct an own voice and identity for its community.
The first literary strides undertaken by African American slaves, the slave
narratives, were used as a starting point in this research to uncover the
atrocities that slaves had to endure and it followed their efforts at gaining an
own voice and identity within a society which subjugated them and rendered
them helpless and voiceless. These works are prime examples of how a human
being is able to fight back and regain personal strength, notwithstanding the
obstacles that are put in his/her way. While the narratives can be seen as
prodigious achievements, I have also tried to highlight the fact that they were
influenced by their author’s personal beliefs, the cause for which they were
writing and which they supported, and by their intended readership.
Consequently, it is very difficult to uncover the author’s real self beneath his/her
writing as external pressures, which they received from the outside, ended up
by simplifying and/or editing their narrative identity and voice, which has to be
criticised. The authors had to keep in mind who their audience was going to be
and why they were composing their works and therefore they often concealed
certain parts of their private identity or modified them. Nevertheless, the slave
narratives were an essential means to the abolition of slavery and supported
their creators in their strive for freedom.
Slave fiction takes the place of the narratives, shortly afterwards as a
creative and literary experiment by African Americans, to counteract the fictive
narratives of white authors which rose to popularity. Slave fiction was the
logical successor to prove that former slaves and their descendants were able
to surpass themselves and the conditions in which they had found themselves
and could compose works of fiction. In them, the authors display their ability to
compile fictive works that deal with the results of suppression and subjugation.
While these compositions concerned themselves with the themes of slavery,
voice and identity, they nevertheless did not go far enough in their aspirations.
The three examples that were analysed in this dissertation, each offered certain
theories or problems which left them open to criticism. Again, their value as
literary achievements and as an evolutionary step from the narratives should
not be discounted or diminished in any way; however, certain details within their
plots need to be addressed critically, which this dissertation has sought to do.
The dichotomy between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, which
signals the discomfort felt by an entire race, displays to what extent two men
can view the future of their race differently and in what ways they try to
advocate their own ideas. The issues that they deal with are essential to their
community, even if they address them separately and consider them from
divergent points of view. They offer solutions to the problem of racial
segregation and believe that their own theory is the most appropriate for all.
Nonetheless, both men do not take into consideration all the factors linked to
voice and identity and their proposals might not fit every individual that they try
to reach. As a result, their writings in connection to self-determination are also
prone to criticism.
208
On a final note, two further novels have been discussed, each a
representative of the era in which it was composed. They highlight problems of
integration and identity which still occupy the black community at this moment
in time. While Richard Wright is influenced by political beliefs and W.E.B. Du
Bois’ concept of “double-consciousness”, Toni Morrison uses psychoanalytical
theories to come to terms with racial segregation, a direct consequence of
slavery, and slavery itself. These two authors highlight once again the fact that
the gaze of others strongly influences our own conception of self and that our
public persona is not necessarily the same as our private one.
In a nutshell, we might believe that our construction of self is only
influenced by ourselves and that therefore we always remain the same.
However, this is not the case, identity is an ever evolving process and we are
influenced by our environment, willingly or not, and the situation in which we
find ourselves. It is therefore understandable that all the authors discussed in
this dissertation were somewhat and to a certain extent convinced by their
beliefs, the theories that they supported and the people that surrounded them.
Nonetheless, they managed to create literary works that, even though they
contain details that need to be criticised, are of considerable value and
importance and each has contributed to the African American literature in its
own way. The evolution that started with the slave narratives can be retraced to
a certain extent in this dissertation (as it could not take into consideration all the
African American works ever published) and highlights the fact that even
nowadays slavery remains an issue that needs to be dealt with and dwelled on,
in order to come to terms with its heritage and offer the possibility to create a
self, which was denied to millions of people during slavery and the racial
segregation that followed.
209
210
Bibliography
Primary texts
BROWN, William Wells, “Clotel, or, The President’s Daughter” in Three Great
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