LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature
 Sample Student Midterm, Fall 2007

Patricia M. Dixon

Dr. Craig White

Literature 5739

12 September 2007

 

The Defining Moment:  From Slavery to Selfhood: An Active Choice

 

What makes a person a slave?  Is it being owned by another person? Is it the power of those in the dominant culture where the slave is being held? Or is it something inside of the slaves themselves that makes it easier to accept their bonds rather than risk being free? The slavery of Africans, and later, African Americans in the Southern half of the United States of America from its founding until the Civil War is still a sensitive subject among its people even in the 21st century America.  For many of the people living in our country the Civil War or War Between the States, as it was often called, is still not over. Attitudes of prejudice toward African Americans are still prevalent and, with all of the civil rights laws that have been enacted and the progress that has been made toward achieving equality, slavery still exists today in the world at large and in the United States as well. 

The focus of this paper is an examination of what takes a slave from slavery to selfhood as my topic implies. What is the vital spark that drove some away from their chains into the uncertain world of the unknown called freedom?  This paper will attempt to answer this question through an examination of literature readings for the course in American Multicultural Literature offered by the University of Houston-Clear Lake. I will examine both the acts driving the choices made for freedom and the choices made after freedom from a review several of the semester’s literature readings.  These readings include: The Classic Slave Narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Fredrick Douglass, Mary Prince, and Harriet Jacobs, The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and the poem, “Still, I Rise” by Maya Angelou.  The other aspect of choice that I will examine is that of resistance or assimilation. 

It is my observation and opinion that the moments that took each of these former slaves, characters and speakers from slavery to selfhood is the medium of choice, not literacy; a deep internal knowledge of self; not external knowledge of slavery.

It is the purpose of this paper to examine the defining moment that took the subjects of our texts out of a life of slavery into selfhood within the context of course objective one: voiceless and choiceless. Their involuntary participation in the dominant culture aside, they made a choice for selfhood and, as an outgrowth of that, for freedom. They touched that place that is inside each of us that gives us the courage and willingness to stand up, make choices, and defend those choices even if it means our lives.  Is this the power of literacy or of something more primitive?  It is my contention that it is the primal force of self-preservation that pushes us into choice.  Each of the individuals that I will discuss was driven by primitive forces that shaped who they were and what, eventually, they would become.

It has been postulated by many researchers, students, and authors that the defining moments in slavery have come from the achievement of the enslaved gaining knowledge through literacy and, while I agree with this statement to some degree, I am convinced that there is more to the process of going from slavery to selfhood than either functional or cultural literacy.  Yes, functional literacy was an essential tool in the slaves’ understanding of the process of slavery. They already knew from experience that slavery was brutal, inhumane and wrong, but it was the defining moments of self-preservation led choice that took those who escaped from slavery into selfhood.

Many slaves learned to read while held in the ignominious bonds of slavery, but every slave that learned to read and write did not escape to freedom. Many slaves escaped who did not know how to read or write. What motivated them? For those slaves who escaped there was an essential, life-changing difference: choice.  They stepped out of their roles as people without voices or choices and they chose.  Then, they found that place inside of themselves that defined them, knew they were already free, and then took steps to gain their literal freedom.  Of the many slaves who escaped and only later learned to read and write, literacy was only minimally available. Many never learned to do more than make a mark. Like Jake Solomon, renamed Macon Dead, who was cheated out of his land because he was tricked into making his mark on a piece of paper he couldn’t read.(Morrison, 62).  So, while I believe that literacy was part of the process, it was not the vital spark that drove these men and women to freedom. 

It is my contention that it was, and is, choice that makes a man or woman free. And in the case of those slaves and characters, those who chose freedom, it was the driving force of self-preservation that launched them into their choices.  Literacy may have given them the tools to live in the dominant culture, but without the ability to make the choice for freedom, the men and women who wrote their narratives would have remained little more than literate slaves.

Do these slaves, characters, and speakers choose assimilation or resistance or is it chosen for them?

This paper will seek to prove, through a close examination of the literature, that it is these defining moments and actions that lead to the choices that moved these slaves/characters/speakers from slavery to selfhood. And, with these actions and choices, they were endowed with the courage to be people with the right to, and ability to choose, freedom without assimilation into the dominant culture.

This discussion starts with the choices made by Fredrick Douglass as opposed to those made by Olaudah Equiano. Equiano understood the concept of slavery. His father owned slaves and, although the procedure of slavery was different in his land, he understood that others could be owned.  He never questioned the rightness of this situation until he, himself, became a slave.

Slavery in Equiano’s world, according to his report, was not the harsh, abusive process that he was subjected to as a slave to the Europeans that captured him and, ultimately, traded him from master to master. His father’s slaves were treated like family according to his account of their treatment. Their only distinction was that they could not eat with the members of the family.  Equiano never enters into a fight with his various masters; he describes himself as attempting to defend himself against being sold and relates that he never willingly took abuse from others. “‘Besides this I have been baptized; and, by the laws of the land, no man has a right to sell me:’ And, I added that I had heard a lawyer, and others, at different times tell my master so” (Equiano, 98). Although, this did not prevent his sale to Captain Doran, it serves to point out just one of the incidents that Equiano relates where he made an active decision to defend himself.   On many other occasions over the course of his narrative, Equiano describes fighting with other boys and standing up for his rights against others who tried to abuse him.

Douglass, conversely, was raised unaware that he was a slave until the harsh reality of it was thrust upon him by the whipping of his aunt by their master.  The brutal whipping of his aunt was his admission into the ranks of the slave.  Later, when Douglass enters into a fight with Mr. Covey, he makes the penultimate choice to be free.  He chooses to be a man rather than a brute.  Fredrick Douglass freely admits that Mr. Covey had turned him into a beast and that it was their fight that crystallized and renewed his self esteem and desire for freedom. He states:

“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” (Douglass, 394).

He chose to take on Covey no matter what the consequences: “The gratification afforded by the triumph was a full compensation for whatever else might follow, even death itself” (Douglass, 395).  And, later he stated, that he made it known, “that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping (me), must also succeed in killing me” (395).

 Ellakkala states that, “it is literacy that gave the slaves the opportunities to break through the barriers placed upon them by skin color and poverty” (Ellakkala, 1).  I find this to be a naïve statement and I totally disagree with this assessment. Never are those freed given the opportunities of equality.  After he is free, Douglass cannot find work in his profession because of discrimination and has to work as a day laborer.  Literacy afforded him enlightenment into the process whereby slaves were held in ignorance, but as he states above, it was a sense of self gained through self-preservation and its resultant choices that made his desire for freedom return.  Without this catalyst, would Fredrick Douglass be the man he ultimately became?  I think not.

Equiano became, by his own admission, assimilated into the culture of English society. He became part of the ebb and flow of his surroundings.  So much so that, having become a Christian, he sought the conversion of his countrymen into the faith of his adopted land. 

Fredrick Douglass, on the other hand, never accepted the yoke of slavery. When his new mistress taught him to read and his master forbade it. He perused reading with a ruthless determination; even to the point of bribing poor white boys with food for lessons. He chose always to resist assimilation into the dominant culture by choosing to gain the very education that the dominant culture in America sought to refuse him. And then, Douglass went on to use his education to help other slaves after he gained his freedom. 

But, while Equiano became, in essence, an Englishman, Douglass did not become an American.  Douglass simply became a free man, but a free man without the right of all free men to defend his family and never was he equal in status to the whites around him. Equiano gained the good opinion of many of his masters and his master’s acquaintances and this allowed him to become something of a celebrity in England especially after gaining his freedom.  Douglass, however, became something of a celebrity within the African American community because he fought to help end slavery.

In contrasting the Slave Narratives with the book, “Song of Solomon”, it is clear that the two characters of Macon and Pilate Dead are diametrically opposed to each other through the medium of choice.  Macon becomes just like his father and creates something out of nothing, but he takes it to an unhealthy extreme becoming just like the people that killed his father to gain greater and greater wealth. He is hidebound by his decisions and cannot alter his worldview. It is as if all of the love in his life dies with his father and is replaced by avarice. His wife and children are for show; it doesn’t even matter that he is unhappy with his wife; nothing matters but his status in his own mind and in the town.  He is locked into the position that his wealth has gained him and he cannot be without it, even when his “position” in town affects the happiness of his daughter, Corinthians.

Pilate, his sister, on the other hand, refuses to succumb to the pressures of wealth and so-called “civilization”.  Of the two, only Pilate has her choices dictated to her by other people. Her first choice made in the cave with Macon arguing over the dead man, and later, when she is expelled from the society of others because she had no navel. As Circe puts it, Pilate is “ashamed of her stomach” (Morrison, 265).  But whatever her problems she knows that people and relationships are the only thing worth having. Pilate always chooses love and relationships over money. Love and protection are the two things that she knows.   

Pilate learns to make hard choices, but the choices that she makes deal with people and her relationships with them, whereas, Macon’s choices all deal with materialism and the acquisition of wealth. He chooses a life devoid of love and healthy relationships. Money becomes the love of his life and the only mistress that he pursues with devotion. It is Pilate, with her ragged appearance, rundown home, and men’s shoes, who truly understands what it means to love and care for others.  It is to her that Ruth and Milkman turn for help against Macon when he decides to end Ruth’s pregnancy, and later, when his son is looking for a place to be himself. 

Later, when Hagar dies and she wants vengeance on Milkman, she forgoes it and gives him her understanding and forgiveness instead. Macon knows nothing of these traits.  Nothing changes in his life except his age.  He is an object of pity because of all that he has lost; his humanity. Pilate’s life is by no means easy, but unlike her brother, she has not tried to dictate terms to it.  Her daughter and granddaughter’s lives do not turn out all rosy, but they have lived real, mistake driven lives, whereas, Lena and Corinthians, Macon’s daughters, are exactly as their last name implies: dead. Their lives are artificial and contrived like the flowers they create.

And, later in the story, when Corinthians does make a choice for happiness, even at 42 years old, it is denied to her by her father.  Eventually, she must isolate herself from all she knows in order to pursue it. Macon Dead can only see her choices as it relates to him; not to her—either as a person or a woman.  At the end of her life, Pilate’s only regret is that she has not known more of her people so that she could love them. “I wish I’d knowed more people. I would of loved ‘em all. If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more.”(Morrison, 361).

Conversely, in the poem, “Still, I Rise” by Maya Angelou, the speaker also makes a choice. But, here the speaker in the poem chooses a wealth of self-respect, self-love, and self-identity rather than actual material wealth. The poem directly contrasts the ownership of slavery, which denied slaves any sense of selfhood, with the wealth of identity possible as free people.  The speaker chooses immaterial, insubstantial, internal wealth in the form of pride, self-esteem, and self-identity in the face of oppression. The poet has taken these traditional images of immigrant expectations and tied them to issues of personal pride, self identity, and racial identity.  

Moreover, the focus of all of the imagery is tied to the earth, regeneration and renewal. Ms. Angelou has tied the resilience of the black race to the richness and eternality of the sun, earth, moon, and air. These images of unchanging, ceaseless endurance in the face of oppression give the poem a sense of inevitability and a purposeful strength.  We also see the choices made by the speaker: self-determination.   I will continue no matter what you do to try and stop me. 

“You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies/

  You may trod me in the very dust/

  But, still, like dust, I’ll rise” (Contemporary Authors Online, 1).

Like the slaves, the speaker has made a choice to endure; whether slave or free, she will continue forward. This sense of identity makes it completely opposite to the slave narratives, which relate that slaves were allowed no sense of identity separate from their masters.

Fredrick Douglass’ sense of identity developed along with his understanding of the mechanics of slavery. He never felt like a slave until introduced to the brutality of it at a very young age. However, his literacy increased his understanding and he was able to make more informed choices. Like the speaker in “Still, I Rise”, he knows what he is doing.  But, the choice the slave Freddie made to fight Mr. Covey went beyond his literacy.  He had to choose between his self-identity and remaining a brute and a slave. In much the same way, Equiano decides to fight when he is attacked; never does he stand and take it.

This is also true in the cases of Harriet Jacobs and Mary Prince; both of them make decisions that affect their futures.  Mary marries against her owner’s wishes (Prince, 279).  Harriet hides out after escape and remains hidden for seven years to avoid detection (Jacobs, 547-605). For Mary Prince it is being thrown out of her master’s home in England.  For Jacobs it is the fear of the enslavement of her children.

Moreau states, of Harriet Jacobs, “The love she had for her children and her refusal to let them live as slaves is what gave Jacobs the voice she needed to stand up and be able to make choices for herself.  She knew that her children would be safe with her gone because her master would not want the hindrance of having to take care of them if she was not there” (Moreau, 2).  

The catalyst in each case is different, but the result is the same: choice.  Forced by horrible circumstances, held voiceless and choiceless inside the bonds of slavery, these women made a decision for life and freedom.

These are the actions of free people----people who would rather die than continue to be slaves. These tough choices, the outgrowth of pain, misery, and despair were what made them capable of seeking freedom and becoming free. Literacy helped them tell their stories, but without these driving sparks of self-preservation and emerging selfhood, their literacy would have been an empty feat---like the trained bear in the circus, whose spirit remembers freedom, but whose actions tell of its assimilation into captivity. Like Maya Angelou’s speaker in “Still, I Rise” all of them looked under the lies of slavery and failure and found the promised rose of selfhood and with it freedom as the ultimate pinnacle of that selfhood with its resultant decisions and consequences.

The unimaginable choices and decisions forced upon, and faced by, the African and Negro people during the time of slavery and its aftermath are, indeed, comprehensible to me when I stand in the light of the continued prejudice and animosity faced by African Americans today, not just by the descendents of the early immigrants, but by the newest immigrants arriving daily to these shores.  Even modern immigrants seem to feel that our slave ancestry gives them some special right to despise, hate and name-call us.

For underneath all of the rhetoric and raised angry voices, it all come down to choice; even assimilation and resistance are about choice.  Choice is the dividing line in the sand, and each of us must decide where and when we will draw that line.  It must be drawn in the concepts we accept, the beliefs we hold, the decisions that we make, and in the very lives that we lead and will leave as an example and an inheritance to our children. It is my strong belief that this society will never be free of the taint of slavery and its prejudices as long as we allow intolerance to color our viewpoints and the manner in which we teach our children about others.  These are the choices that are left up to us; the descendents of immigrants, slaves and slaveholders, alike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Contemporary Authors Online:  Sept. 12th, 2007

 Biographical Information on poet, Maya Angelou and Poem: “Still, I Rise”

 September 03, 2007 <http://swansong2.tripod.com/poetry/still_i_rise.htm>

 

Ellakkala, A., Can Literacy Dissolve A Slave’s Chains? Seminar in American Multicultural Literature, Sample Student Midterm, Spring 2006

September 13th, 2007

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR5731/models

 

Gates, H. L. Ed, The Classic Slave Narratives of Equiano, Douglass, Prince and Jacobs

New American Library: New York, NY, 2002.

 

Moreau, S., A Right to Choose

Seminar in American Multicultural Literature, Sample Student Midterm, Spring 2006

September 13th, 2007

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR5731/models

 

 

Morrison, T., The Song of Solomon

Everyman’s Library: New York, 1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addendum

 

A Slave's Prayer: A Dedication

 

Ancestor

            Stolen in the light of blistering day

Anger

            Killing our hearts and minds

Anguish in the hearts of

            Your descendents

Hoping they honor your struggle

While always striving to be free

 

Freedom

            Ever looked for, but never found

Farce

            Freedom in the land of Oppression

Feeling the pain of the past like whip marks afresh

            Watching our children forget your suffering

And embrace the vices of your Masters

 

Power

            To be more than they ever expected

Present

            Never free of the desire to be more

Putting your pain in perspective

            That the next generation will see you

And never forget your struggles

 

Knowledge

            Found in the expression of your souls

Now

            Praying for strength to continue

Never again to know slavery

            Through our children

To people, places or things

 

Unique

            Knowing that you are special

Unity

            Keeping your sense of Identity

United as one in the passion,

The pain and

The purpose of all People of color

Until all People are free