Toni Morrison's a Mercy
TONI MORRISON’S A MERCY: THE BLACK WOMAN SLAVES’ STRUGGLE TO GAIN FREEDOM IN AMERICA IN THE 1600S
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By MM. Rahayu Ambarastuti Student Number: 06 4214 023
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010 TONI MORRISON’S A MERCY: THE BLACK WOMAN SLAVES’ STRUGGLE TO GAIN FREEDOM IN AMERICA IN THE 1600S
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By MM. Rahayu Ambarastuti Student Number: 06 4214 023
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010
i
HAKUNA MATATA
-NO WORRIES-
iv
To the women who fight the oppression of their rights
v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost I would like to thank God Almighty who has given me life and its beautiful lessons and for His blessings to make this thesis possible. My deepest gratitude goes to my advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum., who has encouraged me and guided me all through my journey in writing this thesis, and J.
Harris Hermansyah S. S.S., M.Hum., as my co-advisor who has given creative inputs. I would also thank all English Letters’ lecturers, especially Anna Fitriati,
S.Pd., M.Hum., Maria Ananta, S.S., M.Ed. for the guidance and help during my study in the English Letters, and all the staff in English Letters.
Importantly, I would like to give my love and gratitude to my beloved family who have taught me the lessons of life and love well. I thank my Garry, who stands beside me and gives his love, optimism, support and patience.
Also, I would like to thank the Director, my colleague and seniors in Pusat
Sejarah dan Etika Politik Universitas Sanata Dharma, Romo Baskara, Wawan,
Darwin, Mba Monic, Mas Deddy, Pak Tri, for the sharing and support. I also thank Colin Cahill for the constant discussion and additional corrections. I thank my sisters and brothers, Rendy, Nikko, Mba Keke, Amot, Mba Eni, Kak Iin,
Gerisca, Ayu, Mba Eling, Mba Karlina, Andika, Mba Astri, Gustin, Yosua,
Acong, Eman, Dika Mahot, Rio, Media, Santi, Nissa, and all the 2006 gang and
EDS for the sharing and laughter which boost my spirit whenever I need it.
Last but not least, I thank all my friends that I cannot mention one by one, and to Gonzaga and its memorable experiences.
Rahayu Ambarastuti
vii TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………………… i APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………………………… ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ……..…………………………………….. iii MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………… iv DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………………… v SURAT PERNYATAAN …………………………………………… vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS …………………………………………… vii TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………… viii ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………… x ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………. xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………. 1 A. Background of Study ……………………………………………. 1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………. 3 C. Objectives of Study ……………………………………………. 4 D. Definitions of Study ……………………………………………. 5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ……………………. 6 A. Review of Related Studies ……………………………………. 6 B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………. 8 1. Theories on Character ……………………………………. 8 2. Theories on Characterization ……………………………. 11 C. Review on Historical Background in America in the 1600s ……. 13 1. Review on Slavery ……………………………………. 13 2. Review on Social Condition of the Black Woman Slaves in the 1600s ……………………………. 16 3. The Meaning of Freedom for Black Woman Slaves in the 1600s ……………………………………………. 19 D. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………. 20
CHAPTER III:METHODOLOGY ……………………………………. 22 A. Object of the Study ……………………………………………. 22 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………. 23 C. Method of the Study ……………………………………………. 24
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS …………………………………………….. 26 A. The Characteristics of Florens …………………………….. 26 B. The Description of the Life of Black Woman Slaves in America in the 1600s …………………………………….. 33 C. Black Woman Slaves’ Ability to Gain Freedom in America in the 1600 …………………………………….. 39
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………….. 51
viii
ix
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………….. 53
ABSTRACT
MM. RAHAYU AMBARASTUTI. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: The Black Woman Slaves’ Struggle to Gain Freedom in America in the 1600s. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2010.
A Mercy is a story about black women slaves’ life with a very strong historical background during the 1600s. Back then America had not been independent yet and the white people from various places came to that place to make colonies. They used black slaves to cultivate their land. Florens is the main character in the story. She becomes a slave as she inherits her mother’s status as a slave. She is sold to another employer with her mother’s permission. At her new working place, she becomes a good girl and a good slave. Then she is sent to search for a healer by her Mistress. During her journey, she has to face social and humanity problems, including discriminations toward her race and judgments based on the race and status. Florens’ struggle to be able to survive the chaotic situations and gain her freedom is what will be discussed in this thesis. This thesis mainly discusses how a person’s abilities can motivate that person to achieve freedom. Therefore, the first problem to be discussed in this thesis is the characteristics of Florens as the main character in the novel. Second is the description of the social condition of the black women slaves’ lives in the 1600s. The third is to find the abilities found in Florens’ characteristics with the description of black woman slaves’ lives and their ability to achieve freedom in the 1600s. Library research method has been done to analyse the story. I also used the sociocultural-historical approach as the point of view to analyze the story. How the black woman slaves’ use their ability to struggle for freedom is the topic discussed in this thesis. Florens is naïve, obedient, smart, courageous and also trustworthy. Black woman slaves had a difficult life because they were the marginalized people and they were considered as a tool or property, rather than human being, and thus the discrimination toward their race was strong. They learnt from their experiences and they developed their own characteristics. By using their own abilities to struggle, black women slaves struggled for equality and better treatments toward their race. They use their own capabilities and cleverness to solve their problems in order to be independent and be as they were. They always fought with what they had and they knew that it was important to be able to defend themselves and to read the situations and thus being able to be critical to their situations. The importance of their being and humanity to be acknowledged was the essence for the meaning of freedom itself.
x
ABSTRAK
MM. RAHAYU AMBARASTUTI. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: The Black Woman Slaves’ Struggle to Gain Freedom in America in the 1600s. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2010.
A Mercy adalah sebuah kisah pengalaman hidup seorang budak perempuan berkulit hitam dengan latar belakang sejarah di tahun 1600an yang sangat kental. Pada saat itu Amerika belum meraih kemerdekaannya dan orang-orang kulit putih dari berbagai negara datang untuk membentuk koloni di sana. Mereka menggunakan budak kulit hitam untuk mengolah ladang mereka. Florens adalah tokoh utama dalam cerita tersebut. Dia adalah seorang perempuan kulit hitam yang menjadi budak karena mengikuti status ibunya yang juga seorang budak. Kemudian dia dijual ke pemilik lain atas dasar permintaan ibunya. Di tempat kerjanya yang baru, Florens tumbuh besar dan menjadi budak yang baik. Kemudian dia diutus oleh istri tuannya untuk mencari seorang penyembuh. Dalam perjalanannya itu Florens harus menghadapi berbagai rintangan dan masalah sosial, termasuk diskriminasi, rasa jijik atas rasnya, dan tuduhan-tuduhan yang berdasar pada status dan ras. Perjuangan Florens agar bisa menyelesaikan tugasnya dan mencari kebebasannya dibahas dalam tesis ini. Dalam tulisan ini banyak membahas tentang bagaimana karakter seseorang mampu memotivasi orang tersebut untuk meraih kemerdekaan. Maka, yang pertama dibahas adalah mengetahui karakteristik Florens sebagai karakter utama dalam novel A Mercy. Kedua, untuk mengerti keadaan kehidupan sosial para budak perempuan kulit hitam di tahun 1600an. Ketiga, menemukan kemampuan dalam karakter Florens dan dalam menghadapi keadaan sosial budak perempuan kulit hitam sebagai cara untuk meraih kebebasan di tahun 1600an. Studi pustaka telah dilakukan untuk menganalisis cerita ini. Saya juga menggunakan pendekatan sejarah, budaya dan sosiologis sebagai fokus analisis cerita ini. Bagaimana budak perempuan kulit hitam menggunakan kemampuan dari dalam dirinya untuk berjuang mencapai kebebasan adalah topik yang dibahas dalam skripsi ini. Florens merupakan perempuan yang polos, penurut, cerdas, pemberani sekaligus bisa dipercaya. Para budak perempuan kulit hitam di tahun 1600an mengalami masa yang sulit karena mereka kaum marjinal dan mereka lebih dianggap alat atau benda, ketimbang manusia, sehingga diskriminasi terhadap kaum mereka sangat kuat. Dengan menggunakan kemampuan mereka masing-masing, para budak perempuan kulit hitam berjuang untuk persamaan hak dan perlakuan yang lebih baik. Mereka memanfaatkan kecerdasan mereka dan kemampuan mereka untuk menghadapi masalah untuk bisa menjadi diri mereka sendiri dan hidup mandiri. Pentingnya pengakuan humanitas mereka menjadi hal yang prinsip dalam arti kebebasan itu sendiri.
xi CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature does not create itself. Every literary work has an author that writes the story and gives birth to the work of art. An author creates a story from her own perspectives and gets many influences from the environment around her, such as the social background, the economic background, and childhood experience. An author may sit alone, in front of her typewriter and just watched a riot in front of a parliament building, might digest every incident and ideas into more elaborated details to be put on a story. Those ideas are often influenced by society and history. Therefore, literature is often concerned with the lesson conveyed in a story.
Literature can enrich us with knowledge, as it is written in Henry E.
Jacobs and Edgar V. Roberts’ Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing,
“Literature enables us to develop a perspective on the events that occur around us and the world at large…(1989: 2)”. Besides entertaining the reader, literature can widen our views of the world. It can stimulate both our emotions and ability to feel, and to have empathy towards the things going on around us. There are many ways to read and understand a literary work. One of the ways is to look at the literary work from the historical context.
There is a saying that a great nation is a nation that does not forget its history. History helps people understand their identity, including their culture, and
1 2
makes people honor and preserve their heritage, so that they always become united. Many historical events are recounted through literature and it can make history feel closer to people even though not everyone experiences it.
American history plays a major role in American literary works, and it has produced great writings. Great American writers explore history and utilize historical information to create a context for their narrative. Their writings reflect a history of the people, culture, social problems, and political situation during a specific time. It also reflects the struggle of a nation to become a whole country and gain its freedom.
“Literature represents ‘life’; and ‘life’ is in large measure, a social reality…” as it is written in Wellek and Warren in their Theory of Literature
(1956: 94). In this book, they explain that each poet is also a member of society, and the events happen around her society can define her knowledge of the world.
Thus, to best understand a novel, one must try to see the writer’s point of view, understand the historical context, social condition and social critique that lay within the book.
A Mercy, a novel by Toni Morrison, raises the historical events in
America around 1682-1690 in America during the European colonization of the
New World. The novel gives the picture of slavery, the domination of the upper class toward the working class and the white race toward other races, economic problems, and the survival of the immigrants in the New World. Those pictures are often found in other Morrison’s novels. However, this new novel provides a different setting and it tells from the beginning of a great nation.
3
The book tells the story of Florens, a black girl whose mother allows her to be sold. She is taken to a farm to live with other people from the same economic class. Although they come from different racial backgrounds, they are all the victim of the ruling class. Their background and life experiences influence
Florens to build her identity.
This thesis will address how Florens struggles for her freedom through the processes she has gone through. It was Florens’ willingness to do the best for the people she considers her family, her desire to get compassion and being loved or affirmed, and also her reactions toward society’s race based judgments on her skin colour that makes me want to see deeper. I also believe that there are similarities between the novel and the fact in history that black women who were slaves went through such experiences and finally were able to find freedom for themselves. That is shown from how one child struggles and learns to develop herself in amidst of a nation in chaos.
People can perceive their own identity based on the experiences in their life. Beyond their own characteristics, environments, culture, political and religious view influence one’s ability to survive. Florens’ character is unique and independent. That is why I am keen on analyzing Florens’ struggle to get her liberation in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How is Florens depicted in the story?
2. How is the life of black women slaves in America in the 1600s described in
the novel?
3. How does Florens’ characteristics and the descriptions of black women slaves
in the 1600s in America show black women slave’s struggle to gain freedom?
4
C. Objectives of the Study
Characters have the important role in conveying the message that the author wants to deliver. They are the actors that the author chose to bring the details of the story to the reader. Through characters, the reader will be able to understand the conflict, and, just like human, the characters can make the reader
“feel” the story. In this study, the major character is the main point of the discussion. Her character is believed to have the similarities and is able to reflect black woman slaves in America during the 1600s. Her process to achieve freedom on her own is the main subject that I want to discuss in this undergraduate thesis.
Therefore, firstly, I will reveal how Florens is characterized by the author.
In this part, I try to find her characteristics and the way she acts toward the society and reality. Then, I will try to interpret her personal quality based on the theory of characters and characterization.
Secondly, I will describe the social condition or the historical background, specifically regarding black woman slaves in America at that time.
Personality is influenced by the environment around us; therefore, in this part, I will detail the social and cultural and historical background during the settlement of the colonies in America.
Thus, after gathering all the information needed, I am going to reveal the abilities of black woman slaves to gain freedom in the history of America during the settlement of the colonies in the 1600s in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy by comparing the data found in the book and the facts from the history.
5
D. Definition of Term
This thesis takes meaning of freedom for Negro slaves as the main discussion. Therefore, I need to clarify about the definition of freedom in this context. However, first, I need to emphasize that this thesis is based on historical perspective, and thus the definition given will be from the historical point of view.
The meaning of freedom in this context is to be one’s own and that their humanness is not for sale (Hine and Thompson, 1999). The ability to own themselves and protect their dignity is the meaning of freedom for the black women slaves in the 1600s. Through their lives, black women slaves were oppressed by the superior race and abused physically and mentally. They always seemed to be owned by others, but they could not own themselves. Therefore, the ability to make decision for their own, to be able to show that they could survive was the principle and the main idea of freedom for the black women slaves in the
1600s.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Michael Miller says that “Toni Morrison's new book, "A Mercy," tackles the very origins of America's blood-soaked racial history
(http://www.newsweek.com/id/172633).” It is written based on other common
Morrison’s themes; about racism and the problems that occur within it.
However, according to Miller, A Mercy has a more broad idea than race problems, that is the idea of personal freedom as he stated, “...and it expends more energy exploring the related issues of power, poverty and the struggle for personal freedom.”
Daniel Garret has a different idea on the book. As he reviewed about the early American History and Slavery, Garret stated that,
It is a book about civility and savagery, intelligence and stupidity, love and hatred: life and death. It also concerns a theme that may be as timeless: what children do not understand about parents, especially their acts, as well as feelings, within the treacherous churnings of history (thoughtful concern can look like indifference) (http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=ar ticle&sid=2300).
According to Garret, Morrison is writing something that gives interpretation about the roots of the past. The interpretation, which reveals through the language Morrison used, representing the early American life and essential historical events during the exploitation of the Native Americans and also the black people.
6 7
An article in The Economist magazine reviewed A Mercy as a novel which has the underpinning premise that “the ultimate right of humans is to be free (November 2008: 95)”. It is concluded based on the quotation taken from the novel and how the book raised a theme upon slavery.
The reviews mainly discussed the themes that is brought up by Morrison and that the black people who were to survive in New World really depend on others and that the solidarity in a community is important to help them keep each other alive.
Khem Guragain, who is a lecturer in Ratna Rayja Laxmi Campus,
Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal wrote a journal based on her study entitled, “African American Literary Tradition and Toni Morrison’s Aesthetic
Perspectives”. On her paper, she analyzed that Toni Morrison is a leading voice in
African American literature and that Morrison’s writings is to criticize the mainstream thought of academics and critics.
Guragain stated that, “The major themes of Toni Morrison's writing is to redefine the notion of white American canonical texts and their idea of African
American writing as being non-canonical or inferior
(http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=4324)”.
Morrison wanted to show that actually the present American culture was built upon the black’s people suffering and the slavery of black people.
Therefore, many of her writings are considered to be emotional and emphasizing on how the white race dominates the non-white races. She is very
8
detail on describing the black people experiences and black’s traditional habits and culture that may have been forgotten these days.
Obviously, many reviewers see Morrison as a talented writer and a loyal defender of her race. Her writings are influenced by the historical events and she voiced the unspoken voices upon the cases of racialism, slavery, inferiority, women, and many other humanitarian aspects. However, what I want to analyze further in my undergraduate thesis is how the main character in Morrison’s new novel, A Mercy has the ability to gain freedom as she accepts her status or being as a slave. As Michael Miller said in his review that A Mercy expands Morrison’s idea in writing to the meaning of personal freedom, is what I want to get a deep and thorough finding. Since Morrison’s writings are indeed based on historical events and society’s condition during the slavery era, the meaning of freedom and acceptance as a slave on A Mercy will be the focus of my undergraduate thesis.
This study will also use the socio-historical approach that will give a thorough discussion and analysis about the history of American slavery, especially the meaning of freedom based on the main character’s perspective.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theories on Character
As the objective of this undergraduate thesis is to analyze how the character has the ability to gain her freedom, therefore, a theory on character is needed. According to Abrams, in his book A Glossary of Literature Terms, character is the person who appears in dramatic or narrative work that has both
9
moral and dispositional qualities. “Those kinds of qualities can be seen through his action and speech constitutes his motivation (1980: 20)”.
Thus, by analyzing the character’s actions and characteristics, we will be able to find what kind of person she is, trace her moral values, her perspective of this world and other things that relates on her personality.
Another theory of character is from Henry E. Jacobs and Edgar V.
Roberts, in his book entitled Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. He stated that “Character in literature generally, and in fiction specifically, is an extended verbal representation of human being, the inner self that determines thought, speech and behavior (Jacobs and Roberts, 1989: 143)”. Based on this definition, character is the representative of the actual person, who has values, perspectives and attitude towards the reality.
Jacobs and Roberts also explain that to understand a character, we must find the character’s trait or traits. This trait is something that describes the character’s habit and behavior toward other people or things that we can analyze from the book. “If we learn about a person’s traits, we can develop an understanding of that person (Jacobs and Roberts, 1989: 144)”. Thus, as character is the representative of the actual person who has values, perspectives and attitudes, character in the novel could be learned and understood by the readers.
From that kind of analysis, we can found the quality of the character.
An English novelist and a critical thinker, E.M. Forster gave a more elaborate explanation about character in his book, Aspects of the Novel. He explains that the characters or the actors in the novel are the people and each of
10
the character has his or her own voice that represents a real human being. The relation between the people in the novel with the other aspect of the novel can make fiction more real than history, because fiction through its actors can go beyond of the proof or actions in the story and takes its reader to have the experience the character’s life while a history does not (2005: 70). With this explanation, we will be able to understand that character is an important element in the novel to create a story.
Forster also classifies the characters into two kinds: flat and round character. The flat character is the character which is described as it is from a single idea by the writer himself. “In their purest form, they are constructed round a single idea or quality; when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve towards the round (Forster, 2005: 73)”. Flat characters will be easily recognized and remembered by the readers, since they will have no development to be watched carefully and they already have their own characteristics that will be easily remembered by the readers.
On the other hand, round character is the character that can be identified and usually described through the events and implications that occur in the story.
On the contrast from the flat character, the round character is not easily recognized and has tendency to give surprises in the story. Other than that, it is also the round character that can perform a tragic character. “It is only round people who are fit to perform tragically at any length of time and can move us to any feelings except humor and appropriateness (Forster, 2005: 77)”. Thus, the
11
character has the intrinsic functions in itself other than the physical or psychological characteristics given by the author.
2. Theories on Characterization
M.H. Abrams stated that there are two methods to present the characters on the novel and called as characterizing. Those methods are showing and telling the characters. The showing method is a way to characterize the character based on the way the character does actions. The second method is the telling method; it is the way to characterize a character by describing the character’s behavior, and evaluating the character’s personal qualities (1981: 24).
Other than Abrams, I used the theory of characterization from Shlomith
Rimmon-Kenan’s book entitled Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. His explanation is similar to Jacobs and Roberts’ theory on character, that a character could be understood by knowing and identifying the character’s traits, as stated,
“Character as one construct within abstracted story that can be described in terms of a network of character traits (Rimmon-Kenan, 1983: 59)”. Thus, an author gives the explanation of her actors’ characteristics or personality is through their traits found in the novel.
Rimmon-Kenan classifies the basic types of indicator to identify the characterization; direct definition and indirect presentation. The direct definition gives the reader a definite description about the character, by giving the character a proper adjective name, and gives the traits of the character by a clear description. The indirect presentation is the opposite, leaving the readers to judge
12
and conclude the implicit traits of the character. For the indirect presentation, there are many ways to find the character’s traits which are through the character’s: action, speech, external appearance, and environment (Rimmon-
Kenan, 1983).
The idea that character and her traits held an important role in a story also shared by Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz in their book, Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience. On their book, they give explanation on every aspect that built a story, such as theme, plot, point of view and characterization. Characters are very crucial element in a story to present the ideas or theme that the author want to share with her readers. They say the one thing that differentiate characters in short stories and in novels is the “characterization, or the process by which the characters are rendered to make them seem real to the reader (Abcarian and Klotz, 1978: 6)”.
Through this process, characters in novels more likely to develop than characters in short stories. However, Abcarian and Klotz say that this characterization cannot be separated from other elements in a story, since from those elements the reader will be able to reveal the characteristics of a character.
According to M. J. Murphy on his book entitled Understanding Unseens:
An Introduction to English Poetry & English Novel for Overseas Students, there
are nine ways for an author to describe the characters in the novel; personal
description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of
others, reactions, direct comments, thoughts, mannerisms. The method can be
used by the reader to appreciate a little bit more to the art of the work of an
13
author. By analyzing how the character described by other people, observing the
description about the past life, the reader may also understand the personalities
given by the author.
“An author does not make use exclusively of any one of these methods but
generally blends them skillfully together (Murphy, 1972:173)”. Therefore, there
can be more than one method used by the author and it is intended to make the
reader think that it is the author creation of real people.
Thus, a character’s characteristics can be studied from the features shared
by the character or actions that are found in the story directly or indirectly, in
coordination with other elements in the story.
C. Review on Historical Background of America in the 1600s
1. Review on Slavery
Slavery in America has been the one that probably much more discussed.
It had a long journey and different status or systems in places in America. Based on the book A Comparative Approach to American History, “American slavery was a product of the African slave trade, which was itself an integral part of both
European commercial expansion and New World colonization (Woodward, 1968:
132)”. This trade becomes more ‘popular’ because of the increasing competition to build an empire in the New World between merchants, sailors (seaman), and planters from various nationalities.
The Essentials of American History discussed how much the New World was desired by these people. “The interest of colonization was because of
14
America has a lot of virgin lands that can be cultivated by the English or other
European immigrants (Current, 1976: 15)”. However, these people also carry diseases such as small pox or measles that affect the local people or also known as the Indians. By their condition, slavery seems to be the best option to help these colonies to build an empire, because the African slaves are strong. Woodward explanation that “...there could hardly have been successful colonization of the
New World without the Negro slaves (Woodward, 1968: 133)” emphasizes the importance and the dependence of the colonies toward the Negro slaves.
Racial antipathy that grew in America was because of the strong emotion of fear and all they are trying to achieve was a quick wealth through a reckless increase in slaves. At that time, the investment in slave labor was the key to expand the production and spectacular profit, even the possession of slaves could become a symbol of affluence, prestige, and power. To cultivate the land, the source of labor was the Negro slaves that were considered to be more appropriate.
Though slaves were treated differently in different places in America, for example the laws in Virginia to treat slaves was considered to be inappropriate outside Virginia; the main point is that slaves never had a legal claim to their families and that they are all the instruments of their owner. Black slaves were also different with the white slaves.
As for their status, America developed different status in many different states (Woodward, 1968). At that time the law was made by the governor who ruled in that area. Therefore, different states will have different law; this law included the rule of the wages for the slaves, their social condition and their
15
rights. However, one common wage given for the slaves was called the ‘hand share’, which is the share of the crops given by their master, but there was no standard on how much is the share.
The white slaves, and usually they were women, carry different status.
These women came from their country because there were not enough job fields in their origin and there were demand to cultivate the new land. Many of them became slaves though they have different fate than the Negro slaves, as stated
“Identifiable by their color, black slaves could not run away and merge themselves with the mass of free humanity as white servants could (Current, 1976:
16)”.
Racial discrimination toward the black is also explained by John Hope
Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. in their book, From Slavery to Freedom, “The distinction between black and white servants was becoming well established
(1988: 54)”. They discussed a case when there were three servants escaped and then managed to be recaptured, the white servant must serve the master for one year, while the black servants must serve for the master for the rest of their life.
Discrimination can happen because of the fear of white people if the black slaves are able to develop. Therefore, the white people tend to keep black people illiterate as much as possible.
On the other, they declared that it was “dangerous” to teach blacks how to read and write. It unfitted them for the role of slave…Being able to read opens up the world. People who know something other than slavery are unlikely to remain convinced that it is their only option. Slaveholders knew this and most did everything they could to keep enslaved people illiterate (Hine and Thompson, 1999: 73-74).
16
The white people are afraid if there is a chance for black people to realize that they have a better fate than being a slave. Since they want to have a cheap labor and gain as much profit as possible, they try their hardest to make the black people the marginalized people in the society.
Therefore, there’s a form of superiority of the white race towards the black people, though both races were in the same class and share the same difficult experiences.
2. Review on Social Condition of the Black Women Slaves in the 1600s
As the setting of the time is during the colonial era, thus many things are influenced by the British Empire. One of them is the social pattern and condition.
It is important to discuss since I want to analyze how the character is influenced by the social life during the colonialism.
On their book, American History: A Survey, Richard N. Current and friends explained about the social systems during the colonization. The British
Empire inherited a basic system of social institutions; that is the class structure, the community, and the family. The most visible inheritance is the class distinction in the society; there are the working class society and the upper class society. The working class society is the community that works as farmers. Even black slaves eventually enter this categorization for their rapid growth in that time.
The upper class society is the community that comes from the Puritan community.
(Current, 1965: 17).
17
The Puritans live remain close to their neighbors, they build social organizations and their central activity will be on the church services. The Puritan community is also considered as the upper class since they attend school and study the Latin grammar, which make them more educated from the working class community.
Current and his friends wrote, “Central of the Puritan community was the family. And central to each family was the father, who exercised nearly dictatorial power over family members (Current, 1965: 74)”. This influenced the strong patriarchal system in that time and made the younger members strike out to find a place for their own.
Similar to the Puritan family, family became the central of the black slaves community. It was because they want to have a better future and better fate for their race and community. This condition is explained in A Shining Thread of
Hope written by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson,
Enslaved Americans were also deeply committed to the idea of family, at any cost. At the core of this response was the need to care for children. At the same time, however, enslaved women and men used families of all shapes and sizes to fill the need for companionship, support, intimacy, and sense of belonging (Hine and Thompson, 1999: 86).
It shows that the African American people at that time were bound very close to each other, as their population grew and because they have none to defend them and their race other than their own family. A stronger bound were held by the
African American women slaves, who were characterized as “self-reliant and self- sufficient because, lacking black male protection, they had to develop their own means of resistance and survival (Hine and Thompson, 1999: 72)”. Women must
18
do field works the same as men, but they also had to bear children, or facing the risk of being sexually abused, which made their burden doubled.
In the early colonies, most black women were agricultural workers on farms or domestic servants in cities, often working alongside white indentured servants
(Hine and Thompson, 1999: 13). These women also have many traditional skills, such as healing skills that can be used to help their fellow slaves. Other than working on farms, black women also had role as midwives, and their position was completely under the control of their employer.
However, because of the rapid growth and mixed marriages, the government at that time was confused to create the law regarding the status of the children.
Thus, the status of the children followed the conditional status of their mother
(Hine and Thompson, 1999: 15). That is why black women had so difficult position and their motherhood was like a curse. Black women must work hard, facing sexual abuse everyday, and without men standing next to them, because men were also afraid to marry black women slaves for their children status.
Women’s position was very difficult and complicated. Often, when they were freed, they would still have a “constant fear” to being kidnapped and re-enslaved
(Hine and Thompson, 1999: 21). Their difficult situation made the bond between black women slaves was strong and they support each other.
As for the children, especially girls, they had short years to enjoy their childhood. Children must learn to work as well, and “girls usually began working at an earlier age than their brother, and they shifted from the jobs accorded children to their adult jobs earlier as well (Hine and Thompson, 1999: 69)”.
19
Slaveholders would use children to do small chores at first, and they believed that the best slaves were the ones that were raised (Hine and Thompson, 1999: 70).
3. The Meaning of Freedom for Black Woman Slaves in the 1600s
As this thesis is discussing freedom for slaves, therefore I need to give an explanation about how, why and what freedom really meant for the slaves. Since this thesis also use historical approach, a historical perspective to explain the theories on freedom is needed and thus the theories on freedom is not philosophical, but it is accordingly to the testimonies, biographies, or historical writings about meaning of freedom to American slaves.
I define freedom is to be one’s own and that their humanness is not for sale
(Hine and Thompson, 1999). Both black men and women struggled for their freedom and their race’s fate in the land of white people. However, one thing that was being emphasized by black women was their “ownership”; that women must be able to own themselves and their humanness belongs only to them.
A free man for a Negro slave is not only to gain independence or being able to do whatever you wanted or even to choose what you wanted to choose; it’s about not being stigmatized and acknowledged that she is also human. The problem is, for Negro slaves, they are treated like animals and people would let them stranded without anything.
In his book, A History in Their Own Words: The Black American, Milton
Meltzer gave a picture about slavery and experiences of the Black people in
America. The book consists of stories based on the Black people directly. Some of
20
it is in a form of journals, letters, or newspapers. From the story written, the reader will get the experience and historical point of view to what make America a nation.
One of the stories was taken from a journal written by a black bookseller about a kidnapping of a free black man. When some laws were made to prohibit slavery, some slaves were freed but they still have hard times. A free black man was taken by police for something he did not commit and in the end he was sold, once again, as slaves (Meltzer, 1987: 45).
Another is a testimony from a black woman named Frances Harper who helped other black slaves fugitives got out and saved their lives. There she said that she could buy the freedom for these men, but money is not enough to get the freedom; because the freedom needed is respect and acknowledgement from other people, not the one that can be bought by money, as she said “The respect that is only bought by gold is not worth much (Meltzer, 1987: 68)”.
Hine and Thompson wrote the history of Black women in America and explained the struggle and the life the black women had to go through. They also explained about the meaning of freedom in the late 1600s before the American independence. The essential of freedom for black women slaves is not only for freedom itself, but “freedom as principle and for each other (1999: 93)”. The meaning of freedom is not only about not being someone else’s property or slave, but that “their humanness was not for sale to or by anyone (Hine and Thompson,
1999: 93)”.
21
D. Theoretical Framework
As explained before that the theories that are going to be used to answer the problems are theories on character, characteristics and the review of the historical background. It is important to use the reviews because the main object of this paper is the major character in the novel and how her characteristics reflect the black woman slaves’ ability to gain freedom in the 1600s in America.
The theory of characters and characteristics in literary works is needed to investigate who the character is, what kind of person she is, how the character behaves in the society and how her personalities are shown through her actions, judgments and speech. By analyzing each of her characteristics, there can be found how she acts toward reality, making decisions and build her own identity in the society.
Another theory is the theory on the historical background. To get the understanding why Florens acts in such a way, the knowledge on the historical background of that time is needed. The description of the historical events, and the social condition in that time, will give a big idea of the situation that Florens should face.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
Toni Morrison is one of great writers who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and Nobel Prize in 1993 for her novel, Beloved. Her major works carry the theme on slavery, racism and the marginalized black society. A Mercy is her ninth novel and was published in the late year 2008 by the publisher Vintage Books, New
York. This novel is the first since Beloved that depicted a story on slavery, although it was wrapped in the early seventeenth century form
(http://nymag.com/guides/fallpreview/2008/books/49499/). For this thesis, I use the first vintage international open-market edition, June 2009.
A Mercy is a story about Florens, who is a young orphan girl who works as a slave in a farm. She is bought by Jacob Vaark, the person whom Florens’ owner owed some money to. Jacob actually does not want to buy a slave; in fact, he despises the business on slavery. However, he thinks that the presence of a child in his home will recover his wife’s feelings after they lost their children.
For ten years Florens works in the farm and she gained her Mistress’ trust toward her, and she was sent to search for a blacksmith that can heal her ill
Mistress. From her errand, Florens experienced many things that she had never imagined before. Through her experiences she learns many things and she struggles for her freedom.
22 23
B. Approach of the Study
A Mercy is a novel that tells the readers about the history in America during the colonization and settlements of the European in the New World. To analyze the story, I use the sociocultural-historical approach. “The sociocultural- historical approach insists that the only way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization that produced it (Rohrberger and Woods, Jr., 1971: 9)”. This approach believes that the story in the novel is the reflection of the social and the culture of the time when the story is written. It also believes that a work of literature will not be understood without understanding the social condition when the work is produced.
The novel A Mercy was set on the year 1680-1690s. It was the time of the settlement in the New World and the time of the colonization. The story was about a little girl who was in her journey to find a healer for her Mistress and how she built her identity and finally accepts her position as a slave. On her errand she met other people and there she found some things that are different and maybe dangerous for her life. As a little girl who was sold by her mother, she didn’t really understand the chaos around her and the story was about how she finally accepted her identity as a slave.
To understand the life and the condition of black women slaves I must see from the historical events and facts that happened in the 1600s. The sociocultural- historical approach is the most appropriate to be used in this paper because I will be able to find the relation between the social and cultural condition based on historical events in that time with the story. 24
C. Method of the Study
To make an analysis of the story, I used library research method. From the research, I could find some sources that are essential to make an analysis to the story. I selected the sources carefully so that there will be no redundancy of the theory or unnecessary sources to make the analysis.
The main source is the novel, A Mercy by Toni Morrison. The other secondary sources are the theories that are needed from the books and other references, including the internet. Books that were used to analyze the story were the books that related to the theory of character, characteristics, also the social and historical events in 1600s in America. Since this is a new book, thus, the references from the journal or other printed research were not so many. Therefore, references from the internet would be more useful.
There were four steps that I did to make the analysis. The first step was to read and reread the story until I understood and got the interpretation of the story.
My focus is on the major character and the description of the situation, events that happened related to the major character. From the thorough observations to the main character and the description of the situations and events, I could find the idea of what the novel is about. After doing this step, then I could formulate the problem for the analysis.
The second step was searching and reading the books or papers or journals that related to the study from the library. Books like Aspects of the Novel, The
Essentials of American History, A History in Their Own Words: The Black
Americans, were used for this study. Other than library research, internet research 25
also useful to find some more information about the review of related studies that were not able to be found in the library.
The third step was trying to apply the theory on the analysis. I tried to give the answers toward the problem formulations. The first was to analyze the characteristics of the main character in the story. In this part, I applied the theory about understanding a character based on the character’s traits. I took from books about theories on character and characterization. Then the second was to find the description of the lives of the black woman slaves in America in 1600s. This part was to find facts from history about the social condition, history of slavery, and the meaning of freedom for the slaves based on their experience. The third was to analyze the relation between the abilities found in Florens’ characteristics and the historical facts about black woman slaves who search for freedom and find the meaning of freedom in their lives.
The fourth step was read and reread again the story, theories, the analysis, before finally came to draw the conclusion. It was necessary to recheck to make sure that everything logical and clear.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, I will provide the analysis of the three problem formulation previously discussed. The analysis will be divided into three subchapters; the first subchapter is the characteristic analysis of the major character, Florens. The second subchapter analyses the social condition and the status of the black woman slaves in the 1600s. The third subchapter shows the characteristics of Florens and the description of the black woman slaves’ lives in the 1600s reflected the ability of black woman slaves to gain freedom in the 1600s.
A. The Characteristics of Florens
Florens is a round character and the major character in the novel. I consider her as a round character because her characteristics are described through events and implications that occur in the story, unlike the flat character (Forster, 2005: 81). A round character is the one who is more likely to have development in the story, and
Florens experiences many developments in the story. She is around seventeen and is entrusted the task to search for a healer. She is sold by her mother, which turns out as her mother’s act of a mercy, when she was eight years old. For ten years she works in the farm with two other women servants, two white male helpers and a Negro blacksmith, and she learns many things in her life. Through her experiences, she becomes more mature and strong.
26 27
Florens has some characteristics; naïve, obedient and trustworthy, smart, independent and courageous. Those characteristics are found after I analyze how she reacts to an event, how she thinks about her surroundings, and how she will answer questions that are given to her and other behavior that is shown by Florens.
Florens is naïve, because she often says something truthfully and as what it is.
She thinks that everything is as black and white, with nothing in between. An example can be taken from a dialogue between Florens and a Widow who helps
Florens in her errand.
She turns her lips down saying it must be vital to risk a female’s life in these parts. My mistress is dying I say. My errand can save her. She frowns and looks toward the fireplace. Not from the first death, she says. Perhaps from the second. I don’t understand her meaning. I know there is only one death not two and many lives beyond it (Morrison, 2009: 107-108).
When the widow mentions a second death, Florens does not understand what the possible meaning is. She spontaneously thinks that it is impossible to have two deaths. It is true, that there is only one death, but she could not understand the possible metaphorical meaning beyond the second death.
Because she is naive, she can be easily deceived or fooled. There is a part when Florens has to move to the farm and she is accompanied by a Reverend Father.
On the ship, the Reverend Father leaves her for a moment and a woman approaches her. “A woman comes to me and says stand up. I do and she takes my cloak from my shoulders. Then my wooden shoes. She walks away (Morrison, 2009: 7)”. Aside from that there is a possibility that Florens is scared, she is too naïve and let other people 28
take what belongs to her. Other people can see that she is naïve and take advantages of her.
Florens never meets her father, never plays with boys at her age; therefore, she never meets a male person who can make her happy or make her feel protected.
Therefore, it is natural for her to be so enthusiastic when the blacksmith comes to work in the farm and she falls in love with him instantly. Again, she shows that she can be easily fooled. “Learning from Mistress that he is a free man doubled her anxiety. He had rights, then, and privileges, like Sir. He could marry, own things, travel, sell his own labor (Morrison, 2009: 45)”. The fact that the blacksmith is
Negro, which means the same race as hers and that he is a free man, is enough to make her look like a fool and fall in love with the man. The image of getting married, having her own life and perhaps a farm soon emerges in her mind. She cannot think about her status and the real life that can make everything difficult and not as simple as she thinks it is.
Florens other characteristics are obedient, smart, and trustworthy. She quickly learns from her surroundings and able to finish the tasks given to her. “Already
Florens could read, write. Already she did not have to be told repeatedly how to complete a chore. Not only she was constantly trustworthy, she was deeply grateful for every shred of affection, any pat on the head, any smile for approval (Morrison,
2009: 61)”. Other than Florens, there is Sorrow who is also a black servant works in the farm. But Sorrow breaks things, barely able to finish a chore, while Florens 29
manages to do the chores correctly. Moreover, she is only eight years old when she is taken to the farm.
Florens’ Mistress puts her confidence in Florens to search for the blacksmith because she is the one who has the chance to succeed. “Rebekka had confidence in
Florens because she was clever and because she had strong reason to succeed. And she felt a lot of affection for her, although it took some time to develop (Morrison,
2009: 96)”. Florens is desperate to find her love, the blacksmith. Therefore, Florens has shown to her Mistress that not only is she obedient, but also has personal motivation to finish the task.
Florens proves her obedience by trying to do exactly what Mistress and Lina tells her. Lina is also a slave who works in the farm, but she is much older than
Florens. She becomes like Florens’ sister and guidance in the farm. Florens remembers the way to get to the blacksmith and she also remembers everything that is instructed to her. Again, she shows her obedience.
Mistress makes me memorize the way to get to you. I am to board with the Ney brothers’ wagon in the morning as it travels north on the post road. After one stop at a tavern, the wagon will arrive at a place she calls Hartkill just after midday where I disembark. I am to walk left, westward on the Abenaki trail which I will know by the sapling bent into the earth with one sprout growing skyward (Morrison, 2009: 39-40).
…but Lina is warning me of many things, saying if you are not in your place I must not tarry. I must return at once. I cannot handle a horse so I must seek return on the next day’s horse cart, the one that hauls fresh milk and eggs to the market (Morrison, 2009: 38)
30
She obeys every instruction and memorizes them all in her head. She knows that it can be dangerous because she is travelling alone but she also knows that her mistress needs medicine as soon as possible.
Florens does not only show her obedience, but also her cleverness and courage. On her journey, she faces risks and danger that can harm her mission, but both her cleverness and her instinct to survive make her courageous in making her own decision. When the wagon that is taking her suddenly stops and all the passengers in that wagon must come out but not knowing what happens, she knows that she is in danger. She quickly makes her own decision and does not follow the group.
I don’t follow. Neither can I stay in the wagon. I have a cold stone in my chest. I don’t need Lina to tell me that I must not be alone with strange men with slow hands when in liquor and anger they discover their cargo is lost. I have to choose quick. I choose you. I go west into the trees. Everything I want is west. You. Your talk. The medicine you know that will make Mistress well. You will hear what I have to say and come back with me. I have only to go west. One day? Two nights? (Morrison, 2009: 41).
She is smart to make a quick decision and not to be trapped in a dangerous situation. Her action is also an act of bravery, because she knows when she makes that decision, she must continue her errand alone and without any advice to do so.
However, all she cares about is how to get to the blacksmith safely and complete her errand. Thus, in the woods when she has to travel alone, she manages to survive in the woods because of her cleverness and her willingness to finish her task.
Night is thick no stars anyplace but sudden the moon moves. The chafe of needles is too much hurt and there is no resting there at all. I get down and 31
look for a better place. By moonlight I am happy to find a hollow log, but its wavy with ants. I break off twigs and small branches from a young fir, pile them and crawl under. The needle prick is smaller and there is no danger of falling…I am watchful for snakes that ease down trees and over ground, although Lina says they do not prefer to bite us or swallow us whole. I lie still and try not to think of water (Morrison, 2009: 67).
She never has any experiences to live in the woods, but she is able to use her common knowledge and she applies anything the Mother Nature can provide to keep her safe. Therefore, when she finds that it gets so dark and it is time to seek sanctuary, she manages to take care of herself in the wilderness. The quotation above shows how Florens is clever enough to find something to protect herself in the night.
She is also able to manage her fear and stay calm whenever there seems to be a threat from wild animal.
I do not hear the paws or see any shape. It is the smell of wet fur that stops me. If I am smelling it, it is smelling me, because there is nothing with odor left in my food cloth, only bread. I cannot tell if it is bigger than me or smaller or if it is alone. I decide for stillness. I never hear it go but the odor fades at last. I think it is better to climb a tree (Morrison, 2009: 41-42).
When she smells fur, it means that there is animal nearby. Because she does not know how big it is, she decides to remain calm. She understands then, that it is important to stay away from animals reach and therefore, she decides to stay higher from the ground and climb a tree.
Florens is naïve, but she manages to use her knowledge to survive and acts bravely even if it means risking her life. She is clever to find a solution when she 32
faces problems. She does not panic easily and she can stay focus so she can still think clearly when there is danger.
As her journey continues, she seeks sanctuary at a widow’s house. The widow lives with her sick daughter. The morning after, come some white people to the house. They seem surprise to see Florens in the house and they all stare at her then converse as if Florens is not there and accuse her as the Black Man’s minion that causes the illness.
I am not understanding anything except that I am in danger as the dog’s head shows and Mistress is my only defense. I shout, wait. I shout, please sir. I think they have shock that I can talk. Let me show you my letter, I say quieter. It proves I am nobody’s minion but my Mistress (Morrison, 2009: 111).
Florens knew that she is a slave, but not a Black Man’s minion those people have been talking about. She knows she must convince them that she is no harm to any person. Therefore, she shows them the letter written by Mistress. Here again, she shows her cleverness to read the situation and thinks quickly of how to react to help herself so that she can be safe.
When she finally reaches the blacksmith’s house, she told him what happens and why she is sent there. After sharing stories, Florens finds that the blacksmith lives with a child whose father has died and no one has claimed the boy. He decides to care for the child until someone come to take him. The blacksmith tells her to stay there and to accompany the child while he is gone to the farm. When he is away, Florens is unable to manage a good relationship with the boy. Florens feels the boy is a threat 33
for her, and when she finds that her shoes are gone she forces the boy to tell her where they are.
When the blacksmith returns, and made known of the occurrence, he favors the boy and not her. This makes Florens angry. Having been rejected by her mother and the society, who look down on her, she cannot face rejection anymore. She gets emotional and rebellious for her rights to be accepted and wanted.
She is in love with the blacksmith, but when he hurts her, she stands up and defends herself. “I twist away and escape you. The tongs are there, close by. Close by. I am swinging and swinging hard. Seeing you stagger and bleed I run (Morrison,
2009: 157-158)”. She manages to protect herself and saved her life.
She is badly in love with the blacksmith, and it is one of her motivations to work hard and complete her tasks, so she can meet him. However, when she feels rejected by him, she cannot take it. Moreover, the blacksmith accuses her as a foolish girl with no mind at all. He does not see her as what she is, and Florens stands up for her rights and her pride. It is brave of her to do such a thing, because she puts aside her love and she will not let anyone underestimate her anymore. She chooses her dignity rather than being under the control of his power. As her experiences matures her, she becomes stronger.
34
B. The Description of the Life of Black Women Slaves in the 1600s in America in the novel
A Mercy tells a story about slavery during the colonization era in America. It gives description of how the social condition in the new land at that time. The beginning of the African women arrival in America is known from Florens’ mother narration about her experience in the boat when she is taken from Africa to America.
African women are not considered as human. In fact, in the beginning, all the
African slaves are not treated as human. The main reason for such discrimination is because they are “traded”, “bargained” and thus made them similar to goods or commodities rather than human or person. Later on, black women face more racial and gender discrimination from society.
The slaves are taken from their homes in Africa, and many of them have never been away from their country. Confusion and fright follows them as they are taken.
“There we see men we believe are ill or dead. We soon learn they are neither. Their skin was confusing (Morrison, 2009: 164)”. Florens’ mother tells her story about the difference of the skin color confuses her and some of her friends. They were taken to
America by boat, put inside a room that was too small for them to breathe in.
Their journey is full of misery; they were chained, not well-fed, and “packed” in a small room with no sanitation. So horrible is their journey that they would rather die than to stand up and face the pain.
I welcomed the circling sharks but they avoided me as if knowing I preferred their teeth to the chains around my neck my waist my ankles. When the canoe heeled, some of we jumped, others were pulled under and we did not see their 35
blood swirl until we alive ones were retrieved and placed under guard (Morrison, 2009: 164).
Florens’ mother describes that the journey was so horrible and that she would prefer to be eaten by sharks than to have herself inside the boat that took her to nowhere with chain that silent her freedom. Some of her friends even commit suicide, because they cannot stand to be treated in such a way.
Florens mother’s experience is described by John Hope Franklin and Alfred
A. Moss, Jr. in their book, From Slavery to Freedom, that the journey to America
“was a veritable nightmare (1988: 36)”. They explain that the slaves were chained by twos, hands and feet and had no room to move their body (1988: 36). Further, on their explanation, they also state that many of those slaves died because of illness or committed suicide by jumping overboard which made the original number of slaves taken from Africa would drastically decreased when they arrived in America (1988:
37).
It is the beginning that the African slaves lose their freedom, because they lose their humanness and are under the control of other people. They have to face and live a life that they do not choose. Soon, their label is not a person anymore, but
Negro slaves. Just as they arrived in America, they are checked, bargained, and sold to landowners or slaveholders. A new commercial business begin in the New World, where the flesh and bones of humans are their commodities.
I was burning sweat in cane only a short time when they took me away to sit on a platform in the sun. It was there I learned how I was not a person from my country, nor from my families. I was negrita. So it was as a black that I 36
was purchased by Senhor, taken out of the cane and shipped north to his tobacco plants (Morrison, 2009: 165).
Florens’ mother realizes that she will not be considered as who she is in her country, and she has a new status as a slave. Just as soon as she arrives in America, she is sold and taken to another place to work. She has no time to complain or to refuse; everything is already set out for her, she is not allowed to object.
The landowners need slaves to cultivate the land. They need cheap labor but they want to gain as many profits as they can. Therefore, they bought slaves; because slaves do not need wages and the black women have the ability to work on farm, since they have experience in their home land. As Florens’ mother bares a slave status, she has to face social justification toward her race and her role in the society.
She must obey and do what has been ordered to her. It is her obligation to complete all her work in time. She is not allowed to go to school or even given a chance to develop.
Once every seven days we learn to read and write. We are forbidden to leave the place so the four of us hide near the marsh. My mother, me, her little boy and Reverend Father. He is forbidden to do this but he teaches us anyway watching out for the wicked Virginians and Protestants who want to catch him (Morrison, 2009: 6).
It was one of Florens’ experiences how she sneaks out just to learn how to read and write in order to have better understanding and better knowledge. She was with her mother, her little brother and a Reverend Father who teaches them to read 37
and write. The Reverend Father was actually prohibited to do so, because it is illegal to teach slaves how to read and write.
White people are afraid if they allow the black slaves to study, there will be the possibilities of black people being smarter than them and thus the black slaves will not want to work for them anymore. This is a fact from historical context that I reviewed that the white people preferred to keep black people marginalized.
From the moment they are taken away from their home, their liberation is also taken away. Moreover, the social discrimination and social justification that they are not allowed to do things on their own make them more inferior and excluded from any chance to develop.
However, the situations in the farm where they work also determine their fate.
A slaveholder may be kind and use their slaves to only work in the farm, without exploiting them or abusing them. Some of the slaveholders even treat their slaves as family. Scully and Willard, the two male servants helping in the farm where Florens work, say that the master of the farm is very nice and the situation in the farm just like one family. “Especially the master who, unlike their more-or-less absent owner, never cursed or threatened them. He even gave them gifts of rum during
Christmastide and once he and Willard shared a tipple straight from the bottle
(Morrison, 2009:143)”.
Even though the good situation at work place can be “safe” for a while, the owner and the slaves are bound to the social system outside the farm which make them unable to change the whole system of slavery and the social status bore by the 38
slaves. That is why the fate of illegal slaves are unclear and can be very dangerous for slaves, because they can be subjects for any kind of exploitation; “Female and illegal, they would be interlopers, squatters, if they stayed on after Mistress died, subject to purchase, hire, assault, abduction, exile (Morrison, 2009: 58)”. It shows that slaves are very tight to the rules in society and it is not so easy to gain freedom, even though their master is dead.
Florens experiences discrimination toward her race when she is on her errand to search for the blacksmith. She is at a widow’s house where she stays for a night when the white people start to accuse her as the source of problems they have.
I step into the room. Standing there are a man, three women and a little girl who reminds me of myself when my mother sends me away. I am thinking how sweet she seems when she screams and hides behind the skirts of one of the women. Then each visitor turns to look at me. The women gasp. The man’s walking stick clatters to the floor causing the remaining hen to squawk and flatter. He retrieves his stick, points it at me saying who be this? One of the women covers her eyes saying God help us…One woman speaks saying I have never seen any human this black. I have says another, this one is as black as others I have seen. She is Afric. Afric and much more, say another…The Black Man is among us. This is his minion (Morrison, 2009: 111).
Those white people see Florens as something horrific or dreadful and they think that she is the one that carries diseases to the village. From the way the white man points Florens with his stick, and how the little girl gets scared of her because her skin is black, as if Florens is not human. Her being different and colored is something unnatural, and for the white people it is something related to demon. 39
Florens feels danger from such judgments coming from those white people.
She knows that she is in danger, and thus she shows the letter carried with her from her Mistress. That letter will tell who she is and on what purpose her errand is.
With the letter I belong and am lawful. Without it I am a weak calf abandon by the herd, a turtle without shell, a minion with no telltale signs but a darkness I am born with, outside, yes, but inside as well and the inside dark is small, feathered and toothy (Morrison, 2009: 115).
The letter will prove her that she is not illegal and that her journey is not running away, but a task that she needs to complete for her Mistress. Without the letter or any legal declaration, she will be easily harmed. Nevertheless, even when
Florens has shown the letter to the white people to show who she is, she still has to get undressed for the white people to check her body every inch. As if not satisfied to find her without flaws, they still stare at her and think that she is a little devil. “A woman’s voice asks would Satan write a letter. Lucifer is all deceit and trickery says another (Morrison, 2009: 113)”. They seem blind to who Florens really is; that she is also human and that letter has declared her what her purpose in her journey is.
Being a black woman is even more difficult, because other than their colored skin, the society adapt patriarchal system which makes black women under the control of men. “To be female in this place is to be an open wound that cannot heal.
Even if scars from, the festering is ever below (Morrison, 2009: 163)”. It is Florens mother’s confession when she is taken by some men and they sexually abused her until she gets pregnant. Women cannot vote, state their opinion or resist treatments toward them. They must be smart to be able to protect themselves. 40
African women are taken, forced to experience a horrible journey to a place where they are abused, judged and condemned. They do not have rights or chance to develop themselves, they are not considered as human and they are under the control of white race and the superiority of men.
C. Black Woman Slaves’ Ability to Gain Freedom in the 1600s
In the beginning, America was just a land with many resources with its native people, the Indians. People came from Europe to search for these resources and made settlements there. They came from various background and reasons to settle in The
New World; many of them who came from England, are religious people who have problems that drove them to the New World to create a small colony there, or the merchants who wanted to make a better fortune or planters who would like to create a small empire of their own. These people came with one same dream: to have a better life.
They brought their dreams as well as their disease to the New World, but they did not have the skill or the ability to cultivate the land and an epidemic started to spread out. At that time, the African slave trade was very popular and the Portuguese merchants sold and bought these African slaves.
From the beginning, the African women were taken from their homes in
Africa to work in the plantations in The New Land for landowners. Ever since they were taken away, they were measured, checked and purchased and treated as the 41
white men property. They are no longer African women, but black women who worked as slaves.
The black women slaves were abused and they were in the lowest status in the society back in the 1600s. To be able to stay alive was the key to show their ability to stand any kinds of bad treatments given by their masters and it would not destroy their race and their unity. Freedom for them was to be able to own themselves, since the treatments and stigma for their race made them always belong to someone else, and they were never able to do anything for their own. Their freedom was also when their humanness was not for sale, or not to be abused. White people often hurt the black women slaves as if they were not humans. Therefore, to keep struggling to survive was the black women slaves’ chance to gain freedom.
Florens is the main character in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. Although Florens is not taken away from her home in Africa, her mother is, making Florens a slave too.
This is because when Florens is born, her mother has already become a slave and a slave’s child will bear her mother’s status as a slave and becomes the property of her mother’s owner; moreover at that time, ‘…a child could be sold away at any time
(Hine and Thompson, 1998: 18)”. Florens is sold when she is still a child, and in fact, she is sold with her mother’s permission. She spends the next ten years working in other farm.
At that time, the common behavior to survive in the middle of a nightmare ass to follow the orders and to be obedient in the hope that their masters would not see them as dangerous beings therefore, they should be unharmed and cared for. 42
“Survival in slavery meant obedience to the slaveholder” as I quoted from Hine and
Thompson’s The History of Black Women in America (1998:72). It was to keep them away from the reasons for the white to beat them, for being obedient means that they should follow orders to the point that they would satisfy the needs of the slaveholder.
Any kinds of disobedience would cost them a whip or any kinds of abusive actions.
Obedience is one of the main characteristics that Florens has. Being obedient means that she will not show to other people that she is harmful. People will see her as a nice young woman, and that she can be trusted. This characteristic will help her when she has to show that she is harmless. For example, when she is in the widow’s house and a white man with three women and a child come and see her, they are instantly afraid and looked at her in fright, disgust and strange. Florens’ reaction is quiet, calm, and she just told the man to read the letter she carries with her.
Florens is very aware of the situation around her, and her awareness is an important skill. From the way those white people see her she realizes that she is in danger. She has the awareness to see the condition around her, and thus she knows what to do. Therefore, she just remains calm. She obeys the man’s order to put off all of her clothes and let herself to be examined. However humiliated she feels Florens knows that she is in danger, so she remains silent and does not want to rebel against them. She realizes that if she rebels or even shows a little act of rejection, the white people will become suspicious. She wants them to believe her and not to suspect her on a crime or any potential threat which she has never done. She realizes that her 43
Mistress needs her to be quick on her errand, and thus she cannot let the white people steal her time by doing more investigations on her.
Her ability to read the situations, to make decision not to rebel is her way to survive from the white people’s judgments that she is an evil person. Thus, her ability to avoid any chance for the white people discredited her, is her ability to gain the freedom. She manages to own herself and not let the white people have any chance to hurt her.
Moreover, her obedience has won her Mistress’ heart and trust, for she is the one that her Mistress trusted to find the healer. She has proven to the white people at the widow’s house that she is trustworthy. A person who is trustworthy, means that she can be of no harm at all, and she is not the evil that spread the disease they hve accused her to be. The letter from Florens’ Mistress also makes the white people think twice or at least make them questioned their own judgments toward her.
As I have already mentioned before, Florens is smart. She does not go to school, but she can use her brain and she can think logically and creatively to solve her problems. Moreover, she is brave and dare to take the risks of her decisions.
When she is in the cart and that cart suddenly stops, and all the women must get down while all the other men are drunk, she decides to run away. She is aware that she has the potential for being hurt by other superior people, in this case the men.
Therefore, she does not want to stay. Drunken men with black slave women can be a dangerous situation. As a slave, women have the obligation to follow orders, and that 44
kind of condition could be taken for granted by those drunken men to exploit those women.
Florens realizes that she cannot slow down and definitely she does not want to be a victim of those drunken men. She decides to escape and run into the woods. This shows that she has the ability to think fast to find a solution for her problems. She also shows that without other people as company, she can still solve her problems.
Even when she is in the woods and she has to continue her journey through the wilderness, she manages to survive. There is a time, when she smells fur she knows that there is an animal near her. She does not bother to check what kind of animal it is, instead she remains silent to prevent any attack from the animal. After the animal has gone, she decides to stay higher from the ground, so that she would not be a prey for wild animals.
This shows that she is able to survive in the wilderness, without ever being taught how. Her cleverness saves her life and she can use her instinct and manages to control her fear to be able to stay alive so that she can continue her errand. To be smart and brave are important assets for her to resist the discriminations toward her race because even though slaves do not go to school, they can prove to the white men that they were not stupid nor afraid.
Black women slaves have been treated badly and unjustly. They have to fight back against the oppression towards their being. White people can easily throw judgments, or accuse the black women as anything they wanted. Therefore, to be able to survive from that discriminations and to be able to stand on their own feet shows 45
that they will not let the white men take over their life. To survive shows that they resisted all kinds of discriminations.
With her abilities and characteristics, Florens is also able to show that she survives. She resists all kinds of racial-based judgments and bad treatments from society, and she also manages to survive by not letting the white men kill her humanness. And as freedom is defined to be on one’s own and their humanness is not for sale, Florens shows that she is able to stand on her own feet. She proves that she resists all kinds of treatments that will make her become someone else’s property.
Thus, she is able to gain her freedom.
One other example that she resists to be under the power of white race is that she learns how to read and write. She is forbidden to learn, since the white people are afraid that if the black slaves could widen their knowledge, thus they would not want to work anymore, because then they knew that they can be better person than being a slave. Moreover, they can achieve their dreams which means that they could not be oppressed and forced to work on the plantations. However, Florens manages to learn to read and write even if it is done secretly and this once again shows that she is smart.
She knows that being able to read and write will give her a chance to develop herself. As I have reviewed the theory, the white people tend to keep the black people illiterate so that they will not know that they have a better chance than slaves.
Therefore, Florens realizes that if she wants to survive from illiteracy, she has to disobey the rule. And if she survives from illiteracy, she will be able to gain her 46
freedom. She is smart to play the act of when to be obedient and when she to rebel.
This is her ability to be aware of the situations, and she takes the chance to be more developed.
From this example, it is clear that she resists being uneducated or not able to read and write the way white people do. She does not want the white people make her look like a fool, therefore, she learns. If she becomes more educated, she will be able to show other people that she has potentials and people cannot do whatever they like to her. She is able to survive from the superiority of white race and again, she manages to take opportunities when she has the chance.
By finally being able to be more educated, Florens is not only able to see and aware of the situations around her, but also critical to the situations around her. She manages to use her brain and her inner abilities to create a solution, and added by her ability to read and write, she will have more chances to gain her freedom. She is critical and she will not just sit around waiting for other people told her what to do, for she can make her own decision and she cannot be fooled by others. With this value and ability will lead her to gain her freedom.
Florens is also able to survive from the superiority of men. This is shown in the event in the blacksmith’s house. She finally makes it to the blacksmith’s house and the blacksmith goes to the farm after she tells him the purpose of her journey.
During his absence in the house, Florens stays with a little boy but she does not have a good relationship with him. She accidentally hurts the boy and when the blacksmith 47
comes and finds out that act, he is badly mad at her. He starts to accuse her as a person with no brain and he also hurts her physically.
Even though Florens is in love with him and all women are under the power of men, she has to show him that she will not bow to the system. When the system is capable to hurt her and destroys her humanity, she needs to fight. He accused Florens being a person with no brain at all and not able to stand on her own feet. Florens does not want to let the blacksmith feel right about his judgments, and that is why she fights back. This is Florens ability to defend herself. This ability is also important, because she needed to conquer her fear to stand up against the unfair system.
She writes “I am become wilderness but I am also Florens. In full.
Unforgiven. Unforgiving. No ruth, love. None. Hear me? Slave. Free. I last
(Morrison, 2009: 161)”. She has become full, and she realizes that even though she is a slave, she is free because she does not let the social judgments and discriminations toward her race let her down and she does not give any chance for all of her problems to slip inside her heart to discourage her. She manages to stay alive and finishes her task well done.
She shows her ability to control her emotions, problems, and stay focused on her purpose. She will not be able to do that if she is not smart, brave, and able to read the situations, think fast, and solve her problems. Her ability to read and write proves that she is smart. She states in her writing “Mae, you can have pleasure now because the soles of my feet are hard as cypress (Morrison, 2009: 161)”. She tells her mother that she has become stronger through her experiences. She proves to her mother and 48
the blacksmith that she does not become weak, that the white people have failed to destroy her humanity, and that she is able to live.
Florens’ ability to read the situations, to be aware of her condition, to think fast and to take brave decisions are abilities needed to gain freedom. Those abilities reflects the abilities of the black women slaves to gain their freedom in the 1600s.
Black women slaves were marginalized because of their status, skin color, and their being women. As slaves, they were the property of their masters and they had to work all day. As black, they were hated, discriminated, because of the white race’s fear for the black’s influences. As women, they were under the superiority of men. Moreover, the “additional” treatment, such as being beaten, raped or even murdered.
Their conditions and position in the society made them trapped in a difficult situation. Since they were uneducated, because they were not allowed to go to school, they were left only with their own abilities to be able to survive. There were no laws to defend them, or some influential people in the government to help them. Therefore, they became stronger and smarter because they learned from their life experiences.
This also explained why they had to use their own abilities to stand up against racism and discrimination.
Black women slaves could fight with their abilities because there was no other choice for them. They could not stop the possibilities of getting hurt or abused, but they could prevent it from getting worse. They could survive by being able to make smart choices and brave enough to take the risks. They could prevent worse things happening to them by being able to read the situation and made the right decisions. 49
Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson said that “Survival itself was a form of resistance (1998: 90)”. Women in the 1600s showed their resistance through their actions toward unjust treatments. Some women would resist directly by running away, but many of them would use a form of negotiation from their behavior. A black woman slave in the 1600s would request to be transferred to another farm, and when her desire was declined, she could ‘negotiate’ by tricks, for example by disobeying the rules. When she disobeyed the rules, she would be considered as a troublemaker.
There were many other examples how black women slaves were able to get their desire by tricks. It was not really a trick, but it was the way for black women slaves to survive. It was also the ability to see the situations and conditions and act smartly, without a need to create a riot or disturbance just to be heard. Florens also shows her tricks or abilities to save her life. She is able to combine her characteristics, and her abilities to solve her problems and to survive from discriminations from the white people.
She knows how to read the situations of when she has to obey the orders or when she must not, such as when she has to take off her clothes and be examined, she obeys even though she is humiliated. She realizes that she needs help, because she is on an important errand, therefore, she does not want the white people to suspect her and slow her errand. On the other hand, she knows that she has to disobey the prohibition to learn to read and write, and instead she learned them in secret. She does all that to survive from the discrimination. She wants to be free and to be able to create her own self in full. 50
She also knows when to run away and to be a rebel. She manages to defend herself when she is involved in a fight with the blacksmith. She knows that she cannot let others see that she is weak, and therefore, she is never discouraged by the social’s stigma. This is also an ability to control fear and to be brave.
Florens’ experiences of how she is discriminated, how she has to make decisions and to be able to defend herself when she has to face physical abuse, are the reflections of black women slave’s ability to gain their freedom in the 1600s. They could not fight with politics, they could not ask for a fair trial, because the law itself did not stand on their side.
Florens shows that the ability needed is the ability to be aware and to see the conditions around her. That ability will help her to decide when she has to react and how, and she also needs the ability to think fast and manages the emotions. As
Florens is the reflection of black woman slave in the 1600s, so her ability is the reflection of black women slave’s ability to gain freedom in the 1600s. CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
To gain freedom one needs effort and strong will to pursue it. For black women slaves, they could not wait for some fateful day to be free; they had to fight for it. However, the condition in the 1600s was not that easy and everything was hard on them. They had to stay alive as a way to show their resistance toward the discrimination and unfair treatments.
The African women were taken from their homes and forced to work in
The New World. Suddenly they lost their identity and given a new one, as black slaves. They were cut down from every access to get a chance to develop, because the white people were afraid of the black people capability and the possibility that the black people would understand that they had other options than becoming slaves. From what I have interpreted from the story, there is an emphasis that black people are forced to be illiterate, not because they are not smart, but because they do not have a chance to learn.
Florens is a black slave girl who has become a slave since she was little.
Her characteristics such as naïve, obedient, smart, brave and trustworthy, gain her
Mistress’ trust. Therefore, her Mistress sends her to search for the blacksmith.
Florens is also a quick learner, and she can adjust her needs in a difficult situations.
During the 1600s, social conditions for black women slaves were difficult.
They were marginalized, because of the system and because the white people’s
51 52
desire to keep them illiterate which made them uneducated. Society also had the stigma that black women were disgusting. They thought that black people carried diseases and could cause trouble, if they were not controlled. They were also under the power of men, because of the patriarchal system at that time which made the men had the power over women.
Through her journey to the blacksmith who can heal her Mistress, Florens sees how people look and judge her skin color. She learns from her experiences and she uses her abilities inside her to survive from the threats she finds in her journey. She realizes that she needs to be able to see the situation, to be educated and so she can fight the system when necessary.
In order to save their dignity and to protect themselves, black women slaves had to stand on their own. They used their abilities and skills to fight against the superiors. Black women slaves realized that they could not give up easily and that they had to find a way to their liberation. They were made uneducated by the system, they were to fight against it with all the abilities they had. They became stronger and they proved that they can get their chance to develop, to learn, and thus they showed great willingness to win.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1981.
Current N, Richard, T. Harry Williams, and Frank Freidel. American History: A Survey. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
Current N, Richard. The Essentials of American History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.
Forster, E.M. Aspects of the Novel. London: Penguin Books, 2005.
Franklin, John Hope and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From Slavery to Freedom. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1988.
Garret, Daniel. “Early American Life, and Slavery: Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and Edward P. Jones’s The Known World”. < http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=articl e&sid=2300> (8 October 2009).
Guragain, Khem. “African American Literary Tradition and Toni Morrison's Aesthetic Perspectives”. < http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=43 24> (8 October 2009).
Hine, Darlene Clark and Kathleen Thompson. A Shining Thread of Hope. New York: Broadway Books, 1999.
Klotz, Marvin and Richard Abcarian. eds. Literature: The Human Experience. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978.
Jacobs, Henry E. and Edgar V. Roberts. Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989.
Meltzer, Milton. ed. A History in Their Own Words: The Black Americans. New York: Harper&Row, 1987.
“Mercy Mission.” The Economist. November 8th-14th 2008, pp.95.
Miller, Michael. “Morrison, Mellowed”.
53 54
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. New York: Vintage International, 2009.
Murphy, M. J. Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry & The English Novel for Overseas Students. Oxford: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1972.
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith, Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London: Routledge. 1983.
Rohrberger, Mary and Samuel H. Woods. Reading and Writing About Literature. New York: Random House, 1971.
Warren, Austin. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcount, Brace & World, Inc., 1956.
Woodward, C.Vann. ed. A Comparative Approach to American History. Washington: Voice of America Forum Lectures. 1968.