This entire text will be a spoiler. Please do not read on if you haven’t read the book and would like to at some point.
What an amazing book. I was drawn in immediately and just enjoyed every minute. Every chapter.
We pretty much all learn about slavery here in the states but having a first hand account of its brutality is just something else. It brings a different view to the whole institution and the savage nature of it.
I want to discuss the saddest part of the whole book for me. I will preface by saying every slave character is so unique, I can imagine them distinctly. Uncle Abram with his wisdom and illustrating the concept of how these brutes treated people of an older generation. Eliza with demonstrating the lack of regard for basic human decency, emotion, and the biologic attachment of humans to their offspring. I could go on.
The character that affected me the most is Patsey. Female Epps is portrayed as the least of the three evil Epps but in my opinion her treatment of Patsey makes her just as filthy. The way Solomon described Patsey her as losing her “spark” after the savage treatment she received spurred from her natural beauty and the lack of sexual restraint of male Epps. As soon as her character is introduced it just feels like morale hit after morale hit after morale hit for her.
The worst part is how the the reader leaves Patsey. Her head hung low. She is thankful of Solomon and remorseful of the circumstances with which she will have to continue to live. With Solomon’s departure, we don’t know what comes of her. She likely stayed in the same vicious cycle of days, nights, and Christmas for an unknown amount of time. It could be so that she stayed under Epps for another 10 years, meaning Solomon would only have known half of her experience in Epps’ bondage. We can only hope that things changed for her (perhaps she was sold to a more kind slave holder, which we know did exist based off the narrative) but that is nothing more than wishful, baseless ideas.
It really makes me sad.
by CrownedDesertMedic