49 pages • 1 hour read
Sadeqa JohnsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Ain’t many choices for a slave woman. Just know everything I do is for you. I’m a die a slave. I knows that. But you, baby, you are meant to see freedom.”
Ruth’s statement at the beginning of the book forms the foundation for Pheby’s philosophy throughout her life as an enslaved woman. When Pheby has children of her own, she learns firsthand what her mother meant. Like her mother, Pheby sacrifices her own happiness and body to secure the safety of her children.
“You the gran-daudder of Vinnie Brown, who was the gran-daudder of a Mandara queen. You a slave in name, but never in your mind, chile.”
Ruth reminds her daughter that she is more than a pawn in the institution of slavery. She has a heritage of dignity and love. Pheby attempts to instill this same message in her son, Monroe. She tells him that, while he is enslaved and may be sold, his mind is his own. Monroe struggles to hold onto this message but begins to buckle under the weight of The Pervasive Trauma of Enslavement. Pheby reminds him as often as she can that he is loved and has value.
“Two beautiful souls lost on the same day. I carried the boy up to the storehouse, removed a shove, and then went back to the spot where I had burned Essex’s clothes and started digging a grave for his son.”
Slavery dehumanizes people by disconnecting them from their own emotions. Pheby is unable to confront her own trauma or feelings because she must continue to move forward to protect the ones she loves. All at once, Pheby must bury her mother and the son of her lover. She must say goodbye to Essex and hope that he survives.
“I curse you and all of your unborn children in the name of my grandmother, Queen Vinnie Brown. May all your worst fears come to pass, and all the evil you do come back on you tenfold. This plantation will be your living hell. Mark my words.”
Here, Pheby reveals her resilience and rebellious spirit. When Delphina sends her away to Lapier’s jail, Pheby curses her. Pheby’s words ring true. Delphina lives unhappily on the plantation until her husband’s death. Pheby later learns that Delphina is mentally ill and no longer able to care for herself. The Pervasive Trauma of Enslavement extends beyond the enslaved people on the plantation: Delphina also experiences the trauma of her own choices and abuse.
“Despite Miss Sally’s piano lessons and pampering, and Mama’s protection from the hardships of Lowtown, I stood ill prepared to be tied up and driven like an animal. Here I was just like everyone else. Handled like goods to be sold.”
Throughout the novel, Sadeqa Johnson explores The Dehumanization of Slavery. Pheby endures all types of abuse. As Pheby marches to Lapier’s jail, the novel describes how slavery dehumanizes and degrades human life. Pheby is chained, assaulted, and beaten. In her mind, she tries to maintain the lessons her mother taught her, but she feels they provide her no assistance. By holding onto her sense of self-worth, she gains the attention of Rubin Lapier. Although this creates a challenging road ahead, it also presents Pheby with a few opportunities for herself and her son.
“If anything, it felt like the beginning, and I did not know if I should be relieved by the gentleman’s kindness or frightened to death.”
Through Pheby and Rubin’s relationship, Johnson explores The Complex Relationship Between Submission and Defiance. Although Pheby recognizes that Rubin’s interest in her could be to her advantage, she also knows that the white male gaze presents its own set of dangers.
“I put the plate down on the table next to me and faked a smile I knew would not reach my eyes.”
Pheby must pretend to like, and even love, her enslaver—an example of The Complex Relationship Between Submission and Defiance. When he bestows gifts and compliments, Pheby tries to appear grateful and doting. However, she does not truly feel this way. Her mother told her that her mind could never be enslaved, and Pheby works hard to protect her mind from Rubin’s manipulation.
“I hurried to my bedroom and closed the door behind me. When I opened my hand, my palm bled from where the thorn had pierced my flesh. I dipped a cloth into my water pitcher and scrubbed at each of the spots on my body that he’d touched, until my skin felt raw and bruised.”
In this passage, the thorny rose symbolizes Pheby’s encounter with Rubin. Although the rose is beautiful, it has thorns and hurts her—representing the rape of an enslaved person by an enslaver. Pheby tries to wash away the sensation of Rubin’s touch while trying to escape the feeling that she has betrayed Essex and herself.
“Don’t like to keep kin together round here. ‘Specially mamas and sons.”
Throughout the work, Johnson shows the repeated ways that white enslavers utilized their power to oppress Black individuals. By denying them access to education, enslavers forced workers to rely upon them for everything. Separating married couples and parents from children helped to solidify the vile idea that enslaved people are less than human. Stripping away an individual’s comfort, safety, and loved ones was a way for enslavers to guarantee that the individual’s spirit was too broken to rebel.
“I had made a vow to belong to Essex until the end of time, but I had given myself to another. I was not sure which crushed me more—the weight of the Jailer’s meaty arm across my belly, or my betrayal.”
Through Pheby’s self-condemnation, Johnson explores The Dehumanization of Slavery and The Complex Relationship Between Submission and Defiance. Pheby is left with few choices. Sleeping with Rubin is a way for her to ensure her own safety, as well as the safety of her child. Not sleeping with Rubin guarantees that she will be sold to someone else, perhaps someone far more dangerous and crueler, and be separated from her child. She is aware that this is the tightrope she must walk, but her awareness does not stop her sense of guilt.
“Whenever I started feeling as if I could endure this place, there was always a reminder that I could not.”
At times, Pheby is lulled into a sense that she has autonomy and freedom while living at Lapier’s jail. She enjoys privileges that many of the other enslaved workers around her do not. She is allowed to stay with her son, and her daughters are raised as educated white children. However, Rubin repeatedly reminds her that her grasp on safety is weak, and that he can take it away at any moment.
“Sometimes I feel their blood on my hands.”
Pheby is forced to help Rubin prepare women for sale into sex work. She feels complicit in their abuse as she fixes their hair and dresses them in pretty clothes. Although she must submit to Rubin’s demands, Pheby finds small ways to defy him, such as by recording the names and stories of the women she helps in her journal.
“I knew the beating was more an example of his power than anything. He liked to keep his foot on our necks, squeezing until it felt like we could not breathe without his permission.”
The Dehumanization of Slavery affects everyone involved. Pheby and the other enslaved people who are imprisoned at Lapier’s jail are repeatedly degraded, but Rubin also experiences the separation from his own humanity. In order to maintain the institutional system of slavery, he must continuously exert power and dominance over others, even when he may not want to or when it is not completely necessary. Pheby recognizes that when Rubin beats Tommy for accidentally setting fire to the haybale, he is doing so to set an example rather than punish.
“The diary bulged in my hand, nearly full from all the girls’ stories I had collected over the years. In the front were Mama’s recipes.”
Pheby’s diary is not a small act of defiance, as it has the potential to for major ramifications. Enslaved people were not allowed to read or write, and Rubin makes it clear to that he does not support Pheby’s education. When he finds out that she has been reading privately in her room, Rubin beats a pregnant woman until she loses her baby in front of Pheby. Yet, Pheby continues to record the stories of the women she meets.
“My boy stared up at me with a piece of straw hanging from his mouth. Essex used to chew on straw. I made sure the Jailer was not around, then followed him inside to our secret hiding place behind the haystack.”
In this passage, Pheby meets with her son, Monroe, in the same way that she used to meet with his father—behind the haybales. These secret spots serve as spaces for the provision of care, love, and advice, just as Pheby’s journal is a space for Pheby to exert autonomy. Although Monroe is separated from his father, he exhibits many of his father’s qualities: He is a skilled equestrian and loves Pheby.
“They are nothing more than something to sell. Like furniture.”
While discussing their children being present at Essex’s lashing, Rubin tells Pheby that she has nothing to worry about. He believes that their children should have no problem watching the beating of Essex, because he does not consider Essex to have any innate value as a human. The irony of Rubin’s statement is found in the fact that his children, too, are enslaved. His statement about Essex could just as easily be about his own children.
“It did not matter that I lived in the big house, had his children, helped run his business: I was the same as those chained up in the courtyard awaiting sale.”
Rubin forces Pheby to call him “master” after she provides medical aid to some of Rubin’s prisoners. Although Rubin treats Pheby as a wife in many ways, he continuously reminds her that he believes she is beneath him and that he could crush her. The institution of slavery dehumanizes Pheby, and Rubin—who professes to love her—contributes to this dehumanization.
“The Bible says that all slaves shall obey their masters.”
Rubin delivers this line while giving a speech to the crowd that has gathered to observe the lashing of Essex. This shows how religion was used to justify the deplorable practice of slavery in the United States. Rubin suggests that Essex’s escape to the North is a denial of the natural hierarchy set forth by God. His speech, rooted in eugenics and white supremacy, perpetuates the belief that the biblical God endorses slavery.
“I hated the way he made my name sound like a question, when it was most certainly a command.”
Through Pheby’s relationship with Essex, Johnson explores The Complex Relationship Between Submission and Defiance. Rubin calls for Pheby by positioning her name as a question, but she knows that refusal is not an option. Rubin gives the appearance of a loving relationship when the reality is far more sinister.
“‘I have not depended on being happy since I left the plantation.’ My voice boomed. ‘This here is surviving.’”
Pheby illustrates The Pervasive Trauma of Enslavement. She carries her trauma with her, and it separates her from her ability to feel joy. Every decision she makes is based upon survival for herself and her children.
“My spirit had been asleep, and now I was awake and thirsting with purpose.”
Pheby is motivated by Essex’s presence at Lapier’s jail and the possibility of escape. For the first time since she was at the plantation, she feels hope for her future and the future of her son. Slavery had dehumanized her and stripped her from one of the most important human emotions—hope. Essex’s arrival reminds her that hope is still possible.
“You warned he was the devil. I should have listened better.”
Rubin professes to love Pheby. At times, she almost believes it. He showers her with gifts, grieves with her when they lose their son, and dotes on his daughters. However, cracks in his façade remind Pheby that Rubin does not know how to love fully and that he views her as his property.
“‘Living out her life on her parents’ farm. Says she a little touched in the head too.’ ‘She repeated what she sowed.’”
Delphina reveals the way The Dehumanization of Slavery also affects white enslavers. Delphina’s participation in the racist institution of slavery separates her from her own humanity. In the end, she loses her sense of self completely.
“Grief rose like a wall around me. Everything that had happened was my fault.”
Pheby buys into the lie of racial trauma—that her victimization by the American system of slavery and that the loss of her loved ones is somehow her fault. Each day, Pheby must carefully plan for those she loves, calculate and measure the emotional landscape of others, and deny her own feelings to secure her children. This impossible task is made all the more challenging by her status as an enslaved woman. Here, Johnson uses a simile, where something is compared to something else using “like” or “as.” In this case, grief is likened to a wall that encloses Pheby.
“I am a slave. No more pretendin’.”
Despite her insistence that his mind can never be enslaved, Monroe inhabits the belief that his identity as an enslaved person is all he is. Pheby is heartbroken to hear her son say this and grows more resolved to help him escape Lapier’s jail.
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