The Quest for Freedom in Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Introduction

Thomas Lewis in his article “Transatlantic Slave Trade” claims that, “Transatlantic slave trade, segment of the global slave trade that transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16 the to the 19th century” (Lewis 1). African slaves were brought from Africa through the Middle Passage, which was the central part of the triangle trade “whereby goods were bought from Europe to exchange for people at “factories” on the African coast” (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin 195).

The slaves’ treatment during the voyage was often horrific, humiliating, and shocking Kari J. Winter in his book, The Blind African Slave or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace, underscores the atrocities of the Middle Passage through the testimony of his narrator Brace: “He witnessed men who showed no vestige of kindness, compassion, or honor – men who tortured, starved, raped, and murdered children as well as adults” (Winter 11). The conditions on board were unbearable. Consequently, the slaves revolted. One of the famous revolts which took place in the Middle Passage was the revolt of the slaves on the Spanish slave trade ship LA Amistad. Iyunolu Folayan Osagie in his book, The Amistad Revolt, claims that “The Amistad incident may be considered a prototype for the black struggle” (Osagie 76). The Amistad symbolized slave resistance. It inspired and encouraged many slaves to fight for their freedom.  

        The slaves’ oppression continued on the plantations. The slaves were treated brutally. Frederick Douglass in My Bondage and My Freedom emphasizes the violence inflicted on the slaves: “Poor Esther had never yet been severely whipped… Each blow, vigorously laid on, brought screams as well as blood” (Douglass 85). The oppression the slaves underwent was intolerable. Therefore, the slaves revolted. The revolt that attracted the most attention was unquestionably Nat Turner’s revolt in 1831. Durthy A. William in his book, Cliff Notes: Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, claims that “By far the most notorious and successful slave rebellion was led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831” (Washington 76). Although the institution of slavery was abolished more than 150 years ago, we are witnesses of modern slavery.

As a matter of fact, millions of people around the world are enslaved. Millions of children around the world are trapped in child labor. Furthermore, human trafficking is a modern – day form of slavery. There are two major types of human trafficking: the first one is sex trafficking and the second one is labor trafficking. The recent scandalous slave auction in Libya confirms the thesis that slavery has not yet disappeared.

The issue of slavery was strongly depicted in the works of the earliest black writers. At that time, the genre which was highly valued in early African American writings was slave narratives.“The slave narrative is a form of autobiography with a unique structure and distinctive themes that traces the narrator’s path from slavery to freedom” (William 72). Slave narrative has deeply influenced numerous contemporary black authors who have adapted the slave narratives format referred to as neo-slave narratives. According to Raquel Kennon:[pic 1]

After having defined slave narrative and neo-slave narratives, we will now throw light upon the works of two outstanding writers namely Charles Johnson and Harriet Jacobs. In fact, Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage^[1]was published in 1990. It thrusts into the heart of the African-American history by illustrating the transatlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century. The story of the Republic in MP is told through the consciousness of Rutherford Calhoun, the newly manumitted bondsman in the form of a ship’s logbook. Taking place in 1830, MP is a work of nine chapters, or rather nine logbook entries, the first of which is dated June 14, 1830 and the last August 20, 1830. The narrator attempts to flee debt and marriage by stowing away on a slave ship, the Republic. During his long voyage, he reveals us the ship’s captain who is a moral monster, a mysterious African tribe (the Allmuseri), and the slave revolt. Furthermore, he emphasizes the loss of life, property and goods, and the significant, unexpected, personal metamorphosis born of these events.

The second book which will hold our attention is Harriet Jacobs’s work. Born into slavery in North Carolina in the early 19th century; Harriet Jacobs experienced all the evils of American slavery. Her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl3, was published in Boston in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent. Jacobs’s history is unique among slave narratives for its focus on the experiences of women, its treatment of sexual exploitation, its emphasis on family life and maternal values, and its self-conscious appeal to an audience of white female readers. The book recounts the pressures and abuses Linda endures because she refuses to submit to Dr Flint’s sexual advances. In the face of the permanent oppression she undergoes, she flies to North by boat. After her escape, Harriet leads a tense and uncertain life as a fugitive slave. Jacobs was finally freed from slavery in 1853. Her New York employer’s wife, Cornelia Willis, bought her from the Norcom family for three hundred dollars and then emancipated her.

MP and ILSG are centered on the quest for freedom, which we are going to explore in our essay. Freedom has always been a central theme in western thought. However, there exists a specifically American obsession with freedom deriving from the actual presence of chattel slavery in the U.S.A what is freedom? King refers to Harry Frankfurt, who defines freedom as “the ability to do what one wants to do and free will (or autonomy in our terms) to want what he wants to want” (King 22). Richard King adds that “A person can be a slave, yet possess what some would call a kind of autonomy or “mental” freedom, while a legally free person can be a slave to drugs or alcohol” (12).

How are the slaves victimized? How do they achieve freedom? How does the freedom they achieve is nominal? My purpose is to show through Charles Johnson’s M.P and Harriet Jacobs’s ILSG how the freedom the blacks achieve is nominal.

        Some of the questions asked above have already been dealt with in some articles and books. However some aspects of these questions have been overlooked. Thus, Byrd devotes the chapter 3, “Middle Passage: What Is the Nature of Freedom” of his book, Charles Johnson’s Novels: writing the American Palimpset, to the issue of freedom. In it, Byrd focuses on the various modes of slavery. He notices that after Rutherford’s manumission, he is entangled in a new form of slavery which is “metaphysical”. Besides, he emphasizes the Allmuseri’s physical characteristics, their history and the features of their culture. In addition, he lays stress on Johnson’s theme of death and bondage. Furthermore, he indicates that Calhoun goes through psychological and spiritual metamorphosis. This metamorphosis takes place in four stages His transformation is perceived through his new vision of the world and altered conception of freedom.

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