Independent Study Unit Response Journal: The House Girl by Tara Conklin

Independent Study Unit Response Journal: The House Girl by Tara Conklin

        The House Girl by Tara Conklin weaves together the tales of New York City lawyer Lina Sparrow and Josephine Bell, a slave and house girl living on a plantation in the 1850s. In doing this, it also provides commentary on the social conditions of the era Josephine lived in and what life was like for black slaves in that time, and contrasts it with life and current social conditions of black people today.

        Josephine’s chapters provide poignant details of life as a black slave in the 1850s. The living conditions were appalling: it is stated that “There were many children born to black slave women, fathered by their white master. By law, the status of such children followed that of their mothers: they too became slaves.” (126). When Josephine was 13, she is raped by her master, Mister, and she gives birth when she was 14.  Her child is taken from her and sold to another plantation. This is an example of injustice because it shows how little value was attributed to the lives of black people in the 1850s, as Josephine is first violated, and later is not even allowed to choose the fate of her own child. It is evident that she is treated better than the other slaves at her plantation, which allows the reader to infer that her treatment was actually better than the norm and most other slaves had even less freedom than she did.

Another example that provides commentary on the lives of slaves is the treatment of runaways.  Nathan, who is another slave at Bell Creek, had attempted to run away in the past and as a result had his heels cut. He is therefore unable to walk properly and completing tasks that are considered mundane by the others becomes extremely painful for him.  When I read this, I was shocked. I decided to research it and see if this was a common practice, and upon reading the South Carolina Slave Laws, I found that if it was the persons fifth attempt at running away, he or she could be punished by the death sentence or cutting the Achilles tendon in one leg. However, owners hesitated to scar their slaves as they lost value and would therefore be sold for a lowered price. The fact that people could mutilate a person to the point where he can barely walk and must hobble simply for seeking freedom further demonstrates the lack of concern for the lives of black people as they could be killed or disfigured and the only problem that slave owners took with this was the fact that they would lose profit if they chose to resell the slave.

A third example of social commentary on the injustices of the lives of black slaves was the young slave who Josephine passes as she is on her way to the house of the undertaker. He has his neck in a wooden yoke and is blistered, flayed, and bloody.  When Josephine asks him what he did to be punished so severely, he replies “Nothing. Not a thing. I ain’t done a thing since I was born.” (144). This is a really heartbreaking quote because all he’s really done has been being born: he was born black, and this is what caused him to be seen as inferior by the white slave owners who would abuse him. It doesn’t matter what offense he had done that landed him in that punishment – the only reason he is tortured like that is because he is black and considered lesser.

An additional example of the unjust treatment of black slaves that the book provides social commentary on is the institutionalized self hate that black people were taught. From birth, black children were treated as lesser than white children. They were forced to serve white people and were treated like animals – worked to the bone, and disciplined harshly when they did something their owner disapproved of. This gave many black children the notion that they were in fact lower than white people, and they grew up accepting the maltreatment. This is shown when Josephine is thinking about how Missus views her. Lottie tells her that she is almost a daughter to Missus, but Josephine dismisses this and refers to herself as “A horse, the chicken or cow, something to be fed and housed, to do what it was born and raised to do.” (183).  This is another moving quote that demonstrates the self hate black people were raised having simply because they were not white. Josephine thinks of herself as less than a human and comparable to a barn animal whose sole purpose is to provide for its owner.

In addition, the book also speaks about the societal conditions of white people in the 1850s and gives examples for both sides. It is stated in a letter from Dorothea that a pastor, who had spoken “of equality of life as pertaining to slaves” (211), was viewed as blasphemous by other people in the church. He goes missing and they find his mutilated corpse a week later. People in town react to this with dismissal, saying that he is “a Quaker and a Negro lover and he had no place in Charlotte County and it was God himself who smote him down.” (218). This shows the blatant racism and heartrending conditions of black people in the 1850s: a white pastor simply states that black people should not be viewed as slaves and instead as equals, and he is gruesomely murdered, and said murder is seen as justified by the people in town because of his beliefs in equality.  White people held such a position of power over black people that there is a legislature passed called the Fugitive Slave Act that allows people to catch slaves and sell them. This is seen as a legitimate profession due to the high demand for slaves at that time. The only requirement for a person to be caught and sold as a slave is “a Negro face.” (305). This shows the prominent belief that no matter what, a black person was lesser than a white person and therefore did not deserve to live freely. Their skin colour was the sole reason that they were not given any rights and were abused and enslaved, and if a white person caught them, they had no choice but to be sold because their lives were not viewed as equally with the life of a white person.