Jubilee (novel)
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| Author | Margaret Walker |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Released | 1966 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 512 pages |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-39-592495-2 |
Jubilee (1966) is a critically acclaimed historical novel written by Margaret Walker, which focuses on the story of a biracial slave during the Civil War. It is set in Georgia and later in various parts of Alabama in the mid-1800s before, during, and after the Civil War.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The novel begins with the death of a slave, Sis Hetta. Hetta was the mother of many of her master’s children, who all became his slaves. The plotline follows the life of Hetta’s youngest daughter, Vyry.
After the death of her mother, Vyry is put to work in the big house as Miss Lillian’s personal servant. She has a difficult time adjusting and often makes mistakes and is harshly punished by Big Missy. She learns quickly to obey and learns skills from Aunt Sally, another slave, who acts as Vyry’s mother. Vyry has a very difficult and traumatizing childhood. As a young girl, she experiences the deaths of many slaves close to her, needs to attend a public execution, and sees another slave branded. Aunt Sally is sold and Vyry becomes the cook of the household at a young age.
Vyry meets a free black man named Randall Ware who promises to buy her freedom if she marries him. She sees him secretly and bears three of his children, only two of whom live. Vyry asks Marster John for permission to marry Randall, but he refuses. Vyry and Randall continue to see each other in secret, until he is forced to leave Georgia.
Before he left, Randall tries to get a white man to buy Vyry for him, but his plan does not work. After that, he tries to get Vyry to run away with him, but she was caught by Grimes and beaten. During the time of the Civil War, the Dutton Plantation experienced many losses. Shortly after Georgia secedes from the Union, Marse John breaks his leg in a horse and carriage accident. The leg becomes infected and he dies. Lillian’s husband and brother both die in battle. During the war, many slaves run away, but Vyry and the other house servants remain. Towards the end of the war, Big Missy has a stroke and dies, leaving Lillian all alone in the Big House.
After the war, soldiers come to the Dutton Plantation to announce the Emancipation proclamation. May Liza and Caline leave with Jim the houseboy, leaving Vyry and her children alone with Lillian. That night, Vyry is nearly attacked, but a man named Innis Brown saves her. In the middle of the night, Lillian’s son Bobby comes to Vyry’s door for help. Vyry runs to the Big House to find it in total shambles. Lillian was attacked. After that, Lillian seems to have lost her mind and reverts back to her childhood. After relatives of Lillian come to care for her, Vyry marries Innis Brown and they move to Alabama to start their own farm. They build a house in the woods in the river bottom. They soon find that when the water rises, their house and farm flood. They then move to Bullock County to a share crop plantation where the landlord cheated them. They then move again to Pike County where they find a family to work for, the Jacobsons.
While Vyry and Innis worked for the Jacobson family, they lived in a settlement near the railroad tracks. They did not feel safe from the start living there, but when the Ku Klux Klan attacks a neighbor, they decided to move. They build a house on a hill in Troy where there was plenty of land to be cultivated. The Ku Klux Klan burns that house to the ground and it was time again to move. Vyry is afraid to build another home in fear of another attack by the Ku Klux Klan. Vyry goes into town every day to sell fresh eggs, butter, and buttermilk. While in town, she is often mistaken for a white woman and hears people say very hurtful things about blacks that make her want to move again. One day on her way into town she helps a woman deliver a child. All the white neighbors of the town decide they need a “colored granny” to be a midwife to the women in town. All the neighbors pitch in to help Vyry’s family build a house and feel welcome.
Vyry thought that Randall Ware had died, but one day he visits her. He wants to take their children, Jim and Minna, to school. He also asks her to choose between himself and Innis Brown as a husband, because she is married to both of them. She chooses Innis Brown, but insists Randall Ware stays and visits. He takes Jim to send to school and leaves Vyry with money to care for her family.
[edit] Characters
- Sis Hetta dies in the beginning of the novel. She is Vyry’s mother.
- Caline, May Liza, and Lucy are servants in the big house who work with Aunt Sally and Vyry.
- John Morris Dutton is the owner of the Dutton Plantation and owns Vyry and the other slaves. He is also the father of Vyry, but does not acknowledge her as his child. He dies of an infected broken leg.
- Miss Salina is the wife of Marster John. She is mean to Vyry and the other slaves and strongly believed the South would win in the Civil War. She is also known as Big Missy.
- Vyry is the protagonist of the novel. She is a dynamic/main character. Vyry is the youngest daughter of Hetta and Marster John. She is a black slave, but her skin is so fair she can pass as white. She is a strong solemn woman who knows many skills, although she cannot read or write.
- Aunt Sally is a slave in the house on the Dutton Plantation. She is the cook and teaches Vyry everything she knows. She acts as a mother to Vyry until she is sold.
- Randall Ware is a black man who was born free. He promises to marry Vyry and buy her freedom, but cannot buy her freedom.
- Jim, Minna, and Harry are Vyry’s Children. Randall Ware is the father of Jim and Minna and Innis Brown is the father of Harry. Jim is like his father and doesn’t want to ever do work. Minna is more like her mother and helps her around the house.
- Miss Lillian is the daughter of mares John and Big Missy. She is about the same age as Vyry. She and Vyry play when they are little, but as they get older, Lillian treats her like all the other slaves. After all of her family dies, Lillian is more compassionate toward Vyry.
- Grimes was the overseer on the Dutton Plantation. He was strict and cruel toward the slaves.
- Innis Brown was a part of the Union army who ran away from a plantation. He marries Vyry and they move to Alabama to raise their own farm.
[edit] Major themes
Yearning for freedom and acceptance is a theme of Jubilee. Vyry, along with the other slaves, hope and dream to someday be free. After being freed, blacks were still not accepted. The Ku Klux Klan attacked many; including Vyry’s family, and they were looked down upon by neighbors.
Coming of age is a major theme of Jubilee. The novel begins when Vyry is a young child and begins working in the Big House and documents her experiences working for Marster John and Miss Salina with Aunt Sally and Lucy, meeting Randall Ware, and having children. Vyry goes from a useless slave to the woman in charge. She cares for Miss Lillian in her time of need. The reader follows Vyry in her journey from the one place in the world she knew to new places with new hardships. She moves with her family and new husband, Innis Brown, from place to place and problem to problem. The reader sees how Vyry grows through these predicaments.
A third theme of the novel is the fight for righteousness. Many of the slaves, free blacks, and even some white people fought for freedom for slaves.
[edit] Symbolism
When Randall Ware would visit Vyry, he would signal her with a whippoorwill call. She spent many nights hoping to hear that call and see him. The whippoorwill call is used as a symbol of Randall Ware, or of his memory.
Vyry has a dream about a door to freedom and a man who will not give her the key. This is an obvious representation of Randall Ware who has a way of setting her free. The man in the dream does not give her the key because it would be a complicated process and is not that simple. Another way to interpret the dream is that her dream foreshadows the civil war and Abraham Lincoln holds the key to freedom. In this way, the key represents the emancipation proclamation.
When Lucy’s face is branded with an “R” because she ran away, this traumatizes Vyry. This is a symbol of the horrors of slavery.
The mud pies that Vyry and Miss Lillian make when they are young symbolizes a simpler time. When she is new to the big house and is being overworked and harshly punished, Vyry yearns to go back to that simple time. After Miss Lillian is attacked, her mind reverts back to that timeframe.
