Prologue: Remembering

Although brief, this prologue is vital to the structure of the novel. Narrated by the slave Whitechapel it instantly introduces the reader to the tone of the times and the novel. A sense of hopelessness is indicated as the slave believes the future is nothing more than the past waiting to happen again. This harsh, never-ending pattern of life has emptied Whitechapel of tears, taken his hope and taken someone he loved.

Whitechapel foreshadows the upcoming events with a warning of sorts as he himself is trying to forget the story that will unfold. In his own admission, he will forget as hard as he can because the memory of it hurts still, and deep. As Whitechapel opens the prologue he is a an empty shell, a broken man. It is only as we read the novel we both learn of the hardship that has made him this way and test the philosophy that he held regarding the way a slave should act. It is Whitechapel’s lyrical description of crying and how it can take over the body, shake it, rattle it, thump it until it feels wrecked that will echo in the reader’s mind as the narrative unfolds.

Chapter 1: Whitechapel

Continuing from his prologue, Whitechapel elaborates on his sorrow. His description of himself as ‘sour-face’ and of the deep cracks that have formed as a result of years without laughing or smiling show that his discontent is not new or light. His face is ploughed with sorrow and the bags under his eyes are described as sacks of worries and witnesses of nightmares. He has ‘seen enough for one lifetime, several lives’.

The description of the whipping of his son Chapel appears to be the final misfortune that Whitechapel can handle. Yet in many ways he was already shattered and this event is simply misery upon misery. The whipping takes place after Chapel has fled the plantation. Chapel is captured and returned to the property. Sanders Junior flogs the runaway despite protestations from the plantation workers and an offer from Whitechapel to receive the lashings in place of his son. Whitechapel recalls how there is an exchange during the whipping. Chapel is ‘gone halfway into it all’ and stops screaming. At this time, Whitechapel changes. His long held belief that if you show your master the best of you, you will in return get respect, is shattered. Instantly he loses his place in the world. His family, which constitutes most of the plantation slaves, turn on him and blame him for Chapel’s death. It had been against the wishes of his family that Whitechapel, pleading and trading on his goodwill with Mr Whitechapel, had exchanged information about his son’s whereabouts for his son’s safe return.

Mr Whitechapel is away from the plantation when Chapel is returned for his punishment. Sanders Junior is furious about chasing Chapel and believes the ‘boss said he would be made an example of to discourage further runaways’ and commences 200 lashes. The wounds from the lashes take their toll and Chapel dies.

Chapter 1 Quotes

..bags under his, eyes are sacs of worries, witnesses of dreams, nightmares and sleep from which a man should not be allowed to wake. (Whitechapel) Chapter 1

A simple lesson in obedience was all that my boy required. He needed to know his station sooner rather than too late. I believed some punishment would do him good because it would keep him alive by driving any notion of freedom from responsibility. (Whitechapel) Chapter 1

There is no way this nigger is not going to face the usual punishment for his crime. (Sanders Junior) Chapter 1

The first lash ripped a hole in my head and I screamed for my son, who fell silent as the grass and trees. (Whitechapel) Chapter 1

But he was gone halfway into it all. (Whitechapel) Chapter 1

Everyone without exception blames me for the death. (Whitechapel) Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Mr. Whitechapel

Changing the point of view, the incidents are revisited from the perspective of Mr Whitechapel, the plantation owner. Upon his return to the plantation, he learns of the whipping and subsequent death of Whitechapel’s son, Chapel. Mr Whitechapel is furious. He has an unusual and somewhat broadminded approach to slavery. A view that is at odds with Sanders Junior. Mr Whitechapel inherited the plantation from his father who had employed Sanders Senior as an overseer to the slaves. Now Mr Whitechapel and Sanders Junior represent another generation of slave owners and overseers. Unlike many previous slave owners, Mr Whitechapel is reluctant to engage in any ‘brutal form of management’. He scolds Sanders Junior for the breach of his position and berates the overseer for thinking he was ‘better schooled in the management of slave-holding’. Here the two forms of slave-holding ideology are raised whether the slave afraid of ‘brute force’ or the ‘happy slave’ would be more effective. In a similar way, Whitechapel had previously expounded the two ideas held by slaves debating if the ‘rebellious’ slave or the ‘subjugated slave’ would have a better life.

On top of demanding payment for the value of the runaway, Mr Whitechapel touches on the history between the three families. Mr Whitechapel reveals that Chapel is not really Whitechapel’s biological son but the outcome of Sanders Senior’s rape of Whitechapel’s second wife, Cook. Sanders Junior appears to weaken as he learns he has beaten his half-brother to death. Intersecting in that scene is Whitechapel, being true to his character, who keeps his word and does not divulge the secret as he is sworn to secrecy even as the whipping progresses and Sanders Junior, true to his character, beats a slave, his own half-brother.

Chapter 2 Quotes

‘Did you think you were better schooled in the management of a slave-holding than I?’ (Mr Whitechapel to Sanders Junior) Chapter 2

‘Fatten up slaves too much with large regular meals and decent quarters.’ (Other plantation owners about Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 2

Such rough handling provides rougher responses. (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 2

First and foremost as subjects of God though blessed with lesser faculties. (Mr Whitechapel about slaves) Chapter 2

God should guide us in our dealings with slaves as he counsels us in everything else. (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Sanders Senior

The third viewpoint offered is by Sanders Senior and fills part of the backstory. Following the revelation from Mr Whitechapel that Sanders Senior had sexual relations with Cook, the slave, and is in fact Chapel’s biological father, Sanders Senior’s diary serves as a testament to these events. The diary entries elucidate a time when he is lonely and bored without his wife. In this space, temptation approaches and he questions if he is ‘wrong to look at a slave girl and feel like a man?’ After unsuccessfully trying to lure Cook to his room, he seizes an opportunity to drag her in there and have his way with her. He immediately threatens her to remain silent. Cook complies with this demand. However, as time goes on Cook marries Whitechapel and after she is raped by Sanders Senior a second time, breaks her silence and Mr Whitechapel and Whitechapel are informed. Sanders Senior is summoned by Mr Whitechapel and although believing ‘the word of a white man is worth that of how many slaves?’ Sanders Senior confesses and receives a fine for the action. He is forced to apologise to Cook and Whitechapel, a moment that Cook reflects on later as an incredible occurrence that endears Whitechapel to her.

Cook’s baby is born and although Sanders Senior concedes the boy ‘resembles my son in all but colour’ the child is raised by Whitechapel and Cook as their own. Emblematising the plight of the poor white worker, Sanders Senior is presented with a series of choices: flee and admit guilt after which he would never be employed again, or marry a woman chosen by Mr Whitechapel against his will. He chooses the latter.

Sanders Senior firmly believes that he is vindicated in bringing the stick to the legs of slaves because he believes they are full of tricks and try to evade their duties. The contrast between his view and that of Mr Whitechapel’s more merciful approach signifies the change of time and the introduction of the abolitionist movement.

Chapter 3 Quotes

Wrong to look at a slave girl and feel like a man? (Sanders Senior) Chapter 3

The word of a white man is worth that of how many slaves? (Sanders Senior) Chapter 3

Cook is his wife, whatever the outcome, he loves her. (Whitechapel) Chapter 3

What good is a fat slave to anyone but himself … Cattle need fattening not slaves. (Sanders Senior) Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Cook

This brief chapter, which shows the point of view of Cook, is tragic in that it contains the heartbreaking details of Cook’s rape but also some small hope after the birth of Chapel. The reader already understands that Cook’s hope will be unrealised as Cook dies before Chapel and Whitechapel.

Chapter 4 Quotes

After he laid his hands on me I wanted to die. (Cook) Chapter 4

A pure wife no longer pure. (Cook) Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Chapel

In poetic form, the next point of view encountered is Chapel’s as he pays homage to his mother being ‘an angel without wings’ and considers his relationship with Lydia. Chapel’s rhyming couplets give an account of his affection for his mother laced with a story of how he and Mr Whitechapel’s daughter Lydia met. Chapel recalls how he had become enamoured with Lydia and her reading, and soon asked if he could learn to read. Sworn to secrecy as a slave was not to be educated, Lydia had agreed to help but when her father discovered the union, he beat Chapel with his belt and made them swear never to see each other again. The lyrical poetry in contrast to Sanders Senior’s awkward diary entries suggests that eloquence and civility are not far from the slave if nurtured.

Chapel contemplates the two types of slaves: those that learn from the mistakes that incur consequences like the whip, and those who despite all they see and hear do not learn. Whitechapel senses Chapel is not learning and endeavours to keep an eye on him. However, as Cook dies of fever the two mourn in silence and Chapel slips away.

Chapter 5 Quotes

The words she sang them I heard a choir .. one day she stopped me and called out of the blue, now you can read you must learn to write too. (Chapel and Lydia) Chapter 5

The first learns from mistakes which earn him whip and fist, .. the second listens and what does not, then acts. (Whitechapel) Chapter 5

With her gone nothing could keep me there – father I am running I feel joy not fear. (Chapel) Chapter 5

Chapter 6: Plantation Owners

Objectively written in the rare perspective of a second person narrative, this chapter follows Mr Whitechapel as he attends the Gentlemen’s Club. He knows the patrons of this club, plantation owners, will ‘ridicule’ him due to the recent flogging and death of Chapel, hypocritical in light of his lenient ideology regarding slavery. Mr Whitechapel, who represents the new progressive ideas that will fuel the abolitionist movement, meets the entrenched patrons with their traditional views of slave-holding.

The debate starts with the expected criticism of Mr Whitechapel who responds that a single death does not mean he is like them. They chide him, asking him to admit that the brutality made him ‘feel alive’ and accusing him of eating with his slaves one day only to beat them the next. Mr Whitechapel’s response includes an explanation that this was simply ‘a lesson that went wrong’ and a synopsis of his beliefs. He explains that he treats his ‘slaves with humanity’ and promotes ‘the teachings of Christ’, while he ‘practises slavery’ simultaneously. He even goes as far as suggesting if slaves were free and paid that those slaves would be friends rather than enemies. The Club’s patrons stand by their conviction that you can’t mix God with the slave business as they believe God is with them and not the slaves. Their traditionist attitude is on display as they maintain the need for a ‘firm hand’ and not to ‘upset everything that works’.

Chapter 6 Quotes

‘Mock me all you want. It was a lesson that went wrong.’ (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 6

‘Give them your cruelty, and perhaps they’ll survive your whip.’ (Plantation owners) Chapter 6

‘Admit you felt alive for the first time in your life Whitechapel.’ (Plantation owners) Chapter 6

‘I treat my slaves with humanity.’ (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 6

‘I promote the teachings of Christ and practice slavery. I do not practice slavery and hide my beliefs.’ (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 6

‘We are all of us Christians of one sort or other. But you, Whitechapel, you promote the African at the expense of your own white Christian brother.’ (Plantation owners) Chapter 6

‘You can’t mix God with the slave business. God is for us, not them.’ (Plantation owners) Chapter 6