The Longest Memory

Chapter 7: Lydia

This chapter as told by Lydia reveals both the perpetuation of slavery and its upcoming demise. Instinctively, she knows that her interactions with Chapel are forbidden and forces him to swear upon a bible that he will not tell anyone that she is teaching him to read. This subjugation through withholding education is an inherited contemplation. However Lydia embraces the progressive future and is willing to teach him. The eloquent style of the chapter highlights her own education. Gradually, a sincere friendship forms hinting once again that the key to equality can be found in books and education.

Chapter 7 Quotes

I take his hand, hop closer to him, .. and point his index finger to each word as I say it. (Lydia) Chapter 7

I recline in my chair and let his voice cascade over me. (Lydia) Chapter 7

‘W Your name begins with this letter, mine too.’ (Lydia to Chapel) Chapter 7

Chapter 8: Cook

More reflections from Cook see her consider her work as cook for the house and cook at home, bringing life to the metaphor of the pot. Although the ingredients and the exterior quality may be different, there is love in cooking for her family and in some way she sees similarities between her life with Whitechapel, whom she considers saved her, and those in the plantation owner’s house.

On top of this reflection, after discovering Chapel and Lydia’s secret, Cook decides to refrain from telling Whitechapel that Chapel can read. Her reasoning is that he is not ready for that progressive idea and holds a traditional view regarding a slave’s lot in life. She anticipates Whitechapel’s resistance and prohibition of the encounters.

Chapter 8 Quotes

All my life two pots are never empty …. I sometimes take from one to fill the other … My masters pot is full of the sweetest things … but I prefer my own. (Cook) Chapter 8

Inside is pride, not fear, not yet just pride swelling in my chest and filling my heart. (Cook) Chapter 8

… books and slaves do not agree. (Cook, on Whitechapel’s anticipated response) Chapter 8

Chapter 9: Lydia

A continuation of Lydia’s account of her time with Chapel sees the progress they have made with Chapel reading and interacting with her as an equal. Lydia realises she has fallen in love with Chapel. The tranquility and progress of the relationship is immediately shattered when Mr Whitechapel learns of the secret meetings. He immediately bans the meetings however Cook finds a way to circumvent his strict instructions that they not see or write each other. She proposes that they meet in the dark, sit back to back and converse. Cook believes in a future where the two might be able to spend time together, perhaps inspired by Chapel’s reading ability. Mr Whitechapel also concedes that there may be a time when Africans can meet with Whites, but that time had not yet come. These progressive views are a slight glimmer of hope in a dark world.

Chapter 9 Quotes

In love with a slave. (Lydia) Chapter 9

‘Must never see the light of day together, must never read together, nor write, not sit together, … nor speak of these wicked secret meetings to anyone.’ (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 9

‘Might be possible in the future.’ (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 9

Chapter 10: Lydia

A continuation of Lydia’s recount includes the incongruence between the expectations placed upon her by family, which include deportment lessons aiming to produce a ‘fine young woman’, and her secret love for Chapel. The two worlds contrast in a procession of eligible suitors paraded before Lydia who still sees Chapel as having more wit, intelligence, sensitivity and charm. The chapter reveals details of their secret meetings and a plan hatched for the two ‘star crossed lovers’ to meet further north where reports have been received of white women walking with black men. The relationship is reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Chapter 10 Quotes

Chapel says nothing to me. Our hands explore each other in the dark. (Lydia) Chapter 10

I hold each of them up beside Chapel to see how they compare, no one has his wit, intelligence, charm and sensitive nature. Not one. (Lydia) Chapter 10

When it comes to the rights of slaves I part company with every one of them. (Lydia) Chapter 10

My pretty head shouldn’t be preoccupied with improving the lot of slaves. (Potential suitor to Lydia) Chapter 10

Chapter 11: The Virginian

In a further change of style, this chapter is presented as a series of articles or editorials from a paper called The Virginian. Already referenced as a reliable source of information by slave owners, these entries promote a sense of discussion on slave-holding but ultimately draw a traditional ideological standpoint. The entries, from a first person perspective, invite feedback and critique the standpoint of those that have joined the discussion including Miss L, most likely Lydia. As the editorials cover the period of events common to other chapters, there is reference to the mutual events combined with a discussion on the ideology raised by characters thus far.

In a somewhat pompous tone, the editor’s own view is expressed and he clearly believes that slaves should not be attributed the qualities of humans. The issue of Christianity and slavery is raised but dismissed as entirely separate entities: one material and business, one spiritual and of faith. The conundrum for the editor appears to be that if you apply human and Christian values it would cause confusion and force questions about the entitlement to enslave Africans.

Further discussion is given to the dichotomy between slaves and poor white workers. The lack of clear financial gap troubles some. Further to this, the notion of paying Africans as an economic model is tabled by Miss L and considered as intelligent but when Miss L continues to push progressive ideas and suggests white and black relationships, the editor is quick to dismiss her.

Chapter 11 Quotes

‘Are we to attribute to slaves all the qualities we credit to ourselves as human beings? I think not.’ (The Virginian) Chapter 11

‘Slavery is a business. Christianity is a faith. Slavery answers to our physical and material wellbeing; Christianity looks after the hunger of the soul.’ (The Virginian) Chapter 11

‘Once we extend Christian values to include slaves we then throw into question the very basis of our forced enslavement of them.’ (The Virginian) Chapter 11

‘Too much attention is paid to the plantation owners and to the slaves at the expense of that level of poor whites who have to work for the former in close proximity to the latter.’ (The Virginian) Chapter 11

‘There is no sight more perfidious than that of a white woman with a black man.’ (The Virginian) Chapter 11

Chapter 12: Great Grandmother

Whitechapel has twelve daughters and a step-son. These are born into slavery, marry and have children, making up a large percentage of the slave stock of the plantation. One of Whitechapel’s granddaughters contemplates her life on the plantation and interactions with Whitechapel. The chapter’s title, Great Grandmother, links the generations and prefaces the ‘long memory’ that lingers for some slaves, that memory of a homeland they have never seen or stepped foot on. The great-granddaughter’s longing for Africa is abhorrent to Whitechapel who tells her to make her dreams in the current place and time. This dismissal hurts the girl and shows once again the contrast in views held by the other slaves and Whitechapel’s traditional submissive view that unfortunately, in retrospect, has not served him well. This is accentuated by the great-granddaughter’s recollection of the night of the beating where she admits they went to see how Whitechapel would react to a beating he had caused.

Chapter 12 Quotes

He said what did I want to do something silly like dreaming about Africa for. (Whitechapel to great-granddaughter) Chapter 12

One day he was playing … next day he was marching… several days after that he was facing the sea. No one lifted a finger to help…. (Whitechapel to great-granddaughter) Chapter 12

‘You dream about something you don’t know make your dreams here.’ (Whitechapel to great-granddaughter) Chapter 12

We were all eager to go, not to watch a beating that should not be happening in the first place but to see the face of the old man who made it possible. (Great-granddaughter) Chapter 12

Chapter 13: Sanders Junior

After the height of all the events and fervent discussions on the two types of slaves, Christianity and slavery, and the two styles of slave management, the final words of this chapter and epilogue are mostly of regret. They return the reader to the tone set in the beginning in an imitation of how memory can cycle one through events without effecting any change. To this end, the chapter contains the musings of Sanders Junior. He has the obligation to take care of Whitechapel’s dead body. Sanders Junior is adamant that Chapel is in no way his half-brother but the child of a slave and that he died as a result of the other slaves not checking Chapel’s impetuous nature.

His final comments that ‘slave-holding is a business’ removes the human from the equation but there is a sense that he is working hard to avoid regret. Offering his jacket as a symbol of contrition he is still unable to take responsibility for the death of Chapel. In a proffer of some respect, coming far too late for Whitechapel, Sanders Junior concedes that were Whitechapel white he would have wanted a father like him.

Chapter 13 Quotes

‘He did not demonstrate an ounce of your common sense. His spirit was wild, you’re tame.’ (Sanders Junior to Whitechapel) Chapter 13

‘I see nothing of my father in him nor of myself.’ (Sanders Junior to Whitechapel) Chapter 13

‘What did you do wrong old man?’ (Sanders Junior to Whitechapel) Chapter 13

‘If you were white I would have wanted you as my father. The jacket is rightly yours.’ (Sanders Junior to Whitechapel) Chapter 13

Epilogue: Forgetting

The epilogue contains the words that Whitechapel would have liked to say to Chapel but regrettably did not find the occasion, robbed of time when Cook was dying. He admits he knew of Chapel’s desire for Lydia but thought it would pass, interjecting that he thinks he was simply insufficient as a father. He feels as though he has been wrong all his days and is tired. Whitechapel questions the existence of hope, whether the master will rule forever or whether change will occur. Even if it did, the years he has seen would take several lives or another hundred years to mend. A sombre parting thought.

Epilogue Quotes

I am insufficient. (Whitechapel) Epilogue

Her name is a young man dreaming. (Whitechapel, on Lydia) Epilogue

I have been wrong all my days. (Whitechapel) Epilogue

Too much has happened to put right. I would need another life … to unravel this knotted mess. (Whitechapel) Epilogue

Nor can the master hope to rule the day and the night forever. (Whitechapel) Epilogue

Memory is pain trying to resurrect itself. (Whitechapel) Epilogue