This paper is examining the following passage:
On the appointed day, the customary advertisement was posted up, proclaiming that there would be a “public sale of negroes, horses, &c.” Dr. Flint called to tell my grandmother that he was unwilling to wound her feelings by putting her up at auction, and that he would prefer to dispose of her at private sale. My grandmother saw through his hypocrisy; she understood very well that he was ashamed of the job. She was a very spirited woman, and if he was base enough to sell her, when her mistress intended she should be free, she was determined the public should know it. She had for a long time supplied many families with crackers and preserves; consequently, “Aunt Marthy,” as she was called, was generally known, and every body who knew her respected her intelligence and good character. Her long and faithful service in the family was also well known, and the intention of her mistress to leave her free. When the day of sale came, she took her place among the chattels, and at the first call she sprang upon the auction-block. Many voices called out, “Shame! Shame! Who is going to sell you, aunt Marthy? Don’t stand there! That is no place for you.” Without saying a word, she quietly awaited her fate. No one bid for her. At last, a feeble voice said, “Fifty dollars.” It came from a maiden lady, seventy years old, the sister of my grandmother’s deceased mistress. She had lived forty years under the same roof with my grandmother; she knew how faithfully she had served her owners, and how cruelly she had been defrauded of her rights; and she resolved to protect her. The auctioneer waited for a higher bid; but her wishes were respected; no one bid above her. She could neither read nor write; and when the bill of sale was made out, she signed it with a cross. But what consequence was that, when she had a big heart overflowing with human kindness? She gave the old servant her freedom.
Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
On the appointed day, the customary paper on “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Ann Jacobs was due. “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” (from now on shortened to “Incidents…”) is a harrowing first-person account of the life of a slave in America published in 1861. Some themes such as that of family, food/industry and sisterhood among a few others are prominent throughout the work. However, they can also be seen in a single passage that deals with the sale of a slave, Aunt Marthy which this paper will focus on.
“On that appointed day, the customary advertisement was posted up, proclaiming that there would be a ‘public sale of negroes, horses, &c.’” The opening line to this passage is chilling to the modern audience, and I suppose as well to abolitionists of the time. In just this line you see slaves thought of as no different than regular, old farm equipment and everything about their sale is ordinary; “customary”. The next line shows us that Dr. Flint is to sell Jacobs’s Grandmother, Aunt Marthy. The text says, “he was unwilling to wound her feelings” and that instead, he would “dispose of her at a private sale.” So, while it was customary and A-Okay to sell slaves, there does seem to be something strange in the way this sale is to be handled. The passage goes on to point out how revered Aunt Marthy is, so we are left with one assumption of Dr. Flint. That he was a bit of a coward. He didn’t want to put her up for sale in a public auction not because it would hurt her feelings, but because he didn’t want the criticism that would come from it. We have seen shame elsewhere in the class, namely with Newland in The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton who desperately wanted something (or someone rather) but was too afraid of the social fallout to pursue his desires. Dr. Flint’s shame was, in fact, noticeable to the others as well. aunt Marthy saw through the gesture and “she understood very well that he was ashamed of the job.”
So, who is aunt Marthy and why would her sale reflect so poorly on Dr. Flint? “She was a very spirited woman,” and “her mistress intended for her to be free…” Focusing first on the first half, how others viewed Marthy. The first hint is in her title “Aunt” people with no blood relation to her would still refer to her as “Aunt Marthy” because of how nice she was. “She had for a long time supplied many families with crackers and preserves…” She was respected throughout the community primarily through her sharing of food. Food has been seen as having bonding qualities, especially in Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative of Captivity in which the Native Americans are continually seen sharing their food with one another. It can also be seen in Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather in which meals are always seen as a bonding experience. While everyone knew that aunt Marthy was generous, intelligent, and of good character, there is one more key thing known about her. “Her long and faithful service in the family was also well known, and the intention of her mistress to leave her free.” Here is where we circle back to the second point made above about aunt Marthy’s mistress wanting Marthy to be freed. This was common knowledge known by all, Dr. Flint included and thus the reason for Dr. Flint’s shame. He knew better than to try to sell her when her freedom was guaranteed.
There is from this moment one more thing to known about aunt Marthy. Call it self- perseverance, or tenacity, or simply being a trickster, but let it be known that she won’t lay down quietly and allow her freedom to be stripped away from her. “if he was base enough to sell her…she was determined the public should know it.” And she does, in a rather spectacular move that took a lot of faith in it working out in her favor. “When the day of the sale came, she took her place among the chattels, and at first call she sprang upon the auction-block.” In a move that rivals any of the Governess and trickster that is Jean in Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask aunt Marthy puts Dr. Flint in his place by forcing her sale into a public eye. She immediately gets the response that she wants when the audience calls out “Shame! Shame! Who is going to sell you, aunt Marthy?” She knew that what she had done didn’t warrant any words or long-winded speeches, instead “she quietly awaited her faith.” Actions speak louder than words after all. At first, she doesn’t sell, there are no takers, and all is silent until a noblewoman speaks out in a “feeble voice,” saying “Fifty Dollars.”
The woman who bids, and ultimately wins is the sister of aunt Marthy’s dead mistress. “She had lived forty years under the same roof as my grandmother [Marthy]… and she resolved to protect her.” The auctioneer waits for a higher bid but there was none and “her wishes were respected.” The old woman was incapable of reading and writing and when the bill of sales was presented, “signed it with a cross.” Jacobs describes the woman as having a “big heart overflowing with human kindness” when she decides to give Marthy her freedom. This gesture seems to be showing sisterhood crossing racial boundaries. However, there could be a way to read this as the opposite. In the same way that Dr. Flint is ashamed of a public sale, perhaps this old woman did the gesture to save face for her family, afraid of what the fallout could be if they had denied aunt Marthy’s freedom. Fifty dollars realistically wasn’t much money to someone rich at the time and was drastically less than slaves could typically go for, that mixed with the simple signature of a cross makes the whole ordeal feel like an afterthought. It could even be real sisterhood, just finishing what her sister started and having no relation to her thoughts on aunt Marthy. Again, this seems to tie back in Newland’s actions in Age of Innocence in that he would make grand statements along the lines of “women should be equal to men” but would do nothing that would make those statements come true or even treat the women kind of poorly instead of as an equal. Both seem like grandstanding, like someone who has the social power to say edgy things that they don’t necessarily mean because no one is going to challenge their motives.
To conclude, so much of the problems of slavery can be seen in this single passage. We see slaves thought of, treated as, and sold alongside common farm equipment. In aunt Marthy we can see the spirit of the slaves that allowed them to endure and remain kind to one another. We can see the hypocrisy of slave owners such as Dr. Flint. He knew that Marthy was to be freed and instead of doing right by her and her mistress he tried to do the sale privately to save face, but had he just not tried to go through with a sale in the first place he wouldn’t have to think about saving face. We could see an example of sisterhood crossing racial boundaries or we could see more saving face depending on one’s reading. Jacob’s autobiographical account of slavery is chilling in entire, but this single passage speaks magnitudes more than it implies at first glance.