Jubilee by Margaret Walker
"Jubilee" by Margaret Walker is a historical novel that explores the life of Vyry, an enslaved African American woman on a Southern plantation during the antebellum period and the subsequent years of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The narrative begins with Vyry's early life marked by the challenges of slavery, including the loss of loved ones and the harsh realities inflicted by the plantation's mistress and overseer. It highlights her resilience as she navigates her tumultuous existence, forming bonds with other enslaved individuals and grappling with her identity as she faces brutality and oppression.
As the Civil War unfolds, Vyry experiences the changing dynamics of freedom, love, and family while contending with the persistent threat of racism and violence, including attacks from groups like the Ku Klux Klan. The story culminates in Vyry's attempts to build a life for herself and her children, ultimately leading to choices that reflect her strength and determination in the face of systemic adversity. Walker's work sheds light on the complexities of African American women's experiences during this pivotal time in American history, offering a poignant exploration of themes such as resilience, identity, and the pursuit of freedom.
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Jubilee by Margaret Walker
First published: 1966
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Historical realism
Time of plot: 1840-1870
Locale: Georgia and Alabama
Principal characters
Elvira “Vyry” Dutton , a young biracial woman born into slaveryJohn Morris Dutton (Marster John) , plantation owner and Vyry’s natural fatherSalina Dutton (Big Missy) , his wifeJohnny Dutton (Young Marster) , their sonLillian Dutton MacDougall (Miss Lillian) , their daughterEd Grimes , the Dutton plantation’s overseerRandall Ware , a free African American blacksmith and Vyry’s first husbandInnis Brown , a farmer, Vyry’s second husbandBrother Ezekiel , a black preacher and link to the Underground RailroadJim , Vyry and Randall’s sonMinna , Vyry and Randall’s daughterHarry , Vyry and Innis’s sonJim , ,May Liza , ,Caline , andAunt Sally , slaves on the Dutton plantation
The Story:
As a small child, Vyry is taken to the cabin where her mother lies dying, her body worn out from constant childbearing. Mammy Sukey cares for Vyry for several years as she grows up on the Dutton plantation, until Big Missy (Salina, the plantation’s mistress) and Grimes, the overseer, order the child to work in the Big House as Miss Lillian’s maid. The day she starts working as a maid, Vyry sees six new slaves being brought in, one of whom is sick with plague. The disease spreads, and five other slaves die, including Vyry’s beloved Mammy Sukey.
Vyry and Lillian had played together as small children, but Vyry shows no aptitude for working as her maid. When she breaks a dish, Salina hangs her up by her thumbs in a closet. Vyry is rescued only when Lillian tells Marster John what has happened upon his return from a trip and John takes her down. Salina especially hates Vyry because the slave’s resemblance to Lillian reminds Salina of her husband’s dalliances. John is more easygoing than his wife, but, traveling for his political career, he leaves most plantation management to Salina and to Grimes, both of whom hate black people wholeheartedly.
After Vyry’s brush with death, John sends Vyry to live with Aunt Sally, the Big House cook. Vyry works as Sally’s helper and becomes an excellent cook herself. Growing up on the isolated plantation, she learns how the antebellum southern world treats people of color. She sees dogs loosed to maul a runaway slave to death and two old black men locked into a shed that Grimes then sets on fire because they can no longer earn their keep. Aunt Sally is sold away because Salina fears poisoning.
Vyry takes over Sally’s kitchen duties. As her mentor had, she sings to dispel her problems. When Randall Ware does some work on the plantation, he meets Vyry, who has become a competent young woman of sixteen. They fall in love. Randall starts to visit Vyry surreptitiously at night. Brother Ezekiel can marry them only in a “broomstick” ceremony. Over the next few years, they have two children. Randall tries to buy Vyry’s freedom, but the attempt goes wrong and puts him in danger. He asks Vyry to flee north with him. On the appointed night, Vyry reaches the riverbank meeting place too late. Grimes has her brutally whipped when she returns.
John Dutton breaks his leg in a carriage accident in early 1860. After several pain-filled weeks, he dies. His son Johnny enlists in the Confederate army right after his West Point graduation. He likes being an officer but is mortally wounded at Chickamauga. Lillian’s husband, a reluctant enlistee, also dies in battle. Randall Ware joins General Dodge’s Union forces in Illinois. Miss Salina puts her remaining money into Confederate bonds to prove her patriotism. General Grant’s march through Georgia misses the Dutton place, but, as Yankee guns fire in the distance, Salina dies from a stroke.
By now, only Vyry and a few house slaves are left on the plantation; everyone else has run away. In May, 1865, Union troops visit the Dutton plantation. Their commander reads the Emancipation Proclamation to the remaining slaves. With the troop is Jim, a former Dutton houseboy who had brought Johnny home when he was wounded, and Innis Brown, a freed slave. Jim tells Vyry that he saw Randall Ware, very ill, in Atlanta and that he is probably dead now. The soldiers ransack the house and fields. That night, one of them attacks Vyry, but Innis drives him off then sleeps in the cabin doorway, guarding Vyry and her children. The next day, they find Miss Lillian unconscious in the house. She eventually awakens, but she has suffered a head injury that has affected her mind.
Jim leaves with May Liza and Caline. Innis urges Vyry to go away with him. She equivocates, saying she is waiting for Randall to return and for Lillian’s relatives to come. Lillian can no longer care for herself or her children.
Once Lillian’s aunt arrives, Vyry, Jim, Minna, and Innis set out in an old wagon, seeking a place to build a farm and house. After crossing into south Alabama, they find a site in the low country. They plant crops in the rich soil and build a cabin, but the Chattahoochee River rises, flooding them out. Moving on, they find some land to farm as sharecroppers. Their son Harry is born while they live there; Innis is the only person on hand to help with the birth. When they discover the oppressive terms of their work, they move on. After Innis builds a fine new house outside Troy, the Ku Klux Klan burns it down; the family barely escapes with their lives. Five years after Emancipation, the family is homeless again, sleeping in a wagon.
Terrified by the Ku Klux Klan attack, Vyry resists building another house. Their fortunes change when she peddles eggs and vegetables in town and hears a scream. The cry is from a woman in childbirth. The woman’s frightened young husband begs Vyry to help. After the baby’s birth, the couple’s gratitude overcomes their shock at the light-skinned emergency midwife being black. In fact, the neighborhood welcomes the new “granny” with a houseraising and a quilting bee.
Meanwhile, Randall Ware, still alive, has returned to Dawson to reclaim his smithy and his life. As a literate and informed black man, he takes part in reconstruction politics, but the Ku Klux Klan beats him over a piece of land he owns. Vyry’s son Jim, now a fifteen-year-old, constantly clashes with his stepfather about farm chores. Mr. Porter, the husand of Lillian’s aunt, visits Vyry and Innis on his way to Georgia. He notices that Jim’s back is raw from a whipping, and when he later meets Randall in Dawson, he tells him of his observation. Randall decides he needs to see for himself and goes to Alabama to visit Vyry and his children.
Vyry is astonished to see Randall again. The reunion goes well, but now she must choose between two husbands. She decides to stay with Innis. After ascertaining that the whipping was a one-time event, Randall offers to take Jim home with him and send the boy to school. Jim joyously agrees. Jim and Randall leave on the train the next morning. Vyry looks forward to the future in her new house and tells Innis that they will soon have another baby.
Bibliography
Carmichael, Jacqueline Miller. Trumpeting a Fiery Sound: History and Folklore in Margaret Walker’s “Jubilee.” Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003. Extensive study of Jubilee’s use of folk and historical elements, its structure and narration, and the responses of critics.
Dieng, Babacar. “Reclamation in Walker’s Jubilee.” Journal of Pan African Studies 2, no. 4 (June, 2008): 117. Evaluates Walker’s achievements as a historian. Portrays the novel as changing American culture’s perception of African American life under slavery.
Leveeq, Christine. “Black Women Writers and the American Neo-Slave Narrative: Femininity Unfettered.” African American Review 35 (Spring, 2001): 136. Long article analyzing the works of Walker and five other women novelists. Views these novels as revisions of the history of slavery from a female perspective, which encompasses family, identity, and freedom.
Walker, Margaret. Conversations with Margaret Walker. Edited by Maryemma Graham. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002. Reprints interviews conducted with the author over a twenty-four-year period. Discusses controversies in the public sphere as well as in the literary realm.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. How I Wrote “Jubilee,” and Other Essays on Life and Literature. New York: Feminist Press, 1990. The title essay centers on the author’s search for source material. Others illuminate her life and approach to art and discuss major African American writers who influenced her.