The Known World by Edward P. Jones is the fictional account of many interwoven lives centering around the life and death of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who becomes a slave owner himself. The story takes place in the antebellum days of Manchester, Virginia, a town and county replete with well-illustrated historical records--all of which are products of Jones' imagination. That black ownership of slaves did occur historically is a known fact, although Jones himself admits to uncertainty about how widely spread the practice actually was.
The background of the story is that Henry Townsend's father, an accomplished craftsman, is eventually able to buy his own freedom from his master, Henry Robbins. Over the years--and it takes several years each time--his father saves up enough money to buy his wife's and then his son Henry's freedom. With Henry, however, the slave owner comes to have a larger influence on the boy's thinking than does his own father. Taking a liking to Henry while the boy is still a slave on his plantation, Robbins treats him "well" and eventually, after Henry is a young free man, helps him to buy his own first slave. Over the years Henry acquires many slaves, much to his father's dismay. When Henry dies, his wife Caldonia is left to run the plantation, which falls increasingly into chaos.
In the summary on the back cover of The Known World it states, "...Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all of its moral complexities." Weaving is a good metaphor for this book, because the story is told through countless mini-stories about the lives of Townsend's many immediate relatives, extended family members, neighbors, acquaintances, slaves, and even unrelated characters, all of which are woven together in Jones' piece.
I like the way the author meanders from story to story, reconnecting now and again, inserting snippets here and there from the lives of less important characters who make a detailed appearance once or twice and then disappear, leaving a strong and colorful illustration of the times. The Known World is very powerful and it leaves me imagining in greater detail than ever before what life was like in slavery, the dynamics that existed between slaves and slave owners, and the injustices without recourse that happened to both the slaves and the first free blacks as well.
Obviously this history continues beyond Jones' book, past the abolition of slavery and through the racist backlash period of 1890 to 1920 (that James Loewen talks about in Lies My Teacher Told Me) which culminated eventually in the civil rights movement and beyond that in the separate but unequal realities that exist today in educational facilities, neighborhoods, and the workplace.
But I digress. In short, The Known World by Edward P. Jones is imaginative and well written. It drew me completely into the world of the story. It's a good read, and obviously I'm not the only one who thinks so as it was a national bestseller and won a Pulitzer as well.
(Note: I finished reading The Known World on July 27, 2009 but I've decided to stop dating the entries according to when I read the book and just leave the dates on which I posted the entry henceforth.)
Leave a comment