SABBATH SNAPSHOTS : Liber-TEA

3/2/14 Sue Monk Kidd's rich writing in The Invention of Wings (2014) shows the atrocities of slavery & its effects, which are well depicted in the voices of Sarah and her slave girl Hetty aka "Handful." Sarah, a wealthy Charleston girl, received Hetty for her 11th birthday, though she strongly protested.
The easily readable format is 1st person entries, which alternate between the two female protagonists.

The wispy feather on the frontispiece seems to foretell Handful's desire for liber-TEA. Maybe that's why her collection of feathers to stuff the story quilt were so important----giving strength and resolve to one day "fly away."

Hetty "Handful" Grimké was 10 years old when her mother told her  the "malarkey" of the time in Africa that "their" people could fly. Hetty knew that they were slaves and they had no such magic. Though often she dreamed of "flying away."

Her dreams reminded me of the old gospel song, 

"Just a few more weary days 

and then, I'll fly away.

I'll fly away, O Glory, I'll fly away.

When I die, Hallelujah, bye and bye,

I'll fly away."

Hetty was taught verses of scripture by Aunt-Sister and other slaves BUT she remained a handful, bucking "obedience" in many ways. Yet, she remembered she was a "person under God." (p. 324)

After losing her mother, Hetty said, "I couldn't do a thing but walk the yard trying to siphon my sorrow. The sorry truth is you can walk your feet to blisters, walk til Kingdom-come and you never will outpace your grief."

Sarah, on the other hand, at age 4 witnesses a scourging of one of the slaves and becomes mute for a week. "My words seemed sucked into the cleft between my collarbones. I rescued them by degrees by praying, bullying and wooing. (p. 11)
She tried to grant Hetty her freedom but her parents thwarted and ridiculed those plans. In teenage years she regretted her pathetic protests but mostly she feared ostracism of family. "I feared it most of all!" (p. 17)
Where Hetty had a dominant personality, Sarah lived in shadows often "romanticizing the life she didn't choose (p. 295), and the recalling of failed events "hollowed out little pieces of my chest." "....the phantom of what might've been, the terrible allure of it could still snatch me." (p. 339)

Still, throughout the book, one sees Sarah's attempts to grant liberty to Hetty. Teaching Hetty to read was another of Sarah's "against the law" acts----but a bond created by that act had lasting effects. It was a foretelling of Sarah's life course as she, along with her sister, Nina, became a prominent  abolitionist.

Sarah and Hetty, two women trapped within lives and times of pre-Civil War days, both in roles they seemed helpless to change----yet both ultimately grow into extraordinary and inspirational women. Monk documents this in her afterword.

Admittedly the topic of slavery is one which makes me feel supremely uncomfortable. Often, I avoid books like this, they make me feel both angry and sad, yet moved---as did The Book Thief. Other readers might want to avoid it for those same reasons. BUT....I'm glad I read it. It is well written and much of it is documented to be historically correct, though it is a work of fiction. 

This book is more than just a glimpse into slavery. It's full of word pictures, at their best, or in many ways, at their worst, because of their horrific depiction of those inhumane truths. Liberty at a time when there was none for so many people of color.

Slavery does not liberate. Slavery dehumanizes. Today it's called human trafficking.A grave violation. Human liberty remains crucial. Slavery and exploitation are the antithesis of liberty, regardless of the era.  We need NOT to forget. That's why this is a worthy read.