Take a moment to
look around. As you notice there is nothing holding you back or restraining you
from living your life style. That is called freedom. Freedom is not a given,
but in the United States it is now mandatory as a citizen to be given this
right. Freedom can be defined as the power to think, verbalize, and act as an
individual without being punished or restrained. Freedom is a privilege and many
slaves weren’t given that freedom or privilege.
In the novel, A Good Lord Bird,
by James McBride he explains the injustices forced on colored people during
slavery prior to the civil war. Through this we can examine the differences in
how freedom is granted to slaves. However, there was a difference between
slaves during this time. There were two types of slaves; a mulatto or a half
white slave, who were well kept and given more desirous jobs inside a home and
a full black slave, who were given brutal working and living conditions. In the
novel, Pie is a mulatto and considered the most beautiful main attraction or
the best whore of the house, while Sibonia is an undesirable feebleminded
working slave. Although they were both
slaves, they were treated differently. Considering the manner given to the
characters each were both still considered slaves which means they weren’t free
to be their own person. However, as a slave Pie being more privileged than
Sibonia, does not mean more free. In fact, Pie is less free than Sibonia due to
the higher standards she is set at.
Before the civil war freedom was not given to
colored people and it was given less to women. In the novel, McBride can show
the different ways of freedom given to two women of different slave statuses. Pie
is living the high life, given the chance to live inside the big house with
furbished furniture and her own room. Being granted her own room is a privilege
in comparison to the other slaves like Sibonia. She even has the privacy to
shut the door. However, the reasons that she has the privilege to shut the door
aren’t considered freedom at all. In fact her freedom is degrading.
Not only is Pie’s
freedom less because of prostitution, but she is also given less freedom than
full black slaves because she is considered more valuable due to her mulatto
stature. A mulatto is more privilege because they are half white, however at
any given time they can be disarmed of that privilege. “Miss Abby commenced to
razzing Pie something terrible for me ripping her scarf and causing a ruckus in
her business. She cussed Pie’s Ma. She cussed her Pa. She cussed all her
relationships in all directions. “I’ll fix it,’ Pie protested. ‘I’ll pay for
the scarf.” “You better. Git that girl
out, or I’ll have Darg come up here” “(149). Here we can see that Miss Abby can
stricken her from her luxurious life and put her back with the rest of the
slaves outside the house like Sibonia. Darg, is the overseer of Miss Abby’s
property. He is in charge of all punishments to slaves. Miss Abby basically
stated that she doesn’t care for Pie meaning Pie can lose her freedom in a
second. Darg is used for punishment and dehumanizing of slaves so Pie has to
watch every move she makes because her freedom and privileges are on the line.
Pie is a beautiful
women who was feared by slaves, yet desired by men. She was so desired by men
that men would practically throw themselves at her begging to get on the Hot
Floor. “And I ought to get a special favor, on account I had to kill John Brown
and save the whole territory and all, just to get back to you” (McBride 145). She
is set at a high standard, but confined to slavery by prostitution.
Prostitution is no way to live a fulfilling life even if it makes money. In the
novel, McBride sets a scene that shows the degrading nature of Pie’s life, “…Pie’s
room—just in time to see Chase with trousers down and Pie sitting on her bed
with her dress pulled down to her waist” (McBride 148). A woman cannot consider herself to be free if
she is always being forced to have sex with strange men. With freedom comes the
right to choose, which means she has the freedom to choose which man she wants
to pursue, not to be confined by prostitution.
Sibonia
on the other hand is confided to the misery of slave life. “Soon as you opened
the door you stepped into an alley, and two steps across it and you was there.
It was a penned-in area, and besides it was a little open area in the back
where the colored set on crates, playing cards and had a little vegetable
garden. Behind that was a hog pen, which open right to the colored pen for easy
tending of Miss Abbey’s hogs” (159). This life was not much for living. It was
dirty, it was unpleasant, and most of all it was lousy captivity. These people
were clearly not free at all. They were treated just as rotten as the animals
they were living with. Miss Abby had no
respect for her slaves. She didn’t even
find her slaves important. She put them in the pen with animals because she
believed that the slaves were just as equal if not the same as animals.
As a slave,
Sibonia is treated completely unfairly. She is barricaded under harsh rule and
unjust treatment for being a slave. However,
being a slave Sibonia was willing to give up everything including her life to
gain freedom. As a slave in the pen she was forced to do more manual labor
unlike Pie. This only showed how truly confident and strenuous she is. Unlike
Pie, Sibonia has the power to defy her job and is not afraid to show it. Sibonia
was not loyal to her master, Miss Abby at all. Miss Abby didn’t treat her like
a real human being so why should Sibonia respect her. Sibonia became so stern
and harden with emotion that she did not care anymore. Even though Sibonia was
physically a slave she never let her mind off the idea of freedom. “Reverand,
it was you and your wife [Miss Abby] who taught me that God is no respecter of
persons, it was you and your missus who taught me that in His eyes we are all
equal. I was a slave. My husband was a slave. My children was slaves. But they
was sold. Every one of them. And after the last child was sold, I said, “I will
strike a blow for freedom”” (179).
Sibonia really is willing to put her life on the line to gain freedom
especially for her family. She was not afraid to fight for freedom which made
her much freer than Pie.
Sibonia was not
loyal to Miss Abbey, yes she works as a laborer, but she is not loyal.
Sibonia's freedom would be based off of either a revolt or a fearsome escape
plan which both can lead to her death. Sibonia is a lot smarter than she
reveals for she plots to mislead her masters by acting feebleminded.
Although Sibonia
being a captive slave to Miss Abby, she can be considered slightly more free
than Pie. Pie is known to be completely loyal to her master, Miss Abbey, which
makes her a rat to always tell the truth. Pie is so loyal to her master that
she went so far as to disrespecting the rest of the slaves for her own self
benefit. “Someone from the pen must’ve told Pie that Sibonia was planning a
breakout, and Pie told it to the judge for some kind of favor, and when the
stew got boiled down and shared out, why, it weren’t a breakout at all, but
rather murder” (186). Pie killed Sibonia
and the rest of the slaves because she is a rat and limited the freedom to
branch out for rebellion like Sibonia. She did whatever she had to, to save her
life. Unfortunately, Pie still being a slave was stricken of her freedom after
telling the truth. Her status of prostitution only became more prominent. She
essentially lost her freedom by being fully degraded and violated by Darg, the
overseer of the yard. “Her head was throwed back and she was howling while he
rode her and called her a high-yellow whore and turn-coat for turning in all
them niggers and revealing their plot” (190). She lost her privilege of freedom
because she confessed too much. Being a mulatto slave only granted so much
freedom until she disrespected the rest of the slaves that brought income to
Miss Abby’s plantation.
Freedom
is not a given, at least not in the slave days for colored people. Mulatto or Black
these people were not free. They were limited from basic needs like education and
reading, stricken of their dignity. Prostitution or manual laborer these women
both were not free. However the difference between both Pie and Sibonia is the
idea of freedom. Sibonia might have been looked more down upon because she was
a full black slave but she was more respected than Pie as a prostitute. In the
end Sibonia gained her freedom from her death. Pie is still not free in any
sense of the word because she is still being violated by men and her master.
Works
Cited
McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. New York: Penguin
Audio, 2014. Print
