Comment on the history and legacy of slavery in relation to Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea
Comment on the history and legacy of slavery in relation to Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea
"Everyone knows that the colonial world was a haven for the godly, a refuge for the oppressed, a challenge to the adventurous and the last resort of scoundrels." (A.E Smith, Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labour)
The history and legacy of slavery is deeply intertwined within British colonial history, and is still to this day the source of some animosity between Britain and her colonies. It has always been the case that the wealthy exploit the poor, and Britain was by no means an exception to the rule. Her colonies, particularly those in the Caribbean were referred to as the "Sugar Colonies" and added much wealth to Britain. According to Arthur Young, an estimated three million pounds per year was added to the wealth of Britain, wealth which was not transferred onto the Caribbean islands.
The more successful entrepreneurs designed systems of exclusion to ensure they could dominate colonial society at the expense of middling and smaller entrepreneurs as well as all non-whites. These systems included having property qualifications, membership of professional bodies and the possession of a university degree. As we can see already, exploitation was rife. Although the sugar colonies did wonders for the wealthy, it has generally been agreed that the colonies were dismal social failures. The work associated with sugar production was burdensome because it involved a considerable manufacturing input on the plantation, as well as harsh agricultural labour. That is to say, it was very labour intensive. It was for this reason that the slave trade developed and thrived. Natives, other Caribbean people and West Africans were all brought in to fuel the riches greed. The mortality of the slaves was high and overwork, malnutrition and resistance to their owners contributed to this. Planters needed an annual input of fresh slaves to keep up their stock, and the slaves were merely seen as a cog in the machine, and not human beings. Interestingly, no legal provisions were made for the Christianisation of slaves; they were generally regarded by the established Anglican Church as intellectually unable to comprehend the concept of the faith and Christian vision. To me, this was just an excuse to mal-treat the slaves. If they were Christian they would have to be looked after and cared for, but as heathens, it is only right to be treated how they "deserved".
Wide Sargasso Sea was set soon after the emancipation act of 1833, an act which banned slavery, and the date became important to all the colonies, and their inhabitants. Finally they were "free" from their suppressors, but at a price. Even after Emancipation in 1838, the unequal system continued. The first indication of this came with the awarding of some twenty million pounds to the planters by way of compensation, with nothing being awarded to the former slaves. The system tried to force them to continue the arduous work on the plantations by introducing high taxes on smallholdings, ...
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Wide Sargasso Sea was set soon after the emancipation act of 1833, an act which banned slavery, and the date became important to all the colonies, and their inhabitants. Finally they were "free" from their suppressors, but at a price. Even after Emancipation in 1838, the unequal system continued. The first indication of this came with the awarding of some twenty million pounds to the planters by way of compensation, with nothing being awarded to the former slaves. The system tried to force them to continue the arduous work on the plantations by introducing high taxes on smallholdings, high rates for licences or small traders, and contracts to shackle the labourers to the large plantations. The problems associated with the uneasy post-Emancipation time form the backdrop for the novel. However, the hatred and the animosity continued between the planters and the poor locals, and it is this which Rhys focuses on in the novel. There are deep underlying racial nuances throughout the novel, mostly focusing on the lead character, Antoinette Cosway. Antoinette can be accepted neither by the Negro community nor by the representatives of the colonial centre. As a white Creole she is nothing. "I never looked at any strange Negro. They hated us. They called us white cockroaches. One day a little girl followed me singing, 'Go away white cockroach, go away, go away,' I walked fast, but she walked faster, 'White cockroach, go away, go away. Nobody want you. Go away'" The taint of racial impurity, coupled with the suspicion that she is mentally imbalanced brings about her inevitable downfall. The black community does not accept her because she is white, and because of her Creole background, she does not fit in to the world of her English husband, Rochester. As a result of her disassociation with identity, she suffers a mental breakdown and descends into "madness." Society's refusal to accept her, her mother's unsupportive example, and her failed marriage are all separate components of the reason for this disassociation and her eventual loss of sanity.
Even Antoinette's friend, Tia, chooses to abandon her. Tia would harass Antoinette because Antoinette's family, once a wealthy slave-owning family, was just as poor as many of the black families living nearby. Antoinette says there are "plenty white people in Jamaica. Real white people, they got gold money. They didn't look at us, nobody see them come near us. Old time white people nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger." It seems almost as if Antoinette is in a no win situation, she is attacked for being white, yet in the same paragraph, it seems that she is attacked again for not being white enough. No matter what people try to do their past always haunts them, and this is the case in Wide Sargasso Sea as even Tia who had played with Antoinette in the past causes her harm by throwing a rock at her. "We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking-glass." The image of the looking glass is important because it symbolizes Antoinette's need to find her "other" self - her identity. Her inability to reach through to the other side of the mirror symbolizes her inability to find and grasp that other self.
Antoinette doesn't appear to get any form of support from her mother, who is more preoccupied with the young invalid, Pierre, and she looks up to her nanny Christophine for support. Christophine is black, Antoinette is white. Antoinette will always be beke; that is to say, she will always be classed as a white minority. However, she does not have the views and values of money that most beke have. Because she is a woman, she does not have access to her beke money, but she is barred from the black culture because of her whiteness. Despite her close relationship with Christophine, Antoinette is still not let entirely into the black culture, again indicating the legacy of slavery, and how the Black people will not forget their treatment easily.
Throughout the novel, there are various examples of difficult times in the past and these are subtly included by Rhys. The place of Rochester's and Antoinette's honeymoon is in a place called Massacre, in the Dominican Republic. According to local folklore, a mixed race man was murdered by his white half brother. Even this minute inclusion helps to demonstrate the mistrust between the black and white populations, and the deeply steeped hatred between them. There is also a strong sense of irony in the novel, with Mason stating about the local black population: "They're too damn lazy to be dangerous... I know that." It was a rather large mistake he made in underestimating the hatred that the Blacks held towards the White people. When you are poor and in strife, like most of the Blacks were, the extent to how far they would go could never be underestimated. It is hardly surprising that Jamaica held the record for the largest number of rebellions against White ex-slave owners.
In conclusion, I would not only like to comment on the ill treatment that the slaves incurred, but I would also like to comment on the way in which Antoinette never forged a serious relationship with anyone. She was the eternal outcast, as far as the story goes, and only regains her lost dignity and her identity when she burns down Thornfield Hall and jumps into the pool that symbolises her death. By jumping into the pool, she is finally able to merge the colonial blackness and Creole whiteness that have torn her apart and driven her to madness. Antoinette's disillusionment in her relationships with her mother and her husband, her lack of a strong connection with Christophine and Tia, and her inability to be completely understood by either the white culture or the black culture leave her as a woman without an identity driven into madness. Rhys's depiction of the effects of colonialism in the West Indies is a dark one. Antoinette's life is a picture of heartbreak, destruction and insanity in which there can be no "in-betweens." Rhys is able, however, to allow her character to transcend the bounds of repetitious entrapment which characterize so many stories of the Caribbean and allow her character liberation.
It is fairly evident that the legacy and history of slavery was a particularly important issue to Rhys whilst writing the Wide Sargasso Sea. The whole novel has a racial undertone, with fear, anxiety and danger surrounding the conflicts between the "white cockroaches" and the "niggers." I indeed can see how the Blacks are almost justified in their hated towards the Whites, as they were treated diabolically. However, you cannot change the past, so is it therefore fair of the Blacks to punish Antoinette for mistakes her family made years before?
Bibliography
Primary Source
* Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin, 2001)
Secondary Sources
* A.E. Smith, Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labour (Chapel Hill, 1947)
* Nicholas Canny, The Origins of Empire (Oxford University Press, 2001)
