Chesnutt’s “The Sheriff’s Children” develops further the moral and emotional complexities within slave families. In the Harriet Jacobs’ narrative, slavery affects Jacobs ability to create a family in the image she desires, or that her grandmother has been able to create. With this new perspective that Chesnutt presents, we are seeing a white father of an enslaved child grapple with his past decisions when face-to-face with his son. Additionally, we see the son grapple with his identity. Both of these authors seem to imply that slavery leaves a mark (physically in the image of their children or skin color and emotionally) on families who have been created by the sins, evils, wrong decisions, or harsh conditions of slavery. The son exclaims “You gave me a white man’s spirit, and you made me a slave, and crushed it out” (43). He goes further to explain that “no degree of learning or wisdom will change the color of my skin and that I shall always wear what in my own country is a badge of degradation” (43). This “badge” is immediately apparent as the sheriff’s son is the sole prisoner, suspected for the murder. There is no concrete evidence to prove his guilt, yet it is clear that there is no hope in a fair trial because his innocence is tied to the color of his skin. Therefore, Chesnutt presents an example of post-war racial discrimination, which the next generations of slave families will have to face.
However, the effects of slavery on the family are felt too by the Sheriff. Here, Chesnutt presents a very new perspective among these family dynamics – that of the regretful slaveowner/father. While it is clear that his son does not see him as deserving of this title or relationship, the Sheriff “saw that he had owed some duty to this son of his, – that neither law nor custom could destroy a responsibility inherent in the nature of mankind” (45). There seems to be a scarlet-letter-like burden of the consequences of his sins. He creates a plan that might “atone for for his crime against this son of his – against society – against God” (45). Ultimately, the Sheriff is too late, and his son has died by the fatal wound inflicted by the Sheriff’s legitimate child, Polly. The close timing seems to imply something of the permanent and emotionally costly actions of the white slaveowners who have fathered children by slaves. The notion of a moral turnaround being too late for the immediate discrimination a child of color will face. Thus, there is no reduction in emotional damage or ethical purity if the child has been sold far way, the effects are lasting.
What especially interested me about the passages/sentences you pointed to was the idea that the son’s mixed status affects how slavery interacts with him, specifically as it pertains to the idea that his father essentially cursed him with whiteness because it forces the child to balance having a “white man’s soul” with being a slave. As much as the father’s actions damage the family, they damage the son specifically because whiteness (per the concept the son pushes) should be irreconcilable with slavery. There is a ‘natural order’ which has been upset.
This post was really interesting to read because it brought up the way that there are so many emotional complexities when studying the history of enslaved people, and I think the passages that you chose did a really good job supporting your point. With Harriet Jacobs, there was a lot of emotion that she felt around having kids. She desired a family, similar to the one her grandmother had, but when she did have children, there were so many feelings around her being happy to have kids at last, but also being sad and scared that they were being born into slavery, especially when she had her daughter. I think there is an important discussion to be had around people who have had marks left on them by being enslaved; I think this also can be seen in the complex reactions Jacobs had to having her children. The quote you chose, “no degree of learning or wisdom will change the color of my skin and that I shall always wear what in my own country is a badge of degradation,” is a really great conclusion to this point in bringing up the fact that the skin color of enslaved people was always going to be a “badge of degradation.”