Kindred

So I was sold at last! A human being sold in the free city of New York! The bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the nineteenth century of the Christian religion.

-Harriet Ann Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861).

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Kindred is a novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler, first published in 1979, which remains widely popular. The story incorporates time travel and draws inspiration from slave narratives, including the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, who, like the novel's protagonist, was a slave in Maryland. Here is an audio version of the text at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Kindred/KindredunabridgedPart9.mp3

Context

Kindred is the first-person account of Dana, a young African-American writer who finds herself transported in time between her 1976 home in Los Angeles, California, and a Maryland plantation before the Civil War. There, she meets her ancestors: a proud Black freewoman and a white planter who has forced her into slavery. As Dana's stays in the past lengthen, she becomes deeply entangled with the plantation community, making difficult choices to survive slavery and ensure her return to her own time.

Butler often said she was inspired to write the novel after hearing a young Black militant classmate speak contemptuously of those who had been enslaved, claiming what he would or would not have tolerated if he had been in their position. She wanted people like him to not only understand the facts of slavery but to grasp its emotional impact and recognize that even surviving such an institution made their ancestors heroic.

Analysis: America is a disabled body

I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm. And I lost about a year of my life and much of the comfort and security I had not valued until it was gone.

Dana's opening lines in Kindred.

In Kindred, Butler reveals how slavery has disabled America. The reader follows Dana, the protagonist, as she moves between her present-day life in Los Angeles and a pre-Civil War plantation in Maryland. During these trips to the past, Dana repeatedly risks her life to save her white ancestor, Rufus, a dangerous slave master, while facing the brutality and horror of slavery. Through Dana and Rufus's relationship, Butler portrays the deep connection between Black and white people, illustrating how intertwined their lives are and how much they impact each other.

Dana's actions in the past directly affect her present, emphasizing that our histories are interconnected. Dana saves Rufus so that he can meet Alice and have children, ensuring Dana's own existence. Meanwhile, Rufus relies on Dana for his survival, despite the dangers he himself creates. This dependency highlights the relationship between Black and white people in America, a country founded by white people but built on the labor of Black people. Without the contributions of Black people, America would not be the powerful nation it is today. In 1965, James Baldwin addressed this dynamic in a now famous debate with William F. Buckley:

It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. And until that moment, until the moment comes when we, the Americans, we, the American people, are able to accept the fact, that I have to accept, for example, that my ancestors are both white and Black. That on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity for which we need each other and that I am not a ward of America. I am not an object of missionary charity. I am one of the people who built the country–until this moment there is scarcely any hope for the American dream, because the people who are denied participation in it, by their very presence, will wreck it.

Baldwin emphasizes that many African Americans have white ancestry, and that acknowledging this shared history is crucial for America's growth. The white and Black experiences may differ, but our collective history binds us together. Butler's choice to make Rufus and Dana related underscores this connection, illustrating that we all come from the same source. It challenges the notion that one community can be praised while another is disregarded, reminding us that we are one unit, working together like the human body, where all parts are interdependent. When one community is silenced and disabled, the entire humanity is disabled; if one community cannot function, that directly affects other communities.

The novel prompts readers to reflect on who truly represents America. In American media, white people are often privileged and prominently featured, depicted as the face of the nation. This is evident in politics, sports, and entertainment. However, Butler offers a different perspective on America's identity, highlighting the reality that America was built on the oppression of Black people. Kindred expresses this idea through its realistic portrayal of slavery and the trauma that Africans endured at the hands of their white oppressors. Dana, an educated woman, understands the hardships of slavery intellectually, but when she experiences it firsthand, as when she witnesses the whipping of a slave, she realizes the depth of its horrors:

I had seen people beaten on television and in the movies. I had seen the too-red blood substitute streaked across their backs and heard their well-rehearsed screams. But I hadn’t lain nearby and smelled their sweat or heard them pleading and praying, shamed before their families and themselves. I was probably less prepared for the reality than the child crying not far from me. In fact, she and I were reacting very much alike. My face too was wet with tears. And my mind was darting from one thought to another, trying to tune out the whipping.

This description suggests that slavery was far worse than America portrays, with the inhumanity and shame often concealed by an inaccurate narrative. Langston Hughes, an African American poet and social activist known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance, hints at this hidden shame in his poem "I, Too." Hughes writes,

Tomorrow
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America. (8-17)

In these lines, Hughes envisions a future where America acknowledges the contributions and sacrifices of Black people, recognizing their essential role in the nation's survival and growth.

American history includes many instances when we the people as a nation were left disabled, starting with the creation of slavery. America was built on the desire for England to exert more control over the colonies, with the nation founded in a fight for freedom and justice. Yet, this fight paradoxically led to the prolonged and ongoing oppression of Black people. Langston Hughes addresses this contradiction in his poem “Let America Be America Again,” where he writes,

O, let America be America again
The land that never has been yet
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again. (60-68)

Hughes argues that America has never truly been a land of freedom, emphasizing the immense contributions of Black people in building the nation, starting with African slavery, which was widespread in the United States from its founding in 1776 until the end of the Civil War in 1865, particularly in the South. Even after Reconstruction, the economic and social structures of slavery persisted through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing.

Kindred illuminates the devastating impact of slavery through the character Sarah, the plantation's cook whose children were sold into bondage to fund her mistress' finery. Dana's observations of Sarah's quiet but powerful anger reveal the depths of her suffering and the absurdity of a system that exploits those who sustain it: “The expression in [Sarah's] eyes had gone from sadness—she seemed almost ready to cry—to anger. Quiet, almost frightening anger. Her husband died, three children sold, the fourth defective, and she had to thank God for the defect. She had reason for more than anger. How amazing that Weylin had sold her children and still kept her to cook his meals. How amazing that he was still alive.” Similarly, the slave Alice tragically succumbs to the trauma inflicted by her white enslaver, Rufus, ultimately taking her own life.

Butler masterfully uses Sarah and Alice to symbolize the enduring psychological scars of slavery, suggesting that the trauma inflicted on enslaved individuals reverberates through generations. As Nathan Nunn's research on the long-term consequences of the African slave trade indicates, slavery's impact extends far beyond economic disparities:

Although research understanding the long-term impacts of Africa’s slave trades is still in progress, the evidence accumulated up to this point suggests that this historic event played an important part in the shaping of the continent, in terms of not only economic outcomes, but cultural and social outcomes as well. The evidence suggests that it has affected a wide range of important outcomes, including economic prosperity, ethnic diversity, institutional quality, the prevalence of conflict, the prevalence of HIV, trust levels, female labour force participation rates, and the practice of polygyny. Thus, the slave trades appear to have played an important role in shaping the fabric of African society today.

Descendants of enslaved people have inherited a complex legacy of trauma, resilience, and survival. Raised within families shaped by the experience of slavery, they have internalized the historical wounds of their ancestors while navigating a society still marked by the enduring consequences of systemic racism. These ongoing challenges, such as disparities in employment, housing, and education, perpetuate a cycle of oppression that hinders the full potential of Black Americans. They are often marginalized and silenced, facing obstacles like being passed over for job and housing opportunities, and suffering harassment and violence due to their race. This creates a world where Black people cannot live up to their full potential, echoing the survival rather than living experienced by their enslaved ancestors.

Butler's protagonist, Dana, embodies the potential that was stifled by slavery. A talented writer like her white husband, Dana demonstrates the intellectual capacity that was systematically denied to enslaved people. Alice, who looks exactly like Dana, represents the lost potential caused by slavery. She serves as a haunting reminder of the countless individuals whose lives and dreams were extinguished by the brutal institution of slavery. Alice could have been as successful as Dana and many other of the Weylin slaves had their own talents but were not allowed to explore them.

By denying Black people equal opportunities, society has also limited its own progress. A nation that truly values freedom and equality would foster a climate where all individuals can thrive, regardless of their race. Butler's novel serves as a powerful testament to the enduring legacy of slavery and the urgent need for continued efforts to dismantle the systems of oppression that persist today.

I touched the scar Tom Weylin’s boot had left on my face, touched my empty left sleeve.... "Why did I even want to come here. You’d think I would have had enough of the past."

Dana, talking to her husband after trying to find historical records of the Weylin plantation. Kindred, Epilogue.

The ADA defines a person with a disability as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. If we think of America as a body, slavery has limited its major life activities. The oppression of slavery has prevented the nation from experiencing the full potential of African American people. Slavery has traumatized an entire group of people, and its effects are still evident today. We see the prejudgment of Black people in politics, media, schools, and the workforce. Butler symbolizes America's disability through the scars and, in the case of Dana, the loss of a limb at the end of the novel. Both Dana and America understand that life will never be the same and that they must forever live with the legacy of slavery. These injuries represent the lifelong effects that slavery has had on Black people and the lasting scar it has left on America.

Critical thinking questions

• In Kindred, Butler depicts the community within the slaves and how they come together to help Dana. Without the isolating experience of slavery, do you think the slaves would have still had a sense of community and risk their own lives to help her?
• If you were born during the time of slavery would you take the risk of escaping?
• What long-term effects do you think slavery caused on African American people?

Further reading

The linked articles and videos below show the struggle and fight for justice that not only African American people experience but minorities as a whole.

• James Doubek, "Reimagining the James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Debate." An NPR discussion of the revisitation of the debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley from 1965, focusing on the American Dream’s impact on African Americans. It includes a link to a video of the original debate. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/20/914548619/reimagining-the-james-baldwin-and-william-f-buckley-debate
• Ta-Nehisi Coates, "The Case for Reparations." In this article, Coates argues that America must address its history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and racist housing policies to achieve true equality. Coates emphasizes the moral debt owed to African Americans and the need for reparations to heal and unify the nation.https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
• Richard Valencia, "The Mexican American Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity in Mendez v. Westminster: Helping to Pave the Way for Brown v. Board of Education." This article discusses Mendez v. Westminster, a landmark case where Mexican American students in California successfully challenged school segregation under the Fourteenth Amendment in 1946. This case laid the groundwork for Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 , highlighting the significant role of Mexican Americans in the broader struggle for equal educational opportunities. https://www.school-diversity.org/pdf/Valencia_The_Mexican_American_Struggle.pdf
• Nathan Nunn, "The long-term effects of Africa's slave trades." This paper examines the negative effects of Africa’s slave trades on current economic performance. Using historical data, it finds a clear negative relationship between the number of slaves exported and economic development, suggesting that the slave trades significantly hindered Africa’s long-term growth and stability. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/nunn/files/empirical_slavery.pdf
• Asia Society, "Asian Americans Then and Now." This page explores the significant role of Asian Americans in shaping U.S. identity, highlighting their contributions and struggles, including exclusionary laws and internment. https://asiasociety.org/education/asian-americans-then-and-now