The National Book Award for Fiction winner in 1990 was Middle Passage by Charles Johnson. The title is a reference to the long and often terrifying transport of African slaves across the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. The historical context of the significance of the title is that the term “middle passage” became synonymous with the inhuman treatment of those forcibly taken against their will from their homeland to be sold into bondage in a strange land populated by a sadistic society.
The episodic narrative of Middle Passage takes the form of a dated diary penned by Rutherford Calhoun, a freed slave from Illinois who lies his way into a job on a slave trade vessel and, when his deception is uncovered, agrees to work undercover for the captain to help investigate a planned mutiny by the slaves. The stylistic conceit of an educated slave writing about playing a double role during a slave uprising on a transport ship is central to the thematic sense of duality as well as the structural foundation. By telling the story as a personal narrative seen through the eyes of a black man raised in but not as a part of white society, Rutherford Calhoun fully inhabits the double narrative of African-Americans of which W.E.B. DuBois speaks. Underlining this cultural imposition of seeing things through the eyes of comparison is the metaphorical language dispersed throughout his journal accounts.
The pages are filled with a simile that seeks to find meaning and definition through contrast and association. This style seamlessly reflects the personal journey of discovery of his meaning and definition. Throughout the novel, Rutherford changes profoundly. He starts as an utter rogue whose plan to escape a forced marriage is to steal his way into a job on a ship that he does not realize is used for trafficking slaves. While the novel is a larger indictment of slavery, it is another Picaresque novel that thrusts one man into an insane world packed with insane characters and incidents to test whether he can learn to become a better human or give in to insanity himself.
Rutherford Calhoun may start as a little big man seeking only to escape responsibility. However, by the time the ship he is on has charted its final course through the Middle Passage, he has become a big little man who has found his small niche within the world and is content.
"Middle Passage" is a historical fiction novel written by Charles Johnson and first published in 1990. The novel is set in the early 19th century and tells the story of Rutherford Calhoun, a freed slave who escapes from slavery and takes a job as a sailor on a ship called the Republic. The ship is involved in the illegal trade of enslaved Africans, known as the Middle Passage.
The novel explores the theme of the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and the dehumanizing effects of slavery. The book is also an exploration of the complexities of human experience and the moral and ethical dilemmas that arise when people are forced to make difficult choices to survive.
The novel is notable for its use of magical realism and its combination of historical fact and fiction, it also offers a powerful critique of American slavery and how it dehumanized and commodified human beings. Through the eyes of Rutherford Calhoun, the reader experiences the brutal and inhumane conditions on board a slave ship and the dehumanizing treatment of enslaved Africans.
The novel also explores the theme of identity and self-discovery, as Rutherford Calhoun, the protagonist, struggles to understand his place in the world and his relationship to his past, present, and future.
Overall, "Middle Passage" is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that offers a fresh perspective on one of the darkest periods in American history. It is a moving and deeply affecting work that is historically accurate and emotionally resonant. It challenges the reader to consider the legacy of slavery and its ongoing impact on American society today.
