Summary
Judges/Proverbs
The novel opens with an address to the reader: “You do not yet know us.” The voice goes on to claim that a story is coming, which is the entire purpose of ‘your’ being. It says that it will tell us the truth, but that we will believe it to be a lie. In the next chapter, there is a point-of-view switch to an unknown woman. Presumably she is a slave, as she is a mother mourning the loss of her child who has been sold off by the slave master. The mother speaks to her lost child, wondering about his well-being. Her son is down in Mississippi according to the voices that speak to her with “old words.”
Psalms
On the Halifax plantation (more commonly called Empty by the slaves who are bonded to work there) in Mississippi, the summer heat is making work difficult for its enslaved workers. Samuel and Isaiah, finished with their day’s work, share a passionate embrace in the privacy of their barn, where they sleep at night beside the animals. Isaiah thinks back to his arrival at Empty years ago, and his first meeting with Samuel. Straining to remember details about his parents, Isaiah asks if Samuel ever wonders about his mother.
Deuteronomy
Samuel wakes up the next morning to see Isaiah hard at work already. Samuel is displeased to see Isaiah so compliant to the slave plantation’s rules, and shies away from Isaiah’s open affection in the daylight. Isaiah argues that he doesn’t want to see Samuel hurt, as slaves are punished frequently and brutally on the plantation, to which Samuel replies, “Maybe you can’t stand to see me free neither?”
Watching Isaiah, Samuel remembers when they first came together as lovers. They were young, naive, and unashamed of their love for each other in the precious time they had. Back in the present, Samuel contemplates Isaiah’s question from the previous night, and sees “the shadow of a woman” rising from the dark at his feet. He thinks it could be his mother, and points it out to Isaiah, who is unable to see it. As they watch, James the overseer and three other toubab (white people) emerge from the woods. Samuel wonders if a runaway slave has been caught.
Maggie is starting off the day in the Big House, where the slave-owning Halifax family lives. She lets out the hounds that Paul keeps to chase down runaway slaves, and begins to make breakfast. An old injury in one of her legs pains her, but Maggie is content with herself and her appearance, and silently celebrates her rebellious confidence in the face of her oppressors.
Tending to dough for bread, Maggie is puzzled by the creative and venomous cruelties of slave-owners, and recalls an incident when Paul made her hold his penis as he urinated, first into a bedpan and then on her chest. She also remembers when she first arrived at Empty as a companion for Ruth and was gifted a luxurious white dress, only to be accused of theft and beaten harshly. From this incident, Maggie learned the power of a toubab woman’s tears.
Maggie was also forced to breastfeed Adeline, Paul and Ruth’s daughter, and grew an intense dislike of children. In her own way, Maggie performs small acts of defiance and rebellion: she rubs nightshade on her nipples to kill the children she is forced to breastfeed and she adds drops of snake venom into her cooking. Despite these rebellious acts, however, Maggie is forced to face the fact that she has been broken by Empty. Maggie thinks about a few other slaves on the plantation: Essie, another female slave who is nursing an infant, and Amos, Essie’s lover who is slightly suspect because of his proximity to Paul, the plantation owner. The sun lightens, and Maggie is reminded of Samuel and Isaiah in the barn, whom she privately calls “The Two of Them” because of their unusual closeness.
She is unable to explain her fascination with Samuel and Isaiah, except that their persevering romance in the face of slavery is remarkable to witness. Maggie sets the table for the Halifaxes’ breakfast. Amos, who preaches about the same god the Halifaxes pray to, gives sermons on Sunday in the woods. While he is gifted at talking, the contents of Amos’s sermons have begun to take on a darker, meaner tone, specifically towards the Two of Them, Samuel and Isaiah. Maggie disapproves. Paul’s footsteps are heard coming down the stairs.
Analysis
The novel begins with an ominous direct address to the reader: “You do not yet know us.” This voice of a collective ‘we’ is repeated throughout the novel, interspersed in chapters titled after books of the Old Testament between chapters titled after character names. In this opening, the voice warns of harsh truths and punishment to come, foreshadowing conflicts of self and identity.
Several rapid point-of-view switches occur in the first few chapters, from second-person plural to first-person limited to third-person omniscient, creating a sense of grandness and epic scope. This is a novel that will explore several different points of view.
Isaiah and Samuel’s narrative in Psalms introduces a more grounded setting and location: the Halifax plantation in Mississippi, which is more commonly called Empty by its slaves. The intimate conversation and sex between Samuel and Isaiah serve to establish the closeness and intimacy of their relationship. Isaiah thinks about his past and asks Samuel if he ever wonders about his mother. The present is connected to the past, and the conversation draws a direct connection to Isaiah’s mother, who we saw thinking of her son in the second chapter.
Tensions between Samuel and Isaiah arise, however, and the main source of conflict in their relationship is made clear: Isaiah’s gentler, more passive nature clashes with Samuel’s angrier, aggressive approach to their unjust condition. This is a theme that will recur frequently throughout the novel, and Samuel says, “Not in the light” twice to Isaiah, refusing his affections in the broad daylight.
Maggie’s small acts of rebellion and defiance illuminate a much-overlooked facet of slavery: slaves fought back in the ways they could. The absence of explicit and total revolt did not necessarily entail a submissive acceptance of the white man’s superiority. There is also a valuable first glimpse of Samuel and Isaiah from an outsider’s perspective, as Maggie observes that even just “witnessing is a treasure."
