Race, Theft, and Ethics: Property Matters in African American Literature

200 Pages·2007·1.183 MB·English

by  Lovalerie King

literary studies
“King thinks clearly and writes brilliantly, always thinking of multiple publics K Property Matters in
Race, Theft, and Ethics shows how African American In Race, Theft, and Ethics, Lovalerie King examines Afri-
literature deals with the racialized history of unequal as she balances discourses on literature, historical memory, and contemporary in can American literature’s critique of American law con-
United States events. This is the book we’ve been waiting for.” g
economic opportunity in highly complex and nuanced African American Literature cerning matters of property, paying particular attention
—maryemma graham, editor of Cambridge Companion to the African
ways, and illustrates that, for many authors, an essential to the stereotypical image of the black thief. She draws
American Novel
aspect of their work involved contemplating the tensions on two centuries of African American writing that re-
between a given code of ethics and a moral course of ac- R Race, Theft, and Ethics flects the manner in which human value became intri-
“Lovalerie King’s Race, Theft, and Ethics is an important study that focuses on
tion. A deft combination of history, literature, law, and cately connected with property ownership in American
a
a central issue in African American literature and in American culture more
economics, King’s groundbreaking work highlights the culture, even as racialized social and legal custom and
c
broadly. King presents ownership and property rights as complex legal issues,
pervasiveness of the property/race/ethics dynamic in the practice severely limited access to property. Using criti-
and African American literature, in her reading, has formed a consistent critique e
interfaces of African American lives with American law. cal race theory, King builds a powerful argument that the
of the American legal system’s definition of these issues. King’s book is a clear, ,
stereotype of the black thief is an inevitable byproduct of
T
passionate study of the way law and African American literature intersect to pro-
American law, politics, and social customs.
h
vide a rich history of texts for our ethical scrutiny. From early slave narratives
In making her case, King ranges far and wide in black
by Douglass and Jacobs, through Reconstruction-era fiction, through historical e
literature, looking closely at over thirty literary works.
fiction such as Morrison’s Beloved and Johnson’s Middle Passage, to the legal battle f
She uses four of the best-known African American auto-
t
surrounding the publication of Randall’s parody The Wind Done Gone, this wide-
, biographical narratives—Narrative of the Life of Frederick

ranging study reveals how persistent its central, crucial topic is. The implications a Douglass, Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave
of King’s book are profound, and it should have a central place on the bookshelves
n Girl, Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, and Richard
of everyone who studies African American literature.”
d Wright’s Black Boy—to reveal the ways that law and cus-
—d. quentin miller, editor of Prose and Cons: Essays on Prison Literature
tom worked to shape the black thief stereotype under the

in the United States E
lovalerie king, a professor of African American institution of slavery and to keep it firmly in place under
t
language and literature at Penn State University, is the the Jim Crow system. Examining the work of William
h
author of A Student’s Guide to African American Literature Wells Brown, Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson,
i
and coeditor of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: Com- c and Alice Randall, King treats “the ethics of passing” and
parative Critical and Theoretical Essays. s considers the definition and value of whiteness and the
relationship between whiteness and property.
Southern Literary Studies Close readings of Richard Wright’s Native Son and
fred hobson, Series Editor Dorothy West’s The Living is Easy, among other works,
question whether blacks’ unequal access to the economic
s
s
e opportunities held out by the American Dream functions
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS pr LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
ty as a kind of expropriation for which there is no possi-
Baton Rouge 70808 si Baton Rouge 70808
r
e ble legal or ethical means of reparation. She concludes
v
www.lsu.edu/lsupress e uni by exploring the theme of theft and love in two famed
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Jacket design by Amanda McDonald Scallan sta neo–slave or neo–freedom narratives—Toni Morrison’s
a Lovalerie King
printed in u.s.a. uisian IìS<B(Ns9k7)8k-0(-=8b0d71c-f3h25j7< -9+ ^ -Ä - U -Ä-U > LSU LSU Beloved and Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage.
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King/Race Theft and Ethics.indd 1 10/22/07 10:15:59 AM
Race, Theft, and Ethics
southern literary studies
Fred Hobson, Series Editor
Race, Theft, and Ethics:
Property Matters in African
American Literature
Lovalerie King
louisiana state university press baton rouge
Published by Louisiana State University Press
Copyright 2007 by Lovalerie King
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
first printing
designer: Amanda McDonald Scallan
typeface: Whitman, Impact, BlairMdITC TT
typesetter: J. Jarrett Eng., Inc.
printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
King, Lovalerie.
Race, theft, and ethics : property matters in African American literature / Lovalerie King.
p. cm. — (Southern literary studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8071-3257-9 (alk. paper)
1. American literature— African American authors— History and criticism. 2. Property in literature. 3. Theft in
literature. 4. African Americans in literature. 5. Law in literature. 6. Ethics in literature. 7. Race discrimination in
literature. I. Title.
PS153.N5K47 2007
810.9′355—dc22
2006039016
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guide-
lines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. >
Trudier, this one is for you!

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Race, Property, and Ethics: The Historical and Legal Equation 23
2. The Ethics of Living Slavery and Jim Crow 41
3. Theft and Love in Two Neo–Freedom Narratives: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and
Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage 67
4. Miscegenation, Disinheritance, and the Ethics of Passing 95
5. In Quest of the Elusive American Dream 126
Conclusion 146
Notes 159
Index 183

Acknowledgments
I began this project as an undergraduate student at Michigan State University
working under the mentorship of Dr. Larry N. Landrum. I credit Larry, now
a dear friend, with providing the germ that grew into this volume and for his
assistance in reading my fi rst attempts at a manuscript. In graduate school, I
had the extreme good fortune to come under the mentorship of Dr. Trudier
H arris (UNC–Chapel Hill), who nurtured my admittedly obsessive love for Af-
rican American literature. Rather than force me to become her clone, as some
mentors tend to do, she encouraged me to pursue the project about which I
felt most passionate, in my own way. A dear friend and tireless editor, Trudier
read and commented upon many versions of the manuscript for this volume. I
thank Trudier simply for existing and for taking me under her protective wing
when I needed it most. I must also thank Dr. William L. Andrews for allow-
ing me to audit his autobiography seminar at UNC–Chapel Hill, for reading
(in whole or in part) early versions of my manuscript, for directing me gently
toward deeper research, and for always being accessible and interested in my
work. To him and Dr. Frances Smith Foster of Emory University, I owe thanks
for making early African American literature so interesting and accessible.
Taylor Stoehr, a wonderful and generous colleague during my University of
Massachusetts–Boston years, read an early version of the manuscript and of-
fered invaluable advice about where to go for insights on property and ethics.
Lynn Orilla Scott, a good friend and one of the best readers on the planet, read
an early version of my manuscript and offered many useful suggestions. I am
grateful to Doug Taylor for pointing toward Thomas Jefferson. To my Winter-
green sisters for their ever- present love and spiritual support, my most heart-
felt thanks. To my children, Eric and Erin, my sister Earnestine, my d aughter-
i n-l aw Angela, and all the friends and relatives who gave me the space I needed