Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black

“Thus she lived for years, hugging her wrongs, but making no effort to escape. She had never known plenty, scarcely competency; but the present was beyond comparison with those innocent years when the coronet of virtue was hers.” 

In Mag’s lifetime, she has never known anything but poverty. This passage suggests that her virginity was the only virtue she had. By losing her virginity, she comes to know even deeper poverty than before. Without any chance at upward social mobility, she resigns herself to her impoverished fate.

“I’m glad […] if there is one who isn’t glad to see me suffer. I b’lieve all Singleton wants to see me punished, and feel as if they could tell when I’ve been punished long enough. It’s a long day ahead they’ll set it, I reckon.” 

A black man named Jim is the only person in the town of Singleton where Mag lives who has shown her any kindness. The town casts judgment on Mag for having sexual relations and bearing a child out of wedlock. Jim is the only one who does not seem to care about these social judgments towards her, taking pity on Mag instead.

“Pity and love know little severance. One attends the other. Jim acknowledged the presence of the former, and his efforts in Mag’s behalf told also of a finer principle.” 

When Jim gets the idea to marry Mag, he questions his own motives to propose to her. He wonders if he is acting out of pity or love. He concludes that the two can be accompanying feelings. While pity is something he acknowledges feeling for Mag, he determines that his desire to marry her comes from a greater sense of honor, one beyond sympathy.

“You’s had a trial of white folks, any how. They run off and left ye, and now none of ‘em come near ye to see if you’s dead or alive. I’s black outside, I know, but I’s got a white heart inside. Which you rather have, a black heart in a white skin, or a white heart in a black one?” 

In this statement, Jim makes a case as to why Mag should marry a black man like him, despite social scrutiny of interracial relationships. He tells her that while her own white people have ostracized her, he is good to her. Drawing on the racialized correlation between blackness and evil, whiteness and good, he argues that he has a “white heart inside,” and that this is what she should consider when she makes her decision regarding his proposal.

“Poor Mag. She has sundered another bond which held her to her fellows. She has descended another step down the ladder of infamy.”

When Mag agrees to marry Jim, she does not realize how much her social position would be further impacted by entering into an interracial relationship. While she suffered social ostracization before from her loss of virtue, a relationship with a black man makes her an even more unpopular figure in Singleton, given the stigma of interracial relationships at the time.

“A few expressive wishes for her welfare; a hope of better days for her; an anxiety lest they should not all go to the ‘good place’; brief advice about their children; a hope expressed that Mag would not be neglected as she used to be; the manifestation of Christian patience; these were all the legacy of miserable Mag.”

When Mag moves in with Jim after they marry, the judgments of the town suggest that people are not welcoming of their new relationship. These judgments include caution about the mixed-race children and the social scrutiny they will face. There are white Christians who do not believe that black people are allowed in heaven. This judgment is cast on Mag and Jim’s future children. 

“She was now expelled from companionship with white people; this last step—her union with a black—was the climax of repulsion.” 

While Mag was socially ostracized from other white people before for being poor and unwed, her marriage to Jim incites a new level of prejudice towards her. The stigma against interracial relationships is so great that it incites “repulsion” among the townspeople. Mag’s decision to be with a black man is considered a betrayal to her race, further distancing her from her community.

“There’s Frado’s six years old, and pretty, if she is yours, and white folks’ll say so. She’d be a prize somewhere.” 

Shipley, a friend of Jim’s, suggests to Mag that she give up Frado, as their impoverished conditions are too dire to feed and sustain two children and themselves. It is implied that Shipley selects Frado as the child to leave behind because she is fair-skinned and resembles Mag. The lightness of her skin may make her more socially acceptable to white people.

“She was shown how it was to always be done, and in no other way; any departure from this rule [was] to be punished by whipping.” 

Frado is left behind by her family at the Bellmonts, leaving her in their care. Mrs. Bellmont has a reputation for her cruelty towards her help, and her treatment of young Frado is no exception. In this first mention of whipping as a form of punishment, it is suggested that while slavery is outlawed in the US North, where the Bellmonts live, the characteristics and attitude of enslavement persist. This becomes true of Mrs. Bellmont’s attitude and treatment of Frado.

“At first she wept aloud, which Mrs. Bellmont noticed by applying a raw-hide, always at hand in the kitchen. It was a symptom of discontent and complaining which must be ‘nipped in the bud,’ she said.” 

As the mistress of the house, Mrs. Bellmont’s sense of punishment extends beyond the normal bounds of redress. She punishes for “discontent” as a way of grooming Frado to become submissive to her at a young age. This behavior also mirrors the cruelty of slaveowners who punish their slaves as a way of ridding any rebellious impulse.

“She could not influence her schoolmates as she wished. She had not gained their affection by winning ways and yielding points of controversy. On the contrary, she was self-willed, domineering; every day reported ‘mad’ by some of her companions. She availed herself of the only alternative, abuse and taunts, as they returned from school. This was not satisfactory; she wanted to use physical force ‘to subdue her,’ to ‘keep her down.”

Mary despises the fact that Frado attends the school as her. She becomes even more bitter when a teacher intervenes on Frado’s behalf and convinces the students to be kinder to Frado. The students eventually grow to like Frado due to the novelty of her identity as a mixed-race person in the school and her spirited demeanor. While Frado grows in favor with the students, Mary becomes more like her mother, in regard to irritability and cruelty. Other students take note of this as well. Seeing Frado’s growing popularity exacerbates Mary’s desire to punish Frado, as Mary resents the idea that a black girl can win over others before her.

“She was not many shades darker than Mary now; what a calamity it would be ever to hear the contrast spoken of. Mrs. Bellmont was determined the sun should have full power to darken the shade which nature had first bestowed upon her as best befitting.” 

In one of several references to Frado’s skin color, the passage alludes to Frado’s light-skinned complexion, which makes her a more socially-acceptable person of color than one who is darker-skinned. Seeing Frado’s proximity to social mobility, Mrs. Bellmont desires for the young girl’s complexion to darken so that Mrs. Bellmont can be further justified in treating Frado like someone with even less social access.

“How am I to help it? Women rule the earth, and all in it.” 

Throughout Mrs. Bellmont and Mary’s abuses of Frado, Mr. Bellmont takes no action, making him complicit in the young girl’s poor treatment. His insistence to Aunt Abby that “Women rule the earth” offers a flimsy excuse for his unwillingness to intervene in the violence within the household. He permits Mrs. Bellmont and Mary to do as they wish, despite his power as the household patriarch.

“Why didn’t he make us both white?” 

Frado laments her status in life as a mixed-race orphan. She wonders why she was not born white like her mother. If she were white, Frado thinks, Mrs. Bellmont and Mary would not feel as justified to exact such cruel punishment towards her. Frado knows that their cruelty is exacerbated by their resentment of her blackness. Rather than feel pride about her identity, she wishes she were different instead.

“She was told she had much more than she deserved. So that manual labor was not in reality her only burden; but such an incessant torrent of scolding and boxing and threatening, was enough to deter one of mature years from remaining within sound of the strife.” 

Mrs. Bellmont frequently reminds Frado that she should be grateful to be taken in by the family at such a young age. However, this is a manipulative tactic that undermines Frado’s sense of self-worth. In addition to the physical punishment she endures from Mrs. Bellmont, such psychological manipulation adds to Frado’s suffering.

“It is impossible to give an impression of the manifest enjoyment of Mrs. B. in these kitchen scenes. It was her favorite exercise to enter the apartment noisily, vociferate orders, give a few sudden blows to quicken Nig’s pace, then return to the sitting room with such a satisfied expression, congratulating herself upon her thorough house-keeping qualities.” 

This passage highlights Mrs. Bellmont’s sadism and ironic lack of self-awareness. She punishes Frado without any just cause. It brings her a sense of satisfaction to do so, believing that her punishment of Frado is her contribution to the housework. In reality, Frado is the one performing the most arduous household chores, while Mrs. Bellmont’s punishments only deter the young girl from doing her best job.

“I hope she is thoughtful; no one has a kinder heart, one capable of loving more devotedly. But to think how prejudiced the world [is] towards her people; that she must be reared in such ignorance as to drown all the finer feelings. When I think of what she might be, of what she will be, I feel like grasping time till opinions change, and thousands like her rise into a noble freedom. I have seen Frado’s grief, because she is black, amount to agony.” 

While there are white people in the US North who possess racial prejudice, such as Mrs. Bellmont and Mary, James proves to be an exception. He expresses sympathy towards Frado’s circumstances. He believes that societal attitudes towards black people contribute to the limitations of Frado’s potential such that she has internalized this herself. He anticipates the liberation of all enslaved black people in the US, so that gradually opinions about black people can change.

“Frado, under the instructions of Aunt Abby and the minister, became a believer in a future existence—one of happiness or misery. Her doubt was, is there a heaven for the black?” 

In the efforts to cultivate Frado’s spiritual and personal growth, Aunt Abby takes the young girl to evening sermons. During these religious services, Frado begins to imagine a future for herself, though her circumstances limit her imagination to one of hope or despair. She has trouble believing in a heaven for black people like herself since the only discussion of a happy afterlife she has known has been for white people only.

“[…] you know these niggers are just like black snakes; you can’t kill them.”

In Mrs. Bellmont’s justification to Mr. Bellmont of her ill treatment of Frado, she uses the young girl’s racial identity as an excuse for her ability to endure major physical punishment. However, Mrs. Bellmont’s justification only highlights her racial prejudice towards black people; she employs similar logic as white slaveowners who inflict cruel physical punishment on their slaves. The slave-owning logic is that black people are able to endure more physical punishment than white laborers, giving further reason to exploit black labor.

“I’ll beat the money out of her, if I can’t get her worth any other way.” 

In another instance of Mrs. Bellmont’s employment of slave-owning logic in her control of Frado, the mistress assigns a monetary value to the young girl, as if she were her slave. Fearing that Frado will reach the age where she is no longer legally bound to the Bellmonts, Mrs. Bellmont vows to wear the young girl down through overwork and punishment. Mrs. Bellmont’s dehumanizing approach to Frado reveals that she is no different than the white slaveowners of the US South.

“As she saw his body lowered in the grave she wished to share it; but she was not fit to die. She could not go where he was if she did. She did not love God; she did not serve him or know how to.” 

With James’s death, Frado finds her spiritual and religious education cut short. While James’s final message to her is to be good, so that she can enter heaven, she has no sense of her greater purpose aside from her immediate grief. She loves James so deeply that she wants to end her life and be with him in the afterlife. Her desire to go with James to heaven has nothing to do with her love of God, as she has not yet developed a sense of worth and purpose in the world beyond the few people who are good to her.

“She remembered her victory at the wood-pile. She decided to remain to do as well as she could; to assert her rights when they were trampled on; to return once more to her meeting in the evening, which had been prohibited. She had learned how to conquer; she would not abuse the power while Mr. Bellmont was at home.” 

Once James passes away, Mr. Bellmont tries to take a more active role in Frado’s spiritual education. While Frado finds his lessons to be less effective than others, she feels emboldened by his caution that further punishment may harm her in life. This inspires the young girl to eventually stand up for herself when Mrs. Bellmont tries to beat her. When Frado confronts Mrs. Bellmont, she is surprised to find herself successful in warding off punishment. This success encourages her to take greater control of her life.

“Expert with the needle, Frado soon equaled her instructress; and she sought also to teach her the value of useful books; and while one read aloud to the other of deeds historic and names renowned, Frado experienced a new impulse. She felt herself capable of elevation; she felt that this book information supplied an undefined dissatisfaction she had long felt, but could not express.” 

After many trials following her exit from the Bellmont house, Frado eventually finds a lucrative career in making straw bonnets. As a hard worker, Frado excels at the trade and benefits from literacy instruction from her trade teacher. This literacy instruction has a major impact on Frado’s life, as it not only supplements her religious education but gives her a sense that she can elevate her social status in life. This marks a major step in Frado’s spiritual and personal growth.