Our Nig as an Archival Study in Class, gender, and Race

2) Look up 2 unfamiliar terms

On 18p in Our Nig, third paragraph, there is a word, “utility”.

Mrs. Bellmont was in doubt about the utility of attempting to educate people of color, who were incapable of elevation. (Wilson 18)

To this word, Oxford English Dictionary Online provides several definitions. And I picked up some meanings below.

1. a. The fact, character, or quality of being useful or serviceable; fitness for some desirable purpose or valuable end; usefulness, serviceableness.
c. Philos. The ability, capacity, or power of a person, action, or thing to satisfy the needs or gratify the desires of the majority, or of the human race as a whole.
2. The quality of being advantageous or profitable, profit, advantage, use. Freq. const. of (a person, etc.). Obs.
3. a. A useful, advantageous, or profitable thing, feature, etc.; a use. Chiefly in pl.

My definition to the word utility is that the efficiency for life in terms of social elevation. It sounds that Frado is like an object in the narration and deserve to be educated only for elevation in society to overcome her colored skin.

My next word is “kind” on p19 of Our Nig.

“She looks like a good girl; I think I shall love her, so lay aside all prejudice, and vie with each other in shewing kindness and good-will to one who seems different from you,” were the closing remarks of the kind lady. Those kind words! (Wilson 19)

Very familiar word to us, kind is defined in Oxford Dictionary as below.

5. Of persons: Naturally well-disposed; having a gentle, sympathetic, or benevolent nature; ready to assist, or show consideration for, others; generous, liberal, courteous (obs.). Also of disposition. (This (with c and d) is now the main sense.)

One interesting thing in the sentence is that the dialogue doesn’t finish clearly with a period and it was continued to the narration. Narrator defines teacher’s attitude was kind which is usually used for sympathetic nature, but here it includes the ironic, paradoxical and satirical meaning. I would like to define the word as a limit of kind people that is related to the social context 19th century.

3) Study the title page

The subtitle “Sketches from the life of a free black” easily hints to us that it is a story about black people which is described realistically based on one’s picture in the mind and remembrance. But the sentence, “In a Two-Story White House, North” conflicts to the subtitle, because the white color is opposite to the black. In this way, the house could be a place in which the protagonist or the author suffered and took exigency in stark white place in the end. In addition the white directly gives us information about the house hold was occupied by white people and it was an agony for “the free black”.

Discussion Question:

Our Nig, draws a girl who was left into the Bellmont family. She is mulatto and thrown away by her mother, Mag because of her economic and social background. Mag gave up Frado. While she is adopted and then learning how to serve to the household errands, she is regarded as an inferior existence compared to people around her in and out of the white house.

When family member noticed that Frado was dumped into their house, they started arguing whether they should keep her or send her to County House. Mary denies Jack’s suggestion to take her for her safety because [she] [doesn’t] “want to take a nigger around her.” (Wilson 16) Finally, she starts to stay and work with staying in the household. Feeding the hens and washing dishes. And if she looks a trouble to the family, Frado is punished with whipping by Mrs. Bellmont. To Mary and her mother, Frado is not important one, doesn’t have any right to feel delight, but is a servant in order to pay back to the family. This is drawn by Mrs. Bellmont’s thought in which she thinks Frado doesn’t need education because of her inferiority. She defined education’s purpose for social elevation and also thought it’s not a good way for Frado. In this way Our Nig implies that colored people were hard to go to the school, because they couldn’t elevate their standing with black skin.

I think, Frado’s miserable condition, looked down severely, represents black people’s hardship in the U.S, partly. In the white house, except Frado, all blood members are white. Some of them help her and some of them disregard. I can’t simplify how Jack and others think equally Frado as a house member and a student, until reading to the last page of the novel, but it seems that there is a limit. Mr. Bellmont who has dignity in the house, tries to protect and respect her, but she is harmed and damaged when he is not around her. Also, the school teacher insists that school mates should compete to be good to her. However it doesn’t seem to come out of her inner truth. The scholar thinks Frado is a good girl and at the same time, she is different and induces prejudices. (Wilson 19) The anecdote in the school and the white house makes readers think about the depth of our sympathy and its sincerity.

The first page of the novel, there is a poem which supports the idea how Frado is sacrificed. It mentions “Calvaries” everywhere. (Wilson 1) Frado as a young girl is a guiltless and pure innocent. However, the world turns back against her. There is no reason but her difference. It is a story which shows about how a society limits to the human’s equality and makes her a tool to serve for others’ benefit.