Let Us Descend

“You the granddaughter of a woman warrior.”

This passage, spoken by Sasha to Annis, demonstrates the spirit of resilience that co-exists with the adverse impact of generational trauma within their family. Mama Aza passes down her skill as a warrior, her knowledge of her culture, and her strength of spirit to her daughter, and her daughter in turn passes these things on to Annis.

“I gather wood and haul water and take both up the stairs, peeking in my sire’s daughters’ rooms. They are my half-sisters; I have known this since my mother first taught me to fight, yet envy and distaste still burrow in me every morning when I tend to them.”

This passage speaks to the theme of enslavement and sexual assault, for Ward reveals that Annis’s enslaver is also her father. He subjected her mother to a series of rapes, and Sasha gave birth to Annis as a result of that abuse. Given that Annis’s very existence is overshadowed by such atrocities, it is all the more significant that in the course of her life’s journey, she eventually finds a way to break free of this cycle of enslavement and forge a new destiny for herself and her unborn child.

“However, Aristotle’s advice on those who labor and the fruits of that labor is sound; leave a hive with too much honey, and the beekeeper encourages laziness.”

These lines are spoken by the tutor during a lesson which Annis listens to quietly at the door to the school room. In it, Annis learns about bees and draws parallels between their matriarchal societies and the way that they are exploited for their labor and her own family and its history.

“My mother has told me the story of how he violated her.”

This passage, spoken by Annis, describes the way she learned the troubled and violent history of her own parentage. The moment speaks to the theme of enslavement and sexual assault, for Annis’s father is also her enslaver, and she is the product of rape.

“The days slip from one to another, only surfacing when me and Safi meet in the dark of my bed.”

This passage speaks to the depth of the bond between Annis and Safi. Annis’s memories of this relationship will sustain her both during her journey to New Orleans and during the difficult times she endures in Louisiana, helping her to maintain her resolve and her sense of identity despite the many dehumanizing forces that are ranged against her.

“Nan and Cleo and my mother talked about what it was to be sold, we all did, since we heard stories about what it was like, stories carried from one farm to another, one work camp to another.”

This passage speaks to generational trauma and to the theme of Families Destroyed by Enslavement. All of the people in Annis’s life have some experience of having been sold away from their family members, and they pass this pain down to their children and their children’s children.

“The tutor’s words ring through my head: Let Us Descend.”

These, the narrative’s titular lines, speak to the hellish conditions of enslavement. Annis finds Dante’s Inferno to be an apt metaphor both for her journey to the markets in New Orleans and for the practice of enslavement in general. She therefore returns often to passages from this text time and time again within the narrative, and Dante’s hellish imagery becomes a motif within the novel that emphasizes the unspeakable pain of the injustices that she endures.

“Rise. Only the dead lie, the warrior wives said.”

This passage emphasizes the theme of resilience and agency, demonstrating the incredible strength of will that characterizes Annis and the other enslaved men and women around her. The characters in this novel are survivors rather than victims, and they metaphorically “rise” above their misery.

“We smell the swamp before we see it. It reeks like the rice fields at first: black water, mud on the bottom, plant and animal turning to sludge in the deep.”

This passage places the novel in dialogue with the history of the many men and women who escaped enslavement by stealing away into the Great Dismal Swamp. It is also a moment of intertextual engagement with canonical narratives like Stowe’s Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.

“He echoes the doctor, telling me that I am a fancy girl, my only worth between my legs.”

This passage emphasizes the theme of enslavement and sexual assault. At the market for enslaved men and women, the traders intend to sell Annis into sexual enslavement, and it is only through her own self-advocacy that she avoids this fate. Thus, even in moments at which her freedom is most profoundly suppressed, she finds ways to express her own agency and alter her fate for the better.

“I thought I could teach her something that could save her from this. But all’s I did was make it easier for them to send me.”

This passage highlights the theme of Families Destroyed by Enslavement. Annis and Sasha are separated from each other by their cruel enslaver, and their story is by no means exceptional. Many of the people whom Annis meets in this story have shared similar separations and these experiences become a source of generational trauma for the enslaved and their descendants.

“I drink more water and eye Esther’s collar bone, thin as a paring knife. I look at the long line of Mary’s neck, and I know all of them is starving.”

In this passage, Annis realizes that the people on the plantation to which she has just been sold are not properly fed. They live under cruel conditions, but their experiences speak to the theme of resilience and agency, for they are able to supplement their diet through hunting and foraging, persevering in the face of extreme difficulty.

“The white mansion eats our labor in great gulps, hour after hour, until we are standing at attention behind the lady’s table, waiting.”

This passage speaks to the brutality of enslavement and draws a parallel between the lives of the enslaved men and women with whom Annis lives and works and the colonies of bees that she finds so captivating. Ultimately, both groups are exploited for their labor and do not get to enjoy its fruits.

“I saw that despair whittled away at through those that crawled through the cane and the hive of the house. But I also saw a vein of green running through every man, woman, and child.”

This passage speaks to the theme of resilience and agency. Annis sees “despair” but also hope in the tableau before her. Although the lives of the enslaved people are impossibly difficult, they continue to persevere and maintain their strength, their agency, and a deep sense of their own humanity.

“Was a place up north called the Great Dismal Swamp, word was they had whole families, whole communities living there.”

This passage highlights one of the text’s most important points of historical connection: the long history of communities of enslaved men and women who were able to escape and find sanctuary within the Great Dismal Swamp and other hidden backwaters throughout the South.

“His turgid, rot-heavy weight pulls at my shoulders, makes my knees grind.”

In this passage, Annis is forced to help bury the bloated, diseased body of one of her enslavers. It is an example of grotesque imagery that is meant to accurately portray how horrific the conditions were for enslaved people. It is also a physical representation of the rot that inhabits this man’s very essence. An enslaver and a serial rapist, he is portrayed to be literally “rotten” to his core.

“I blink at the tender wisp, remember the last, when Safi laid her fingers on my cheek before she ran at the waterfall.”

This passage speaks to the idea of the agency of memory. In it, Annis uses memories of Safi to bolster her inner strength. She focuses on moments of past sweetness rather than on her present conditions, and in so doing, she is able to tolerate the intolerable.

“She whips the poker at my head. I lean away and block with the kindling, but the wood splinters, and the metal catches my temple and pain explodes, sizzling hot.”

In this passage, Annis is brutally assaulted by her enslaver. The scene shows the horrific nature of enslavement and also the role of white women within this brutal system. It is the woman on the sugar plantation who treats Annis with the most cruelty.

“I wake in the black fist of the earth. I am in the hole. Above the roof of soil, the sky is storming, and in the rooting of thunder, I recognize Aza; she is spinning, shaking her skirts, clapping her hands, and lightning the sky.”

In this passage, Annis has been sent to the hole by her cruel female enslaver on the sugar plantation. The scene speaks to the brutality of enslavement and the conditions of complete inhumanity which Annis and her fellow enslaved men and women are subjected to. However, when Annis is able to free herself from both the hole and from enslavement itself, this passage also highlights the theme of resilience and agency, for Annis is not a passive victim, but a survivor.

“I jab through the earth. I am the weapon.”

In this passage, Annis frees herself from the hole, and the scene recalls her mother’s earlier words of wisdom to her daughter. She has now become her own weapon and her own instrument of freedom. Although she draws on the strength of her family and their shared history, ultimately it is Annis who secures her own escape from her situation.

“My own weapon, I think, and I stir the awl, desperate, breathing fast, panicking until there is a small give, the most infinitesimal of settling clicks, and the lock opens.”

This is an important passage. In it, Annis has tried unsuccessfully to remove the grate covering the hole, but then she remembers her grandmother’s awl. Using the tiny weapon crafted by Mama Aza and given to Annis by her own mother, Sasha, she is able to free herself from both the hole and the lifelong ravages of enslavement.

“I knew something then. I wanted to live.”

These lines are spoken by the spirit of Mama Aza when she finally visits Annis during the young woman’s escape. The statement reflects the theme of resilience and agency and shows how these traits are passed down through the women in Annis’s family both despite and because of their traumas.

“I want to lead. I want to find my own way through this knot of woods, drying towards their winter sleep.”

This statement reflects the theme of resilience and agency, detailing Annis’s contemplations as she makes her own way for the very first time, determined to forge a new life for herself, and to provide safety and shelter for her child in the woods. Armed with the new strength of her many life lessons, she finally settles in the vicinity of the great lake near New Orleans.