Libertie

“I felt panicked. Not because of their sharp teeth or their hissing, but because of their need.” 

Libertie is not worried about physical pain when she begins caring for the feral cats. Instead, she is concerned with the burden of responsibility. She has been raised to follow in her mother’s footsteps, so every medical situation is a lesson that she must learn and learn correctly. Not only that, but Libertie’s actions reflect on her mother’s reputation, so she must always perform well. Her patients’ needs are a heavy burden for a young child to bear, causing Libertie to panic. 

“Mama, as always, was skeptical of any talk of homelands and empires.” 

While Libertie’s father was supposedly enamored of ideas for a homeland for freed African American slaves, her mother is more practical. Cathy does not entertain fantasies, as she does not believe in anything that she cannot achieve with immediate action. She is relentlessly practical, whereas her husband was a fantasist. While Cathy raises Libertie to follow in her own practical footsteps, Libertie cannot help but retain her father’s dreamlike optimism. She may not believe in homelands and empires, but Libertie will travel far in search of her own identity, which is markedly different from the one her mother tries to impose upon her. Nevertheless, Cathy’s skepticism regarding homelands does preview Libertie’s eventual disenchantment with Haiti, suggesting the two women have more in common than it might seem.  

“Their bodies are here with us in emancipation, but their minds are not free.” 

The novel often frames freedom in literal, material terms. Escaped slaves are “free” when they reach a certain piece of land; others believe their freedom lies in a different country across the sea, but nevertheless in a distinct place. However, the experiences of people like Ben Daisy reveal the ways in which freedom can be a state of mind. These people cannot break free from the trauma of slavery, and the struggle of adjusting to a world free of slavery is too much of a psychological shock. Cathy understands this and realizes that a doctor’s work does not just involve healing the patients’ bodies, but also their minds. 

“They’ve gone crazy. The whites in Manhattan have gone crazy.” 

New York is a member of the Union and fights on the side of the abolitionists during the American Civil War. Nevertheless, many white New Yorkers are not in agreement with the goal of racial equality. Racial tensions continue to simmer even in Union states, meaning that white people unleash violent, racist attacks against African American communities. The African Americans flee and try to make sense of the situation but can only assume that “the whites in Manhattan have gone crazy” (48). Racial resentment defies politics and common sense at the same time. 

“The mayor begged the governor for help, but the governor plans to come and cheer the rioters on.”

Lack of institutional support exacerbates the problems African Americans face before, during, and after the American Civil War. When an African American community is attacked, the governor not only ignores the community’s appeals but actively encourages the attackers. American society codifies racism to such an extent that institutional support—even in states that are supposedly pro-abolition—is simply not available to anyone but white people. 

“You, in the world, responding to me, is the song I made.” 

Cathy tries to explain to her daughter how much she loves her but lacks the poetic sensibilities that Libertie possesses. Cathy views Libertie as the living embodiment of everything positive in the world, but she struggles to find words to match the strength of this emotion. As such, she tries to frame her love in terms that Libertie will understand, suggesting that Libertie herself is a poem written with love and affection. Her words foreshadow Libertie’s love of music—a love that will ironically make her mother angry when it distracts her from her schoolwork. Cathy’s attempts to speak to Libertie in musical terms foreshadow their future disagreement and the central role that music will play in their struggles to communicate. 

“Mama was light enough that the white women did not feel awkward when her hands touched them. Mama, to them, was not all the way black.” 

Colorism is an important part of the novel, and Libertie is constantly aware of the darkness of her skin. She feels ostracized by white-dominated society to a greater extent than her lighter-skinned mother, and her skin marks her out as different even among African American people. While Libertie is a bright, intelligent girl from a good family, she still feels inferior because of her skin color. The existence of colorism even within the African American community shows the extent to which racism in a white-dominated society is internalized by all. 

“He told me I have a habit of looking back over my shoulder at the road behind us, and that is no good when you are traveling through open country.”

Libertie’s journey west becomes a metaphor for her struggles. The road west allows people to put their past behind him, as Libertie is encouraged to do. The journey into the unknown offers her the opportunity to push her worries into the distance and embrace a new identity. However, she cannot help but look over her shoulder at what she is leaving behind. Libertie is burdened with the expectations and the difficulties of her past, meaning that she can never truly look to the future. 

“She had a freedom I had never seen before. The freedom to laugh.”

One of the most important lessons Libertie learns is that freedom is not simple. There are many kinds of freedom and many ways in which a person can be trapped. The ability to laugh and the freedom to express oneself are important freedoms that do not necessarily correspond to slavery, abolition, or emancipation in an explicit sense. Libertie learns that even though she is technically a free woman, there are still many ways in which she is not entirely free to express herself. 

“This impotent anger was another kind of grave.” 

Libertie is lonely at college, but she feels as though she lacks the power to change her situation. More than the loneliness itself, this “impotent anger” is what causes her the most problems and makes her feel as though she is caught in a grave (93). Libertie does not want to quit school, but she also does not want to remain. She wants to make friends, but she fears what they might think of her. She feels trapped even though she has the capacity to change. Libertie herself recognizes this, which only exacerbates her feelings; she is angry that she feels so overwhelmed after a lifetime of being told that she is intelligent and capable. 

“This was even worse, to be set against a rival I could not even see, in a race I was no longer particularly interested in but, because of pride, I could not abandon.”

Libertie has abandoned any pretense that she wants to be a doctor, but her pride remains very much intact. Her mother raised her to be her most trusted helper, so the arrival of Emmanuel threatens the only position she has ever really held in life. She is not jealous of Emmanuel’s medical skills. Instead, she is jealous of the emotional space that he now occupies in her mother’s life. Her jealousy toward him shows that despite what she says, Libertie still seeks her mother’s affection.

“I sang for each one when they left me, but that’s my own song, and I wouldn’t sing it for a queen of anything.” 

Louisa and Experience are both former slaves, and they refuse to commodify their suffering. The college wants them to sing old slave songs to a majority white audience to raise money, but the girls reject this idea. Those songs carry a heavy emotional burden—a weight that is more important than any professional opportunity or financial consideration. Louisa does not want to turn her experiences as a slave into a money-making opportunity, as those songs are too dear and too painful. 

“That sigh behind a closed door in the dark was a song I had never heard either of them sing before.” 

When Libertie realizes that Louisa and Experience are lovers, she struggles to come to terms with this revelation. Her narration reflects this struggle, as she searches for a framework that will help her understand what has happened. She arrives at the metaphor of song, as songs were the medium that first brought her into contact with the two women. While they have shared many songs with her, this sound is one that they will never share. 

“And I, a fool, had mistaken it for a song of federation.” 

When Emmanuel talks about Haiti, his language inadvertently reveals the issues that will eventually drive a wedge between him and Libertie. He praises Haiti as a land of opportunity: a place where Black people can have a country of their own. However, as he describes Haiti to Lucien, he specifically states that Haiti is “for colored men” (131). While he is speaking in general terms, he notably only permits men to hold power in Haiti. Later, Libertie will come to feel as though he does not regard her as an equal and will complain that he seeks to maintain the patriarchal structures of the United States. With his offhand comment, Emmanuel shows that his misogyny is buried deep within his psyche—so much so that he isn’t even aware of it. 

“It is our own republic. It’s for colored men such as us.” 

When Emmanuel talks about Haiti, his language inadvertently reveals the issues that will eventually drive a wedge between him and Libertie. He praises Haiti as a land of opportunity: a place where Black people can have a country of their own. However, as he describes Haiti to Lucien, he specifically states that Haiti is “for colored men” (131). While he is speaking in general terms, he notably only permits men to hold power in Haiti. Later, Libertie will come to feel as though he does not regard her as an equal and will complain that he seeks to maintain the patriarchal structures of the United States. With his offhand comment, Emmanuel shows that his misogyny is buried deep within his psyche—so much so that he isn’t even aware of it. 

“All because he was sick with love and freedom.”

Libertie learns that freedom is an incredibly complicated idea. It is something to yearn and strive for, but attaining it can be deadly. Ben Daisy was “sick with love and freedom” and died as a result (136). After a lifetime as a slave, he suddenly had a taste of freedom but lacked the mental context necessary to make sense of his new world. The shock of his escape opened his life to so many possibilities that he became sick. Ben could only look to the past, obsessing over a lost love, because his present and his future were overwhelming. Libertie comes to realize that while freedom is important, the way in which a person achieves it frames their ability to make the most of their liberation. 

“You dreamt it for me.” 

Libertie has been told for her entire life that she will be a doctor. She has grown up in her mother’s shadow with Cathy preaching about the way in which they will work together as Dr. Sampson and Daughter. This dream always belonged to Cathy rather than Libertie. In their final confrontation, Libertie rejects her mother’s dream. This is a moment of liberation in which Libertie finally throws off the shackles of her mother’s ambitions. However, like many forms of freedom in the novel, the reality of the situation taints this liberation. By freeing herself from her mother’s dreams, Libertie is also robbing herself of a plan for her future and destroying an identity that she has built up over a lifetime. While she may be free of her mother’s dreams, she is now trapped in a state of listlessness.  

“All of the preparations I had made for the play wedding just a few weeks before suddenly became real.” 

The pretend wedding at Louisa and Experience’s performance becomes a simple metaphor for the rushed wedding between Libertie and Emmanuel. While the children’s wedding went through numerous rehearsals and careful planning, the actual wedding takes place as quickly as possible. The proximity of the two ceremonies makes Libertie’s wedding seem all the stranger, as though she and Emmanuel are children pretending to marry for the amusement of the adults. Unlike the children’s wedding, however, no adults seem happy. The strange, pretend nature of the children’s wedding manifests as a peculiar and awkward reality during the actual wedding. 

“He led me up the stairs, Ti Me behind us, carrying one of the trunks on her back.” 

Libertie arrives in Haiti and notices immediately that the separation between the light-skinned African Americans and the dark-skinned Haitians mirrors the system of slavery in America. In Haiti, the African Americans take on the role of white Americans and elevate themselves above the darker-skinned Haitians. When Libertie sees the strong young Emmanuel leave the dark-skinned Ti Me to carry his suitcase, she cannot help but notice the parallels. Despite their protestations, Emmanuel and his father are replicating old systems of servitude rather than creating new systems of liberation. They are making the same mistakes all over again. 

“The market was a kingdom of women.” 

The market is an important space in Haiti. Much to Libertie’s frustration, Emmanuel and his peers are recreating American systems of oppression in Haiti while claiming that they are creating a new, liberated country. For example, they seek to replicate the patriarchal system that oppresses women, so the market becomes the only space that the women have to themselves. In an ironic twist, the market is to the women of Haiti as Haiti is to men like Emmanuel: a space where they can be free of the systems that oppress them. 

“Wouldn’t it be kinder to tie him to a tree and come back for him?”

Emmanuel’s treatment of the horse confirms Libertie’s worst suspicions regarding her husband. He sees no issue in forcing the horse to work harder than it has to, just as he sees no issue with making Ti Me work for him or with recreating old oppressive structures in a new world. Emmanuel lacks empathy for the horse, for his servants, or for anyone who does not fit into his same demographic. While the treatment of the horse is not abhorrent to Libertie, it confirms a pattern of Emmanuel’s behavior that she has come to suspect will destroy their relationship. 

“The idolatrous Haitians worship the dead.” 

Ella complains that the Haitians “worship the dead” (204), but her criticisms betray her own lack of understanding. The deaths of their mother and siblings have shaped her and Emmanuel’s lives, while the death of Libertie’s father has dictated the course of her life. Every character in the novel is affected by death in some way. Ella mistakes the Haitians’ acknowledgement of the important role death plays in life for the kind of fervent worship that she practices in her father’s church. Ella’s inability to empathize with the Haitian culture shows why she will never embrace the people of the country in which she lives. 

“Papa…what he is doing is no different than what the slave masters used to do to our forefathers. Where do you think your mother’s pretty color came from? Where do you think mine did?” 

Emmanuel defends his father’s sexual abuse of many young girls, but his attempts to do so seem vapid and meaningless to Libertie. Emmanuel has spoken about a desire to create a new world in Haiti, but all he has done is make the same mistakes that formed the foundation of the old world. Using slavery and institutionalized rape to defend sexual abuse is a poor argument, and the idea that Emmanuel would use this defense shows the extent to which the old systems of oppression inform his character.