In Edward P. Jones’ The Known World the relationship between Caldonia Townsend, the wife and widow of Henry Townsend, and Henry’s overseer, Moses, symbolizes the psychological fallout that occurs, that is inherent, when one individual chooses to harbor the life of another in an effort to ascertain financial freedom.
From the outset Jones presents Caldonia as a person with secrets in her family, possibly kept from her, or worse denied by herself. She is a person of mixed and torn emotions.
Caldonia, “…was young and naively vigorous…had known but one death in her life, that of her father, who had been secretly poisoned by his own wife [Caldonia’s mother, Maude] …” (p. 5)
Midway the epic Jones amplifies his characterization of Caldonia and the nature of how slavery ensnares not only the slaves, but also those who hold the slave(s) captive.
Jones reveals that, “…Maude fears that Caldonia in her grief would consider selling the slaves… as if to accomplish some wish Henry…had been to afraid to try…” (p. 180)
“…Maude Newman…admonishes Caldonia, “…The legacy is your future…For Maude the legacy meant slaves, and land… the foundation of wealth…” (p. 180) She later adds, “‘…like your father, you have too much melancholy in your blood…’” (p. 181)
“….Tilmon Newman,” Jones exposes”… like Augustus Townsend [Henry’s father] had worked to purchase his own freedom. His plan had been to buy the freedom of all in his family [and then] to find a way to get all his slaves to freedom…” Of Maude Newman Jones writes, “…Her own family free for generations….they had never had enough to buy even one slave…” (p. 183-184)
Maude closes her exhortation to Caldonia with, “…It is so easy to go down in destitution…” (p. 183)
The true legacy Caldonia has inherited is the desire for financial freedom and the illusion that possession of money procured by whatever means, not excluding the ownership of human beings. Yet Caldonia’s soul, like that of her father’s, is torn. Her actions reflect this internal juxtaposition.
Evidence of this division emerges in the last third of the story when, “ …Caldonia made love to Moses for the first time …” (p. 284) On rising the next “… morning…Caldonia …stretched and yawned and wondered what in the end she would do about Moses. She did not think of him the way she thought of Henry Townsend the first morning after she met him… [a] morning she had gotten out of bed, afraid…she would [never] have the pleasure of seeing Henry again. Had she known that he had had similar feelings, she would have had the strength she had this morning …” (p. 285)
Caldonia never felt free in her marriage with Henry Townsend.
What was it that Caldonia witnessed in Henry that she did “… not…have the pleasure of seeing again?”
How and what about becoming intimate with Moses, her overseer and a slave, rekindled what she has briefly experienced with Henry, then dead?
Was the lack of intimacy between Henry and Caldonia rooted in Henry’s ownership of slaves, a venture of which Caldonia’s mother vastly approved and participated in—the participating of which Maude is afraid Caldonia will abandon?
And how interesting it is a member of what some might term, the weaker gender, Maude Newman, an African American woman—who clings so vehemently and holds up the banner of slavery?
When on the “… evening Caldonia allowed Moses to make love to her for the first time since …[a time when] three slaves went missing …[and Moses asks] ‘ When you gonna free me ?’”
Caldonia responds in accordance with the perceptions on life with which Maude has equipped her. “‘ Moses, I don’t want to talk about this.’ Freeing him had been on her mind, but she had never put a day and a time to it… But Moses is persistent . “…I want some free papers…” In Caldonia’s silence “… Moses left in a quiet rage …” (pp. 324-325)
Having sent his wife and children into freedom Moses in his failed escape was brought back to Caldonia’s plantation, a man …hobbled… and unable to walk or work.
Caldonia marries Louis …the bastard son of … William Robbins who had once owned Henry Townsend. (p. 371) Robbins had also owned Henry’s family. Setting Henry free Robbins helped Henry establish Henry’s own plantation and taught Henry the ways of owning people.
Yet the question remains: Why would Caldonia not set Moses free?
A symbol of Caldonia’s rare experience of freedom, Moses represents those moments wherein Caldonia while intimate with him, tasted freedom–times that Caldonia is liberated from the bonds and shackles of her mother Maude’s tutelage and the expectations concerning life that Maude has leveled upon her.
Jones never states what Caldonia saw when with Moses that she only glimpsed with Henry. This is the beauty of his work. What he does write in the closing of the story is that the known world of Henry and Caldonia Townsend’s plantation was where Moses “…. went into his dark cabin…did not light a lamp …” and lived out his life. (p. 387)
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