Freedom is a reoccurring theme throughout Morgan’s The Sport of Kings. This novel takes place after the abolishment of slavery, but in the southern state of Kentucky, racism is still very real. Despite black people being the targets of oppression in this time period, I argue that the modern slaves in this novel are the white characters.
Black people are discriminated against, tortured, and murdered in this novel, whereas white people are not. The Reverend realized the gap between the two races, and he believed that if society kills you, then “You. Are. Black” (219). It is indisputable which of these two races experiences more violence and systematic oppression; I can’t argue with that. But I argue that the white characters are the characters who are stripped of their freedom and therefore enslaved.
For example, John Henry was a slave to his hatred of black people. He was a cruel, arrogant, and demanding man, but he was a smart one. His lessons came from the core of his being, and he taught Henry that murder “is merely the kind of excuse a weak man seizes upon to wriggle his way out of his real responsibilities” and that it is the “very definition of a…nigger” (49). Despite his belief, after his wife cheated on him with a black man, John Henry violated his morals and murdered Filip in cold blood.
Additionally, Henry was a slave to his father. During his childhood, he was forced to follow the orders of his father like a well-oiled machine. Even when he grew older, he felt that his father “owned him” (85) like a master owns a slave. Henry was unable to pursue his dreams of creating a horse farm until the death of his father. The passing of John Henry marked the first day of Henry being free.
Lastly, Henrietta was a slave to Henry’s thoroughbred dynasty. Growing up, Henrietta was poisoned with inappropriateness. At the age of nine, she was brought to view a horse breeding, which “is no place for a girl” and “barely a place for a grown man” (135). Henrietta was isolated on her family’s property, and despite her occasional vacations of pleasure at the bars, she was “as trapped as any Thoroughbred” (313). She knew no other life than the one she had, and she often looked along the large expanse of her family’s property and wondered what freedom felt like. She never gained her freedom, and Henrietta died a slave.
I do not necessarily disagree with you - I think the Forge children are certainly subordinated to an erroneous degree. However, I do think the novel is still trying to call attention to racial discrimination despite this context. Therefore, I think using the term "slave" might be going a bit far. The African Americans in the novel still suffer the most, objectively speaking. Filip was put to death for a consensual affair with the wrong person (Morgan 63). The Forges, despite their subservience to each other, are privileged. They are privileged - like Brett Kavanaugh, who was not put to death for sexual assault, but instead landed himself a seat on the highest court in the land. Similarly John Henry raped his wife and suffered no consequences (Morgan 70). That juxtaposition alone serves to show readers that racial discrimination is alive and well and will play a substantial role throughout the novel. Maybe Henrietta died without ever fully escaping the rule of her father, but Allman, because of the color of his skin and his station outside of the Forge family, faces true continued suffering. Henrietta never had the chance to know her son - she was dead. Allman should have known his son, but Henry Forge prevented another African American from having a basic right to his family - no unlike the slaves that were sold away from the sons and daughters, their fathers and mothers.
ReplyDelete