The Passing of Grandison

“Young Owens had attended the trial of this slave-stealer, or martyr,—either or both.”

Dick Owens attends the trial of an abolitionist who tried to help an enslaved person get to freedom. This quote shows the dichotomy of how two distinct groups of American society might interpret the same action. The Southern slave-owning class would interpret the man as having stolen valuable property. To Northerners, who generally disfavored slavery, the man might appear as a righteous figure who was killed pursuing his firmly held anti-slavery beliefs. The man plays both roles in popular opinion simultaneously.

“When I hear of a cruel deed it makes the Quaker blood that came from my grandmother assert itself.”

Charity Lomax characterizes herself by reference to her grandmother’s Quaker blood. The Quakers were a religious group that had a wide influence among abolitionists and other anti-slavery activists. Charity seems generally sympathetic to enslaved people, although later she scolds Dick for his reckless attempts to free Grandison.

“Now, the colonel, while a very indulgent father, had pronounced views on the subject of negroes, having studied them, as he often said, for a great many years, and, as he asserted oftener still, understanding them perfectly.”

The colonel is characterized as both a kind father and an enslaver who incorrectly assumes that he understands enslaved people. Chesnutt subtly pokes fun at the character of the colonel, who seems to brag consistently about knowing the character of the people he enslaves. In this case, he believes that Tom aspires to run away. He happens to be right, but this does not prove this characterization true, as he substitutes Grandison, whose aspirations for escape are even grander than Tom’s.

“‘What’s the matter with Grandison?’ suggested the colonel. ‘He’s handy enough, and I reckon we can trust him. He’s too fond of good eating to risk losing his regular meals; besides, he’s sweet on your mother’s maid, Betty, and I’ve promised to let ’em get married before long.’”

The colonel reveals a measure he uses to manipulate the people he enslaves. Not only does the colonel wrongly believe that Grandison has no aspirations for escape, but he also reveals that even if he did, he has leverage to keep him in enslavement. The colonel correctly judges Grandison’s attachment to Betty, but he has no grasp of the scope of Grandison’s ambition. Ironically, Grandison’s love of Betty does not keep him in enslavement; rather, it leads him to free his whole family.

“The colonel was beaming. This was true gratitude, and his feudal heart thrilled at such appreciative homage. What cold-blooded, heartless monsters they were who would break up this blissful relationship of kindly protection on the one hand, of wise subordination and loyal dependence on the other!”

Many Southern enslavers were invested in the idea that slavery was a social and moral good that benefited both white and Black people. Many enslavers believed themselves to be benevolent “fathers” to the people they enslaved, caring for their needs and receiving labor and honor in return—a view that enslaved people presumably did not share, as Grandison’s escape demonstrates.

“I want to warn you, though, Grandison […] against these cussed abolitionists, who try to entice servants from their comfortable homes and their indulgent masters, from the blue skies, the green fields, and the warm sunlight of their southern home, and send them away off yonder to Canada, a dreary country, where the woods are full of wildcats and wolves and bears, where the snow lies up to the eaves of the houses for six months of the year, and the cold is so severe that it freezes your breath and curdles your blood.”

Colonel Owens contrasts Canada and Kentucky, depicting the former as uncivilized and dangerous, and the latter as warm and welcoming. The colonel undertakes a kind of propaganda to bias Grandison against escaping to Canada, where many enslaved people fled. His words are meant to retain Grandison as his property and are not based on concern for Grandison’s well-being.

“But there were negro waiters in the dining-room, and mulatto bell-boys, and Dick had no doubt that Grandison, with the native gregariousness and garrulousness of his race, would foregather and palaver with them sooner or later, and Dick hoped that they would speedily inoculate him with the virus of freedom.”

Despite his designs to free Grandison, Dick exhibits many of the racist beliefs of his time. He believes all Black people to be talkative and prone to gather in groups. He also thinks of freedom as a virus that is likely to infect anyone who hears of it or gets near it; this was common rhetoric in the 18th and 19th centuries.

“A wicked slaveholder from Kentucky, stopping at the Revere House, has dared to insult the liberty-loving people of Boston by bringing his slave into their midst. Shall this be tolerated? Or shall steps be taken in the name of liberty to rescue a fellow-man from bondage? For obvious reasons I can only sign myself, A Friend of Humanity.”

Dick writes a letter to famous abolitionists in Boston hoping they will find Grandison and convince him to escape. He adopts a heightened version of abolitionist rhetoric, exposing the contradictions inherent in the system that gave his family their wealth and power—that is, that the United States was founded on liberty, but human slavery contradicts that ideal.

“When he came back a couple of days later and found the faithful Grandison at his post, and the hundred dollars intact, Dick felt seriously annoyed. His vexation was increased by the fact that he could not express his feelings adequately. He did not even scold Grandison; how could he, indeed, find fault with one who so sensibly recognized his true place in the economy of civilization, and kept it with such touching fidelity?”

Dick again reveals the racist assumptions he holds. Like his father, he believes that the place of Black people in society to serve as slaves. The Owens family believes that Black people occupy a place lower in the human hierarchy than white people. Though he wants to free Grandison to earn Charity’s affection, Dick does not believe that enslaved people benefit from freedom.

“He wrote his father a letter which made the colonel swell with pride and pleasure. ‘I really think,’ the colonel observed to one of his friends, ‘that Dick ought to have the n----- interviewed by the Boston papers, so that they may see how contented and happy our darkeys really are.’”

The colonel perpetuates the myth of the happy slave. Newspapers in Boston and the North would usually run stories with anti-slavery sentiment, rather than pro-slavery sentiment. The colonel believes that Grandison’s behavior is a testament to the pro-slavery cause.

“Of course he might run away himself, and abandon Grandison, but this would be merely to leave him in the United States, where he was still a slave, and where, with his notions of loyalty, he would speedily be reclaimed. It was necessary, in order to accomplish the purpose of his trip to the North, to leave Grandison permanently in Canada, where he would be legally free.”

Dick’s decision takes into consideration one of the most important laws of the 19th century: the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which required the return of a runaway slave should they be found in any part of the United States. Anyone who came upon Grandison in the United States would be legally compelled to return him to Kentucky. In Canada, where slavery had been outlawed for twenty years preceding the time this story takes place, citizens and officials would be under no such pressure.

“One of the scoundrels wanted to kill him, and persuaded the others that it ought to be done; but they got to quarreling about how they should do it, and before they had their minds made up Grandison escaped, and, keeping his back steadily to the North Star, made his way, after suffering incredible hardships, back to the old plantation, back to his master, his friends, and his home. Why, it’s as good as one of Scott’s novels! Mr. Simms or some other one of our Southern authors ought to write it up.”

Enslaved people would often use the North Star to guide them on their journey north, toward freedom. Ironically, Grandison finds his way south by turning his back to that same star. Colonel Owens interprets this as a great success for the pro-slavery cause, which should be written up by an author of pro-slavery propaganda, such as William Gilmore Simms.

“Several times the hunters were close upon their heels, but the magnitude of the escaping party begot unusual vigilance on the part of those who sympathized with the fugitives, and strangely enough, the underground railroad seemed to have had its tracks cleared and signals set for this particular train.”

There were systems in place even in the South to help enslaved people escape to freedom. The Underground Railroad was a system of routes and safehouses meant to help escapees get to freedom. It took detailed planning and daring to escape, and people who worked on the Underground Railroad would often use codes to indicate whether certain points were safe for use. The Underground Railroad was prepared to help even a large group escape, indicating that Grandison and his allies planned meticulously for their departure.