The Known World Chapter Summary

The Known World: A Novel
“An Ironic Oddity in African American U.S. History”
The Known World: A Novel (2003) is the Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel by Edward P. Jones. The book was praised by critics for its provocative depiction of the complexities of slavery in the United States and helped establish Jones's reputation as an author of note. Jones was inspired while attending College of the Holy Cross when he learned that a few free blacks owned slaves in pre-Civil War America. The author spent about ten years developing the story idea and reading books about slavery before writing the novel in late 2001 and early 2002.
While The Known World includes the truth about black slave owners and captures the essence of the era, its people,
We meet his former owner and benefactor, William Robbins, who loves a black woman and provides her and their children a home that no one else in the county would dare provide slaves. Henry, his wife, and her twin brother are literate, having been trained by Fern Elston, a freeborn black woman. From census data and touching narrative, we begin getting a feel for the horrors of slavery, including blacks owning blacks, in the late 1830s through 1855, the year of Henry's death at age thirty-one. Chapter 2 describes how Manchester County enters a period of peace and prosperity under Sheriff John Skiffington, who believes the bible condones slavery, but he will not be a slave-owner. Relatives give him and his bride Winifred a slave, whom they treat more as a child, without setting her free. The white slaveholders put Skiffington in office after a spate of slave disappearances, climaxed by the escape of Henry Townsend's surrogate mother, Rita, on the day Henry's parents finish paying for his freedom. The rift between Henry and his father, Augustus, hinted at in Chapter 1, is mentioned again, but the nature of this remains to be revealed. Chapter 3 shows how Henry's family and slaves react to his death and prepare for his funeral. What follows
I do think a white man could have written the story just as well, by saying that a white man could not write it as well would be prejudice and ignorant. I see no difference in color and what it plays on someone’s intellectual mind. Because the story is fictional, I do believe that a white man could have written with the same conviction, because Edward Jones was not a slave, so I do not think it would have made a difference. Also by saying that, I believe that it was more impactful coming from a black man, because the story and the realness was so startling. As my title includes, The Known World displays an ironic oddity in African American U.S. History. I believe this book opened the eyes to many blacks and whites, but mostly surprising to the black community I would think. The title of The Known World is so very substantial and impacting for the overall novel and its powerful stance for slaves and masters alike, as well as for the author and his readers—slavery creates a past full of horror that haunts the present and dooms the future. As The Known World makes clear, no American is ever free from its consequences. The Known World is a novel that begins with thoughtful interest and, without ever losing that interest, becomes steadily more harrowing. In the same way, Mr