Slave on the Block

“So they went in for the Art of Negroes—the dancing that had such jungle life about it, the songs that were so simple and fervent, the poetry that was so direct, so real. They never tried to influence that art, they only bought it and raved over it, and copied it. For they were artists, too.” 

The Carraways’ belief that consuming Black art is part of what makes them artists is an example of cultural appropriation. The Carraways think that they can embrace and create Black art without embracing real Black people and the culture that produces this art.

“Of course they knew Harlem like their own backyard, that is, all the speakeasies and night clubs and dance halls, from the Cotton Club and the ritzy joints where Negroes couldn’t go themselves, down to places like the Hot Dime, where white folks couldn’t get in—unless they knew the man. (And tipped heavily.)”

Like many wealthy white people of the period, the Carraways can cross the racial divide as patrons of clubs in Harlem, a Black quarter of New York that inspired the Harlem Renaissance. Although the Carraways claim to love Black people, they’re complicit in white supremacist power structures because they support clubs that practice racial segregation. Their sense of pride in the ability to use their wealth to enter Black spaces is further evidence of their complicity.

“As much as they loved Negroes, Negroes didn’t seem to love Michael and Anne. But they were blessed with a wonderful colored cook and maid—until she took sick and died in her room in their basement.”

This is a moment of irony. Based on the reactions of Black people to the overtures of the Carraways, it’s obvious that their condescension is offensive to most Black people, but the Carraways are unaware of why.

“‘He is the jungle,’ said Anne when she saw him.”

The jungle symbolizes primitive Blackness. Anne’s description of Luther as being a creature of the jungle, when Luther is a young man who lives in the city and has never been in the jungle, is language that objectifies and dehumanizes Luther.

“They suspected, though, that Mattie just liked to get up to Harlem. And they thought right. Mattie was not as settled as she looked. Once out, with the Savoy open until three in the morning, why come home? That was the way Mattie felt.” 

This passage captures the deep divide between how the Carraways and Mattie experience life. Although Mattie is an employee and a 40-year-old woman, the Carraways see it as their business to know where she is. Her decision to stay out expresses her desire to claim time for herself and claim leisure as a source of pleasure. The Carraways’ concern over how she spends her time reflects their paternalistic attitude toward their Black employees.

“And he was an adorable Negro. Not tall, but with a splendid body. And a slow and lively smile that lighted up his black, black face, for his teeth were very white, and his eyes, too. Most effective in oil and canvas. Better even than Emma had been. Anne could stare at him at leisure when he was asleep. One day she decided to paint him nude, or at least half nude. A slave picture, that’s what she would do. The market at New Orleans for a background. And call it ‘The Boy on the Block.’”

This passage exemplifies fetishization, objectification that has sexual undertones. Hughes only hints at the presence of sexual desire of white women for Black men—possibly because of the taboos around it—by revealing how Luther’s nakedness thrills Anne.

“She wanted to paint him now representing to the full the soul and sorrow of his people. She wanted to paint him as a slave about to be sold. And since slaves in warm climates had no clothes, would he please take off his shirt. Luther smiled a sort of embarrassed smile and took off his shirt.” 

Anne’s concern here is to achieve an artistic effect, one that locates Luther firmly in a slave past. She seems oblivious to the reality of Luther’s embarrassment to be naked in front of her. This interaction shows that her obsession with her art and appropriation of Black culture fail to compel her to treat Black people with real respect.

“Before luncheon Michael came in, and went into rhapsodies over Luther on the box without a shirt, about to be sold into slavery. He said he must put him into music right now. And he went to the piano and began to play something that sounded like Deep River in the jaws of a dog, but Michael said it was a modern slave plaint, 1850 in terms of 1933. Vieux Carré remembered on 135th Street. Slavery in the Cotton Club.”

Michael, like Anne, appropriates Black culture and does so in a way that shows he has no true understanding of what that culture is. The references to “Deep River,” the Old French Quarter, and slavery show that he sees the painful history of slavery as a kind of spice he can add to his work to make it more interesting. That the music sounds like “Deep River in the jaws of a dog” shows that appropriation produces bad art, making it doubly offensive to Black sensibilities. Modern Black people are not slaves, so Michael’s seeking through his music to re-create the slaveholding aesthetic in modern Harlem reveals his insensitivity to Luther and Mattie.

“‘I does my work,’ said Mattie. ‘After that I don’t want to be painted, or asked to sing songs, nor nothing like that.’”

Here, Mattie is expressing her displeasure with how the Carraways objectify her. Making her pose for paintings treats her as an object and steals her leisure time for her employers’ pleasure.

“For Luther had grown a bit familiar lately. He smoked up all their cigarettes, drank their wine, told jokes on them to their friends, and sometimes even came upstairs singing and walking about the house when the Carraways had guests in who didn’t share their enthusiasm for Negroes, natural or otherwise.” 

“Familiar” in this case reveals that Luther isn’t adhering to the expected power dynamic in which white people decide where he can move and how he can comport himself. The Carraways find Luther insubordinate because he acts in ways that extend beyond what will bring them pleasure and entertainment. The last line shows that the Carraways think they have collected Luther like the sheet music and manuscripts of Black artists that the second paragraph of the story describes. What they see as insubordination, however, is Luther’s refusing objectification.

“And sometimes there were quarrels drifting up from the basement. And often, all too often, Mattie had moods. Then Luther would have moods. And it was pretty awful having two dark and glowering people around the house. Anne couldn’t paint and Michael couldn’t play.”

Michael and Anne don’t see Luther and Mattie as human beings who have their own interior lives. Their perspective is that any evidence of unpleasant emotions is a problem because it impedes their work. In other words, they focus on themselves and their desires rather than wondering what might be wrong with their employees.

“One day, when she hadn’t seen Luther for three days, Anne called downstairs and asked him if he wouldn’t please come up and take off his shirt and get on the box. The picture was almost done. Luther came dragging his feet upstairs and humming: ‘Before I’d be a slave / I’d be buried in ma grave / And go home to my Jesus / And be free.’”

Luther is singing “Before I’d Be a Slave (Oh, Freedom!),” a post-Emancipation song that former slaves sang to celebrate their liberation and reject efforts to further oppress them. The choice of song links Anne’s insistence that Luther pose with the imposition of restrictions on the Black body by slaveholders. Luther’s song is an indirect expression of rebellion against Anne’s objectification of Luther.

“Mrs. Carraway screamed, a short, loud, dignified scream [….] ‘Never, never, never,’ said Mrs. Carraway, ‘have I suffered such impudence from servants—and a n***** servant—in my own son’s house.’”

Mrs. Carraway’s racism is of the old type. She expects absolute deference from the Black people who surround her. Her scream and appeal to her white male son’s authority echo the way in which protecting white women was often a pretext for killing and abusing Black men. Her objection to Luther is the last straw for Michael, and he kicks Luther out. Michael’s choice to go along with his mother’s wishes instead of keeping Luther around so that Anne can finish her painting shows that he has reverted to a more traditional notion of race relations.