By Heidi Simmons
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The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd
Fiction
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We live in a world where there is an ongoing history of shameful human behavior. Recent headlines continue to inform us that people can act in despicable ways. What lessons have we learned?
In Sue Monk Kidd’s new novel, The Invention of Wings (Viking, 373 pages), she constructs a first person narrative about American slavery based on the real lives of the Grimké sisters who took a stand as abolitionists and feminists.
The story begins in 1803, Charleston, North Carolina, when 11-year-old Sarah Grimké is given, as a birthday gift, ownership of a ten year-old slave girl named Hetty, also known as Handful.
As a small child, Sarah witnessed the beating of her mother’s personal slave, at her mother’s request. Sarah was traumatized at the first blow. Little Sarah develops a stutter and terrible distaste for people owning people. In addition to the family home, they have a large plantation with more slaves.
A precocious child, Sarah is more interested in her father’s work — a judge — than woman’s work — needlepoint and home details. She longs to be a lawyer, desiring a life with purpose.
At an early age, Sarah’s learns Latin and she reads in her father’s extensive library. She is her father’s favorite daughter until she uses legal means by way of a “certificate of manumission” to free Handful. The document is torn up and she is punished.
When another Grimké is born, Sarah asks to be baby Angelina’s godmother. Sixteen years older, Sarah shapes her little sister with her anti-slavery views.
Handful’s mother Charlotte, is a troublemaker and rebel, but is tolerated because she is an expert seamstress. She sews a quilt with the story of her life starting with her grandmother leaving Africa. She tells Handful that those that came before had wings and could fly away from harm or bad spirits. Charlotte informs Handful that her skinny shoulder blades used to be wings. She says no matter what, mother and daughter could never be separated. One day they will be free.
Sarah is Handful’s first indoor assignment. She is confused by Sarah’s strange nature. Sarah just wants to be friends. Handful develops a rebellious side like her mother that makes her difficult.
Seeing that Sarah is different from the others, Charlotte makes Sarah promise she will free Handful some day and Sarah agrees. As time goes by, she realizes how difficult it will be to keep her promise. As a woman she has little say about anything.
Soon Sarah comes to realize teaching Handful to read is one way to free her. Handful becomes a good reader and learns to write. When it is found out, Handful is whipped and Sarah is banned from the library and forbidden all books.
As the women age, conditions do not improve. Sarah refuses to become a “society” woman while the horrible treatment of slaves exists in her community– including in her own home. Her father is ridiculed for his softness on slavery laws, partly brought about by Sarah’s outspoken nature.
When Judge Grimké becomes ill, Sarah must take her father north to Philadelphia for medical treatment. There she discovers a new world where both white and black people live freely together.
After her father’s death, Sarah decides to stay and is befriended by Quakers. Drawn to their liberal ways — anti-slavery and clergywomen — she finds her purpose and decides to become a Quaker minister.
Eventually, Sarah and Angelina move north – the only place they can openly express themselves. With the help of northern Abolitionists, they each write a pamphlet that circulates across the country causing an up-roar. Even Handful finds a partly burned document blowing on the ground in Charleston. The sisters are banned from Charleston with orders to be arrested on sight for sedition.
With the sisters gone and the death of Charlotte, Handful can no longer bear to live as a slave under Mrs. Grimké and plots her escape. She writes Sarah and says she will be free or die. At risk to her own freedom, Sarah returns home to help free Handful as promised.
This fictional account about slavery and freedom is told by Sarah and Handful as a first person narrative. Kidd has successfully taken real lives and events and formed them into a story that gives the reader a personal look at the tremendous struggle, shameful horror and terrible cruelty that is slavery.
The real Grimké sisters not only worked hard to tell people the truth of what life was like for slaves, but insisted slaves be freed and made equal citizens. They thought the best way to bring about change was to appeal to women – both in the north and the south.
Even with the Quakers, the sisters became aware of their limitations due to their gender. They realized their fight for the freedom of slaves was also a fight for the freedom of women! The Quakers asked them to not pursue the feminist issue, afraid it would divide the abolitionists – which it did. The sisters were excommunicated from the Quaker community.
My favorite sentence in the book comes when Angelina and Sarah are asked to abandon their feminist stance. Sarah says to the Quaker leadership, “All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our neck.” The line was actually spoken by Sarah Grimké.
This is skilled story telling, merging facts with fiction. It is a testament to Kidd’s thorough research and ability to create a powerful narrative around truths that are relevant and meaningful.
The Invention of Wings is a captivating story about women desperate to take flight but are held down by the “man.” Makes one wonder if people will ever get it right.
