In her novel The Bondswoman’s Narrative, Hannah Crafts highlights the impossibility of southern Christianity. While many southerners claim to be men of God, their pledge to preserve the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery supersedes their Christian morals.
When relaying the legend of Rose and her execution, Crafts notes of Sir Clifford that he “made it a boast that he never retracted, that his commands and decisions like the laws of the Medes and Persians were unalterable” (22). This boast is an apparent reference to the Persian Empire as described in the Old Testament. In the Book of Daniel, the presidents of the kingdom of Persia convince King Darius to ban prayer for thirty days “according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked” (Daniel 6:8). The King does so and is soon after forced to throw Daniel, his most distinguished and faithful servant, into a pit of lions.
Through this literary allusion, Crafts endows Sir Clifford with a profound knowledge of the Bible at the exact moment that he needlessly sentences Rose and her innocent dog to death by torture. In this scene, Clifford knowingly commits a grave sin while comparing himself to the “villains” of the Old Testament, yet calls himself a Christian. Just as the strange immutability of Persian law forces King Darius to kill his beloved servant Daniel, the inherent evil of slavery forces Sir Clifford to kill poor Rose and her dog. Through this passing allusion, Crafts proves that it is impossible to be both a slaveowner and a Christian.
- Where else in the text does Crafts criticize southern Christianity?
- Most of the epigraphs Crafts uses at the beginning of each chapter are also from the Bible. What implications do her biblical reference have for the intended audience?