What is "right"?

The word "right" in The Known World isn't a word that, if a person was simply flipping through the pages, will be found very many times. It's the lack of the usage of the word that makes it stand out. What is right versus what is wrong is a question that is asked many times, no matter how advanced or how knowledgeable people become. The ambiguity of right versus wrong is a theme that is very central to this novel. Obviously, slavery, being the focus of the novel, is a big question to the characters, whether it is right or wrong. And along with slavery, is it more “wrong” for an African American to own his own African American slaves? It’s a big question, because it’s not a topic that’s focused on in many novels about slavery. 

It also seems that what is “right” is usually deemed right by the more powerful characters in the novel. In the case of Jebediah, in chapter 8, nobody took his word for anything he said, because he was African American. Fern realizes that her husband is probably lying about not knowing him because it says, “Fern knew he was not telling her the truth” (254) yet she does nothing about it. The white people in the novel are always defining what is “right” and the African Americans always seem to be doing what is “right.” Jebediah says, “Please tell him to let me up, I’m gonna do right. I told yall that” (257.) He says he’s going to do “right” but does he really know what “right” is in this case? What is right is so ambiguous that people say they will do it, but don’t know what that really entails. The white/ more powerful characters in the novel are the ones who define right and wrong, even though their definitions are not completely accurate. The other characters in the novel are forced to abide by what the other characters believe and are constantly trying to do what it “right” for others.

The question of whether it is more wrong for an African American to own his own slaves, like the case of Henry Townsend, is an opinion of the reader. It could be seen as a man going against his own race by owning them or it could be seen as a man trying to make a living. Slavery is something that is very wrong but because what is right and what is wrong is defined by the very people who benefit from slavery, what is right wasn’t questioned.