Justifications Through the Word "Right"

One of the major themes in The Known World is that slavery warps peoples’ ideas of good and evil and makes it hard to distinguish between good and bad people. This theme is seen through use of the word “right.” In this sense, the word “right” can be seen as a way to show how characters in the novel create twisted definitions of the word “right” so that they can justify their mistreatment of their slaves.

Robbins uses his definition of the world “right” to justify his owning and abusing slaves. When he is leaving, he says to Rita, “You see things go right,” and the narrator describes, “He meant for her not to let the boy go too many steps beyond his property” (16). To Robbins, “right” means that a slave stays on the property and does what he is told. Later, when a slave does not do what she is told, “[Robbins’] overseer flay[s] the skin on her back with whippings meant to make her do what was right and proper” (27). Robbins taught the overseer that to do right, slaves must do what they are told, and the overseer uses this definition of “right” to justify whipping the slave.

Other masters use their definitions of the word “right” to control the behavior of their slaves. In the passage in which Henry’s coffin is being built, the narrator describes how most free people in Manchester County were buried in coffins made of pine, and sometimes “The slaves sometimes got pine, if they had always done the right thing and their masters thought they deserved it” (72). Masters decide how to treat their slaves based on how well they follow their decisions about what is right.

After her husband’s death, Caldonia reflects on her husband’s treatment of his slaves, and decides that “Henry had been a good master, as good as they come…Yes, he had some slaves beaten, but those were the ones who would not do what was right and proper” (181). To Caldonia, “right” means that a slave does exactly what their master tells them to do, and she uses this definition to justify her deceased husband’s treatment of his slaves.

The characters in the novel have no solid distinction between what is right and what is wrong; those distinctions are left to each character to decide. Masters justify their mistreatment of other human beings by creating their own definitions of the word “right,” twisting the ideas of good and evil to make themselves look like the good people and force the slaves to do what they want.

Right vs Left in the Known World

According to the online Miriam Webster dictionary, the word ‘right’ can be an adjective, a noun, an adverb, or a verb. There are thirteen, nine, nine, and three different definitions for right respective to which part of speech is it functioning as, which adds up to a total of thirty-four different definitions. Such a plethora of definitions means it shouldn’t be a surprise the word right is used in a variety of ways in the novel “The Known World.” This prevalence, however, makes it difficult to come up with a coherent argument about the significance of the word right in the novel. Who is to say the meaning is the same when two characters are discussing one’s right and left (“The right leg of the doll”) as when the novel is using right to mean correctness (“he had not been able to get the knee to bend just right”) (9). When examined that way, the meaning of the word right seems very scattered.

It is perhaps more significant to narrow down one’s focus to a specific kind or right and analyze it that way, treating each definition as a separate instance. For example, when narrowing one’s consideration to the significance of right as a direction, right emerges as an indicator of popular opinion or conventions of the time. Henry, who all we know of at the time is that he’s a black slaveowner, has candles burning on the left side of the candlebra in his room but not the right (6). He defies expectations of both black and whites by owning slaves despite being a freed slave himself. The slave Celeste has a limp because of her right leg, its hampering of her movement a reflection of the way that the institution of slavery restricts her life. Her inability to run also keeps her husband enslaved, since he does not want to run away without her but knows that she would not be able to move fast enough to escape to freedom. Her right leg then operates as an enforcement of the popular institution of slavery. Louis has a lazy left eye, which means that his right eye is the one that focuses on people and obeys societal convention (24). Henry uses his right hand to demonstrate to Caldonia how one should properly ride a horse, and his left to demonstrate how one should not (142). In all of these instances where right is used as a direction, the right side indicates societal conventions or popular opinions of the time 

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.

"Right" in The Known World

            It is rare, within the pages of Jones’s The Known World, for ten pages to pass without the appearance of the word “right.”  Often, it will occur in several passages clustered together, page after consecutive page in which the word “right” works just at the surface of the reader’s awareness.  Frequently, it occurs multiple times on a single page – two, three, four, even seven times when Caldonia Newman and Henry Townsend react with almost hyperbolic awareness to encountering one another for the first time (142).  The novel is perhaps best described as – and, at the risk of revealing something which occurs at the very end of the novel, is in many ways confirmed to be – a tapestry.  Though the novel flows from character to character, leaps from time and place to time and place, the word “right” is a thread that passes through all of them.

            This immense frequency allows “right” a kind of multiplicity denied other words the reader may notice cropping up several times over the course of Jones’s book, and each facet of its use would seem to warrant extensive study on its own.  “Right” is directional.  Jones crafts his characters and their placement in their world with much care.  Calvin stands “at the post on the right” or a map’s legend is “in the bottom right-hand corner” or John Skiffington watches a cardinal fly “from left to right” (189, 174, 162).  “Right” is also tied up in issues of accountability – slaves, free blacks, and lower-class whites are urged to “do right by” someone in their family or in a greater position of power.  It is used in expressions of promptness or spatial and temporal closeness.  People come “right up,” go “right in,” sit “right” by others, people wish for things to happen or witness them occurring “right” in the present moment of their thoughts.  “Right” is a synonym for “good” or “well” when William Robbins’s black mistress, Philomena, declares that he isn’t treating her “‘right’” or when the sheriff insists that his job is to make sure everyone can “‘sleep right’” at night (116, 39).  One of the aspects of “right” at the heart of the novel, however, is the moral sense of what is “right” and what is “wrong.”  The novel remains remarkably objective about what the author may believe is “right” or what modern readers know to be culturally or socially “right” with the added benefit of over a century of historical separation, and instead Jones allows moral “right” to spill from the mouths of a variety of characters, to be perverted by the likes of Harvey Travis when he eats Augustus Townsend’s free papers and sells him to an interstate slave dealer while at the same time Harvey’s right is fought with Barnum Kinsey’s protestations of “‘That ain’t right, Harvey.  That just ain’t right’” (217, 212).  In this way, Jones uses “right” not only to inform, locate, detail, or describe but also to ignite their emotions and their own beliefs surrounding “right” and “wrong.”

Knowing What is Right

While tracking the word “right” in the novel, I found that people’s opinions concerning what is right only matter when those opinions are held by people of power.  In other words, characters in positions of influence force their ideas of what is right onto those “inferior” to them. 

            For example, on page 181, Caldonia reflects on how her husband conducted himself as a slave owner:  “Yes, he had to have some slaves beaten, but those were the ones who would not do what was right and proper.”  Because Henry owns other men, his ideas of right are forced upon those deemed his property.  Another example is found on page 263, when Priscilla asks Moses after he slaps her, “Why you gotta treat me this way, Moses?  Why you can’t do right by me?”  Moses then replies, “I do all the right I can do.”  This exchange makes it clear that, because Moses sees himself as superior to his wife, what he believes is right is what goes. 

            Tracking the word “right” also made manifest to me the fact that many of the characters in the novel struggle with balancing what they believe to be right, how they feel, and what their duties are.  Despite the fact that Henry is black and knows what it is like to be a slave, as is illustrated by the quotation above, he still beats his slaves when he feels it is merited.  Another prominent example is found in Fern Elston.  Many times in the novel, Fern thinks to herself, “I have been a dutiful wife.”  Yet, it becomes clear that Fern is in love with a gambler who owes her husband money.  Fern also owns slaves, though she is part African-American.

Countless other examples of characters’ inner conflicts can be found throughout the novel.  Augustus and Mildred Townsend are torn between the love they have for their son and the loathing they have for the institution that he perpetuates.  John Skiffington vows that he will never own a slave, and when he does obtain a slave, he and his wife treat her with care and kindness.  That being said, as the sheriff of Manchester County, it is Skiffington’s job to ensure that others’ slaves know and stay in their places, even though he knows that these slaves are not treated with kindness.  Robbins owns many slaves, yet he loves his African-American mistress and children more than he does his white family; he experiences “storms,” or periods of delusion, with which he believes he is plagued for his feelings. 

Overall, I feel that the use of the word “right” in the novel largely goes to show that, amidst the institution of slavery, power is more important than morality.  It also reveals that slavery and the culture that surrounds it leaves much grey area concerning what is moral.  

The Law is Right

The law is a national standard determining what is right and what is wrong in the government’s eyes.  In practice, it essentially is a country’s ethics.  In Edward Jones’s novel, The Known World, every character has his or her set of morals.  By his usage of the word “right,” Jones compares people’s beliefs and actions to the law, thereby demonstrating the subjectivity of supposedly common values.

The laws and customs of the United States are set-up as the basis for comparison by Jones’s use of the word “right.”  It is made apparent early into the novel that people are aware of how they are expected to behave.  For example, a slave woman who had become worse at her job after her children were sold received whippings meant for her to start doing, “what was right and proper” (27).  Right in this sense conveys the feeling that the woman behaved inappropriately in this situation, implying that she should have been doing something else instead of slacking off at her job.  Having a correct procedure for everything means that there is a clear distinction between good and bad.  In creating this dichotomy, Jones allows the law to become the basis for determining what actions are acceptable.  Indeed, John Skiffington embodies this statement when he makes a claim:  “I take no side but the right one” (158).  Skiffington, the town’s sheriff, acts as an agent for the law of the United States to be carried out under his jurisdiction.  By saying he exclusively takes the “right” side, he suggests that the law is also considered right in the same sense.  Therefore, everything that is against the law can be considered wrong and there is no grey area in the middle of right and wrong.

Jones subsequently uses the word “right” to compare the characters’ values to the law, revealing the underlying differences in their morals.  A major example of this is when Oden, Travis, and Barnum stop Augustus at night.  Augustus claimed he was “only doing what [he] got a right to do” (212).  He uses “right” to indicate that his actions, merely passing through the road at night, were allowed under the law.  This statement is put against the actions of the keepers of the law, specifically Travis.  When Barnum objects to Travis eating the papers, Travis tells him “right ain’t got nothin to do with it” (212).  Travis, an enforcer of the law, thereby claimed that the law did not apply to his own actions by using the word “right”.  However, Augustus had earlier said that the law was what allowed the black man to go as he pleased.  This demonstrates that both characters viewed the law in separate ways.  August felt that he operated within its bounds, earlier defined as acting “good,” whereas Travis thought that he acted outside of them, in the “bad” zone.  Thus, Jones had distinguished the characters’ set of morals via his usage of the word “right.”

Right in The Known World

Right and wrong are often subjective, circumstantial terms. As much as some would like to paint what is right and wrong in black and white, reality often complicates the issue. This remains true in The Known World, a novel revolved around slavery. Right is a dynamic term. While society today would look back on the antebellum South and say there was no room for any right in the institution of slavery, it being pure evil, the people of the day would disagree. Robbins feels his slave ownership is contributing positively to the world and that he has a stake in "keeping this world going right" (38). A merciless owner and unscrupulous businessman, Robbins honestly believes that his actions are the right way to go about things. Right is a justification of evil in the novel; it is an ever changing word that is used by people who want to write off their lack of morals as the ends justifying the means.

A popular term in The Known World is to "do right" by someone or something, meaning that the person in question acted in a way that is viewed as the best course of action. Fern Elston, for example, tells Caldonia she always thought Caldonia "did right in marrying him [Henry]" (7). Despite a desire to do right from just about everyone in the novel, an agreed upon definition of what right is is never established. Slaves were sometimes buried in pine coffins, but only if “they had always done the right thing and their masters thought they deserved it” (72). What is the right thing? It is whatever the master decides it is. But the right thing could vary from master to master; it could mean something different to a free black man, or a slave, or an abolitionist. It meant something different from patroller to patroller, as Harvey did not find it wrong to sell Augustus Townsend back into slavery, yet Barnum protested vocally, proclaiming, “That ain’t right, Harvey. This just ain’t right” (212). Right can take on whatever meaning or role it has to when it is convenient for the person using it.