The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
This powerful, exquisitely crafted historical novel intertwines the stories of how two young women struggle to find their “wings” and voices in the early 19th century, one a young enslaved girl who eventually finds her way to freedom, the other a daughter of wealthy, prominent Southern plantation owners who, with her sister, becomes one of the unsung pioneers of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements.
Kidd drew on huge amounts of historical research to fashion the story of Sarah Grimke and her family from 1803 to 1838, their plantation and social existence in Charleston, and Sarah’s life journey and accomplishments. But though Hetty “Handful” was real, her story as a slave is fictional, created through Kidd's imagination, and she actually seemed more real to our readers and even to the author. The novel itself is structured so that chapters alternate between the two characters, turn by turn, and our group felt that this worked.
This is a world of the early 19th century in which "owning people was as natural as breathing" as was listing slaves and their values as ordinary possessions among the carpets and cloth in a plantation owner’s home. On her 11th birthday Sarah is given 10-year old slave-girl Handful as a gift, wrapped in lavender ribbons, a gift that Sarah tries her best to refuse, to no avail. A pivotal moment in the book comes with the discovery that Sarah has secretly taught Handful to read, a criminal offense both to her family and in South Carolina. Punishment is swift and cruel for both girls. Sarah is forever banned from her most treasured activity in the world -- access to her father's library and his books – and confined thereafter to learning the duties and skills of a future housewife under her mother’s heavy hand. Handful is severely whipped.
But Handful finds refuge in her mother Charlotte’s craft, learning to sew and quilt, and eventually given a modicum of independence by her owners to earn some money, as her mother did, as the best seamstress in Charleston. Ultimately it is this talent that will lead Handful to freedom: working with her mother on a quilt that tells the story of her family and her African heritage and later on a disguise, with the help of Sarah, that allows her finally to escape
At the same time, Sarah's parents crush her hope of studying law and becoming a lawyer like her father, labeling it unseemly and unattainable because she is a woman, even though he had thought her “remarkable.” A long, painful journey full of self-doubt ensues for many years, but through the Quakers and participation in the abolitionist cause she finds a way to liberate her mind and spirit. Sarah is soon joined by her fiery, determined younger sister Angelina, eventually both gaining national prominence in their crusade for women’s rights as well as abolition, although never overcoming overt prejudice toward their sex, even among New England’s Quakers, abolitionists, and preachers.
As with other books our group has read, including Beloved by Toni Morrison and How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, this book prodded our consciences and our consciousness in many ways, one of the author’s goals, especially about how easily cruelty, inhumanity, and evil can become normalized and justified. We talked also about the depths, richness, and experiences of many of the characters, especially Handful’s mother Charlotte, and about what courage it took to dare to undertake what seemed unattainable. Our readers, however, did question how a white an author could possibly know and write about what the slavery experience was really like and hoped someday we might find a book that dealt with this question. Some in our group, like very many in Kidd’s broader audience, were grateful to learn about Sarah and Angelina Grimke and their history-making role in abolition and the women’s rights movement. All in all, this was a tremendously inspiring, engrossing book and well worth reading.
---- Jessie von Hippel