Amos Fortune, Free Man

“The At-mun-shi were as pagan as all the tribes in Africa, but they were peaceable and they were, as well, intense in their love of freedom.”

The word “but” signals a contrast between “pagan” (non-Christian in this context) and “peaceable,” meaning that there is an assumption that the African people from which Fortune originates are exceptional in their peacefulness. This quote is also where Yates first introduces the theme of freedom, which reverberates throughout the entire novel.

“Monkeys, chattering in their aerial homes, peered out at the sight of the canoes, and swung from limb to limb to travel with them for a while.”

In Chapter 2, Yates describes the various animals observing the captured At-mun-shi as they travel down the river in the canoe. The monkeys observing them foreshadows their arrival on the auction block, where the At-mun-shi people are scrutinized and made to look like “animals” in Yates’s words.

“Blossoms of brilliant hue were twice beautiful as they found their reflections in the water.”

In this quote, Yates utilizes poetic language to illustrate the beauty of the landscape, using alliteration and internal rhyme to paint a picture for the reader. However, there is irony in this section, as the beauty contrasts with the ugly reality that At-mun-shi and his people are observing this sight from their captivity on the canoe.

“They had been made to forget—not only that they were At-mun-shi but that they were men.”

This quote refers to the belief among white Western scientists of the 18th- and 19th centuries that Black people were biologically inferior to those of European ancestry and not even fully human. The enslavement of Africans by white people was thus seen as the natural order of things as people of African descent were destined to serve and be educated by the white race.

“Call him Amos,” the auctioneer laughed harshly. “That’s a good Christian name for a heathen black.”

Similar to the earlier quote calling the At-mun-shi people “pagans,” this quote again points out the negative ways in which people of non-Christian spiritual traditions were perceived. This quote also marks the moment when Fortune receives his Western name. Not only does it sound somewhat like his birth name—“At-mun”—but it also foreshadows his eventual Christian conversion.

“Celia smiled. ‘He looks a fine strong boy and you will give him his freedom.’ ‘Yes, in time,’ Caleb agreed a trifle reluctantly. ‘Though in his untamed state it would not be well to give it to him soon.’ ‘You think he would not know how to use it?’ ‘He is part animal now. What would he do but run wild?’”

This is one of the first passages in the novel that compares Fortune to an animal. It is ironic that Yates would have the Copelands describe Fortune so negatively, given they are meant to be benevolent characters. However, it underscores the underlying racist biases that seem to undergird Yates’s own arguments in the novel.

“She put a pewter plate and a fork before him, but when he offered him some food the boy took it in his hands and thrust it into his mouth.”

When Fortune first arrives at the Copelands’ house, he finds all their customs completely foreign. Struggling to acclimate, he chooses to eat with his hands—as he is used to—rather than use the fork. His eventual acclimation to fork use, among other things, represents the civilizing process by which the Copelands teach him how to assimilate white Western practices.

“There were many Negroes known to Amos who had been given freedom and who had found it an even harder lot to bear than servitude. There were those of his friends who so longed for freedom that they plotted among themselves to gain their release and failing to achieve it became sullen and bitter.”

This section presents the dichotomy between freedom that is earned and freedom that is unearned. Amos Fortune, Free Man establishes the viewpoint that freedom belongs only to those who deserve it, having earned it through hard work. The fictional Fortune opts to be patient and not struggle for his manumission and discourages those around him who “plot” to be free. Those who do struggle are presented to the reader as having negative experiences, whether they gain their freedom or not.

“And yet so long as they’re not free their songs are like those of birds in a cage.”

In the novel, Black people are compared to animals a number of times. While this comparison echoes racist ideologies about Black people, it also underscores the suffering of the experience of enslavement. By comparing enslaved Black people to “birds in a cage,” this quote can be interpreted as evocative of how Black people have historically been exploited as sources of labor, entertainment, and pleasure but denied certain legal, social, and political freedoms.

“They’re not the only ones to be thinking about freedom. Before many more years have passed we’ll be thinking about it too, and not as people but as a nation.”

Running parallel to the narrative of slavery and freedom is the narrative of colonialism and freedom. Here, Ichabod Richardson alludes to the American Revolutionary War and the growing American desire to be independent of Britain. While both emancipation and a national revolution deal with freedom, this quote conflates the two states of non-freedom, severely understating the injustice of slavery.

“There was no difference then in the blood that poured from severed veins, that of a black man or a white could water as well the soil from which freedom was growing. Of the blacks who survived the fighting, many were given their own freedom as a reward for service.”

During the Revolutionary War, Black men fought as soldiers until 1775 when General George Washington issued a decree that forbade them from further fighting. In the wake of this decision, British forces issued their own call to enslaved Black people that they would be granted their freedom in return for fighting for the British army. This call was successful enough that Congress reversed Washington’s decision, leading to about 5,000 free Black and enslaved people serving in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War (“Slavery, the American Revolution, and the Constitution.” Digital History, University of Houston).

“It was excessive but Amos knew that he could not question the white man’s price. Too often ill feelings were vented on a black man for no reason other than his color and his inoffensiveness. Angry words could ensue and then the suspicions would be cast that the man might be a runaway slave.”

Although Fortune is free by Chapter 5, he still faces racial discrimination, which limits him as he navigates the world. One of the practices that is a historical hallmark of American racism is the practice of overcharging African Americans for services. This is just one of many indignities that Fortune must face in his reality as a Black man, which Yates mostly glosses over as simply the way things are.

“‘What he wants with all those fine clothes is hard to see,’ he said aloud to himself. ‘They caught his fancy like a child’s. But that’s what they are, those black people, nothing but children. It’s a good thing for them the whites took them over.’”

In this quote, the white cobbler, Samuel George, regards Fortune as peculiar for desiring fancy clothing when George offers Fortune anything as collateral for the loan he has just taken out with Fortune. George’s dismissal of Fortune as “like a child” is ironic, given it is George who has just been taken care of by Fortune when Fortune generously loaned him money.

“She had heard stories of people going off to live wilderness lives in the great country that had one edge on the Atlantic and reached no one knew how far.”

Amos Fortune, Free Man is set in an early American setting in which White American settlers were still expanding westward and actively forcing Indigenous peoples off of the land. This quote reflects the American rhetoric of “manifest destiny,” a romanticized belief in America’s moral authority and its duty to occupy North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

“White was the most beautiful color she knew. Yet when she would say that to Amos he would remind her that the brown of the earth from which the flowers came was a good color too.”

Violet’s love for white flowers reflects a love for whiteness that implies a disdain for her own Blackness. This opinion of Violet’s is Yates’s invention, as no historical records exist on Violate Baldwin’s personal opinions. Yates makes the fictional Violet a Black woman who has internalized racial self-hatred to underscore Fortune’s role as a moral guide and patriarch.

“Then she hugged her dusky baby closer to herself. She had wanted a sawdust dollie with a white china face and pretty pink cheeks, but she loved this one because Amos had made it for her.”

Violet’s child, Celyndia demonstrates similar sentiments of racial self-hatred that appear in the quote above with Violet. This is manifested in her desire for a white china doll rather than a brown leather one. As with Violet, it is Fortune who guides Celyndia to appreciate the brown doll and, therefore, her own brown skin.

“And people went away from the tannery thinking enviously of how happy the blacks were.”

As Fortune’s business becomes a lucrative success, the white people who come to Jaffrey and see Fortune’s tanning business take his exceptional experience to be representative of the generally cheerful disposition of the formerly enslaved. Here, Black people are essentialized, and their individuality is overlooked. Further, this passage implies that Black people gaining material wealth signals the absence of racism.

“The wind blowing along the mountain and meeting another current blowing down the mountain could cause a roar loud enough to deafen a man save that its duration was brief. That was what he had heard them saying in the town. But to Amos on the mountain what he had just heard was the voice of God and because he had asked to hear it he knew that he must heed it.”

Fortune’s encounter with God on Mount Monadnock evokes the experience of the ancient Hebrew prophet Elijah in Kings 1:19. In that passage, Elijah waits on a mountain for the Lord to pass. A powerful wind blows, followed by an earthquake, followed by a fire; the passage says God was in none of these three phenomena. Last, there is a quiet whispering voice, which the passage indicates is God’s voice. It is ironic that the biblical passage emphasizes God’s presence in the quiet rather than the loud and dramatic events, whereas Yates’s passage locates God in the roaring wind.

“Watching the increase of the day and its activities, Amos Fortune—a man who was landless save for the kindness of a parson—thought what a good thing it must be to own a few acres of land.”

The novel underscores the values of hard work and Christian faith as well as the values of property and ownership. When Fortune purchases land for himself, he culminates his transition from having been property (as an enslaved person) to being the owner of property. Thus, even the earliest concepts of American freedom are tied to capitalism and the ability to own land.

“He had won his way to equality by work well done and a life well lived.”

The novel argues that Fortune achieves equality through his own hard work and good character. While this statement celebrates Fortune as a person, it understates the systemic nature of inequality and implies that inequality is an individualized experience resulting from a personal failure.

“‘Likely his back will be sore with the beatings he’ll be getting,’ Lois said. ‘And perhaps they will do something to his soul,’ Amos reminded her, for he knew the boy too. ‘Wings can’t grow without a little suffering.’”

When Lois Burdoo’s son, Moses, is sold at auction, Lois is worried because the man who purchases him is abusive. Fortune’s dismissive response aligns with his personal philosophy that hard work and suffering are a necessary part of the path to success. This view makes Fortune an attractive character for readers of Yates’s day, who may not want to see slavery condemned too harshly.

“Lily, Lydia, Violet, Celyndia—they stood like milestones along his way and behind them all was Ath-mun. Amos held her always in the tender loveliness of her twelve years, and because of her need to be cared for and his longing for her to be cherished, he had dedicated himself to the helpless. It was Ath-mun who had been the fount of freedom to those others, Amos thought, as he reached back into memory for the beloved sister; he had acted for her and so he would account to her when they met together at the Jordan.”

All of Fortune’s good deeds are motivated by his love for his sister, Ath-mun. While Fortune never sees her again after he is captured, he hopes to see her in the afterlife, as his newfound Christian faith dictates. The Jordan referenced here is the River Jordan, which runs through the Middle East. According to ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Israelites crossed over the River Jordan to enter into the promised land that God had chosen for them: Crossing the Jordan is a Christian euphemism for dying and going to heaven.

“His own back bore the scar the lash had made on him as it broke the skin and branded him forever, not as a renegade but as an object upon which the white man might exercise his power.”

This quote emphasizes the dehumanization and brutality enslaved people faced at the hands of their enslavers. In such passages, Yates paints a condemning picture of slavery as cruel and unjust and acknowledges the moral wrongness of white men believing they should hold power over other human beings.