49 pages • 1 hour read
Frank J. WebbThe Garies and Their Friends
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1857A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Solidarity and Resistance Within Black Communities
Content Warning: This section refers to enslavement, racism, racist violence, discrimination, murder and death, and alcohol addiction.
In The Garies and Their Friends, author Frank J. Webb portrays different forms of solidarity and resistance within Black communities. These demonstrations of fortitude emanate primarily from the domestic sphere. One form of resistance is shown in the joy, humor, and play that Black characters, particularly Charlie and Kinch, engage in. Women additionally play an important role as sources of support, as shown by the characters of Esther, Caddy, and Aunt Comfort. Webb portrays more direct forms of solidarity and resistance when the community bands together for protection during the mob attack.
Given the oppression and racism that Black people throughout the United States faced during the mid-19th century, one might expect these characters to be bitter, angry, and resigned. Instead, the Ellis family and their friends embrace joy and humor. Charlie, for example, acts as a typical small boy and enjoys spending time with his comical sidekick, Kinch. He has “a thorough boy’s fondness for play” that flies in the face of the rigid expectations on Black boys of this time period—that they act in servitude to white people—and acts as a form of resistance (17). The element of solidarity in this dynamic is shown when Kinch schemes with Charlie to pull off pranks that will enrage Mrs. Thomas and get him released from her service.
For the most part, the novel portrays Black women within the domestic sphere. It is from this position that they provide the most support for their community, even as it actively works against them. For instance, Mrs. Ellis and her daughters sew to bring in an income. They dote on Charlie and give him confidence in himself, which promotes his development into a community leader. This role is also adopted by Aunt Comfort while Charlie is at Mrs. Bird’s in the countryside when she helps him with his catechism. Women are not just domestic individuals in this story, however. During the mob attack, Esther and Caddy transform from a form of domestic support into active supporting participants in the Black community’s self-defense by loading rifles and dumping boiling water on the attackers.
A key moment of solidarity and resistance is during the defense of Mr. Walters’s home and the people inside during the mob attack. Mr. Walters opens his home to the protection of all who are not able to leave or cannot defend their homes themselves. He then stockpiles weaponry to be used: rifles and stones. During the preparations, he notes, “I have a right to defend my own: I have asked protection of the law, and it is too weak, or too indifferent, to give it; so I have no alternative but to protect myself” (208). He is expressing why Black solidarity is so important; the Black community has no choice but to count on one another for support in the face of racist violence and adversity. Bonded over the traumatic experiences they’ve shared in the 19th-century United States, these characters show resistance in both everyday choices and in extreme instances of violence and discrimination.
Racism and Discrimination in the Antebellum North
In the novel, Webb is explicit in detailing the anti-Black prejudice and racism of the 19th-century US. Even the publication of The Garies and Their Friends was marked by this prejudice, as American publishers refused to print it because of its controversial subject matter. The discrimination present in this time period varied greatly across the Northern and Southern US. Webb particularly highlights the covert appearance of racism in the North, contrasting it with the more evident, often legal racism of the South. This is brought into focus by the racist response to the multiracial Garie family in Pennsylvania. Their treatment shows the difference between the legal rights that families such as theirs had and the challenges to enacting those rights, namely the right to marriage and the right to an education. Webb also portrays the racist employment discrimination and violence that Black people faced in Northern society.
In the antebellum South, interracial marriage was illegal. However, de facto marriages between a white man and an enslaved Black woman were tolerated, as noted by Mr. Garie’s uncle in Chapter 9. In some states in the North, by contrast, such marriages were legal but, as Uncle John states, “inevitably become a matter of notoriety” (100). The first clergyman in Pennsylvania whom Mr. Garie asks to perform the marriage ceremony refuses to do so because of his racism. When Mrs. Stevens discovers that Mrs. Garie is Black, she is outraged. The Stevens collectively plot their downfall by pressuring the schoolteacher to expel the Garie children and murdering Mr. Garie for the inheritance.
A similar dynamic exists around the motif of literacy. In Georgia, Black children are not permitted to go to school and learn how to read or write. In the North, such education is legally permitted. However, substantial barriers exist. The schools are segregated, and when it comes to light that the Garie children are biracial, they are expelled from their white elementary school. An additional challenge exists in that Black children are pressured to join the workforce as servants and laborers while their white peers are encouraged to attend school. This is shown in the example of Charlie, who is taken out of school to work as a coachman in the white Thomas household, although he eventually returns to school.
Even with an education, Black people in the North are shown to face immense barriers to employment. They are generally not permitted to enter into the white-collar, educated professions, such as legal or medical fields. Despite his talent, the first engraving firm that hires Charlie is obliged to let him go after the white workers revolt. Other significant structural barriers are shown throughout the novel, as well. Black people “are not permitted to ride in the omnibuses or other public conveyances” (64), and so the Ellis family is forced to walk a long distance to Winter Street. Even when sick, Charlie is not allowed to stay in the train car designated for white people only. Even in death, Black people are not treated equally; Mr. Walters tells the lawyer, Mr. Balch, that the Ash-grove cemetery “won’t even permit a coloured person to walk through the ground, much less to be buried there!” (233). Webb does not shy away from the reality of both covert and overt racism during this era of US history, instead highlighting the many ways that this prejudice took form and the depth of the trauma inflicted upon the Black community despite the façade of societal progression toward equality.
The Impact of Race and Racism on Personal Identity
Webb shows many facets of how race and racism shape personal identities and character. While he addresses how racism is a burden that harmfully impacts the lives of Black people, he also takes care to show how Black identity is a source of pride, strength, and community. Webb is also explicit in the way that anti-Black racism affects white people, particularly as it relates to the personal identities of Mr. Stevens and his son, George, Jr.
Many of the Black and biracial characters in the text are impacted by racism in ways that shape their personal identity and growth. This is most clearly shown in the example of Clarence Garie. Clarence hides his Black identity so that he can advance further in a racist world. This results in his extreme isolation. He cannot be close with his friends or his fiancée for fear that they will discover his secret. However, he also isolates himself from his sister because he is “compelled to give her pain by avoiding many of her dearest friends when [he has] encountered them in public places because of their complexion” (323). Ultimately, this secret causes his downfall and death. Other characters are changed by racism as well, as when Mr. Ellis has his personal identity as a homeowner, breadwinner, and leader in his family irrevocably taken away from him after he is attacked by a racist mob.
Still, Black identity is a source of strength to characters like Mr. Walters and Emily Garie. Mr. Walters is a Black leader who associates himself with the great Black general and revolutionary Toussaint l’Ouverture. His shared identity with other members of his community gives him power and capacity to shape his environment. Emily Garie is explicit in the importance of this shared identity to her life. She writes to Clarence, “[H]ow much happier am I, sharing their degradation [that of Black people], than you appear to be!” (335).
Racism likewise shapes the identities of white characters, most notably Mr. Stevens and his son. Mr. Stevens becomes a murderer compelled in part by racism. This horrific act leads Mr. Stevens to a life of guilt and paranoia. It is implied that these feelings drive him to drink. White supremacy has made George, Jr., into an arrogant, entitled man who likewise drinks too much and acts cruelly. Thus, in a racially divided system, both oppressed and oppressor are shaped by the roles thrust upon them.
