Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is significant in that it is considered the first American novel published by an African-American. With that in mind, all quotations from the novel that deal with society, religion and education are centered around, and directly influenced by, the protagonist’s race. Wilson’s protagonist, Frado, constructs the God of her understanding instead of converting to white Christianity. Wilson’s faith, disclosed in her selection of an epigraph and a letter to Allida, a white supporter, does not falter despite her conception of a heaven with no place for blacks, and so therefore uses Frado’s dismissal of white Christianity as a way of rejecting an oppressive, hypocritical God in light of the loving and just God of her understanding.
On several occasions, Frado struggles to reconcile her race and the oppression that she’s endures in the light of a God who’s supposedly made everyone equal. On page 51, during a particular conversation with James, a uniquely supportive family member, Frado asks,
“Who made me so?”
“God,” answered James.
"Did God make you?"
"Yes."
"Who made Aunt Abby?"
"God."
"Did the same God that made her make me?
"Yes."
"Well, then, I don't like him."
“Why not?”
“Because he made her white, and me black. Why didn't he make us both white?”
A question of this magnitude implies that Frado is not only self-actualizing her race against that of her family’s, but that she is also challenging the existence of an omnipotent god who created everyone equally but allows her consistent torture.
The paradox of a Christian, African-American indentured slave is furthered when Mrs. Bellmont, the matriarch of the Bellmont family, disallows Frado from attending church. She says, “Religion was not mean for niggers.” (86) In saying this, she denies Frado the right to the purity of her own soul. Her physical and mental imprisonment are then worsened by her mistress’ denial of personal redemption.
On page 84, the reader finally sees the protagonist’s spiritual shift. She begins to question whether religion could actually be for someone in her race. She “became a believer in a future existence—one of happiness or misery. Her doubt was, is there a heaven for the black?”
Since Wilson is the author of this mostly autobiographical novel, it becomes clear how deeply engrained the racism and abuse she experienced is. There are times she believes in the words of a pastor, but then ultimately will write as though she has bought into the mentality of uselessness that Mrs. Bellmont impresses upon her. This struggle is intensified when James dies. She writes, “As she saw his body lowered in the grave she wished to share it; but she was not fit to die. She could not go where he was if she did. She did not love God; she did not serve him or know how to” (99). Here, the line between the writer as the speaker and the protagonist as the speaker is further blurred.
As the story continues, Mrs. Bellmont promotes these doubts, and instills a fear in Frado that there may never be a white heaven for a black person. When James dies, Mrs. Bellmont tells her that she will never get into the same heaven as him (100). When prayers affect Frado emotionally, Mrs. Bellmont beats her for it (101).
As the novel continues, we see what almost becomes a conversion narrative. Frado begins to pray more. She studies her Bible more. The sustenance Wilson finds through Christianity is palpable in the Appendix. This includes a letter from Wilson addressed to Allida, a white friend. In the letter, Wilson places high importance on her “beautiful little Bible” (134). Wilson also quotes King David’s Psalm 23: “'The Lord is my shepherd,—I shall not want.” Psalm 23 is known as a psalm designed to help overcome hardship. The premise of the psalm is that with the Lord, one can always be comfortable. Wilson finds black faith within white Christianity. Wilson’s letter describes a reconciled fait, achieving just that. “I opened my precious little Bible,” she writes, “and the first verse that caught my eye was—'I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.' O, my mother, could I tell you the comfort this was to me” (135). Using the Bible as a primary source for her faith, Wilson reconciles Frado’s rejection of Christianity. It is only through the word of the Lord as it is written in the Bible that Wilson can recognize Christianity as the embodiment of justice, freedom and love that is lacking from white oppressors. The Christian God is compassionate toward the oppressed. Despite the struggles described as Frado’s experience, Wilson is able to develop her own spirituality that is separate from white Christianity.
Wilson’s faith is accented by her deliberate use of a stanza from Bitter-Sweet, a poem by J.G. Holland, as the epigraph. J.G. Holland, (who wrote as Timothy Titcomb) published this dialogue poem as a book in 1858. The excerpt is from the section “First Movement” in which between Ruth, Israel, (a representation of the interpretation of God’s power and presence according to the Bible) and David, (the messenger of the Lord), are talking. The excerpt used as the epigraph is taken from one of Ruth’s spoken parts:
I know/ That care has iron crowns for many brows;/ That Calvaries are everywhere, whereon/ Virtue is crucified, and nails and spears/ Draw guiltless blood; that sorrow sits and drinks/ At sweetest hearts, till all their life is dry;/ That gentle spirits on the rack of pain/ Grow faint or fierce, and pray and curse by turns;/ That Hell's temptations, clad in Heavenly guise/ And armed with might, lie evermore in wait/ Along life's path, giving assault to all.
Ruth is one of only two females in the Bible who have their own book. She was the unfortunate widow destined to an impoverished life with her mother-in-law. A farmer allowed to her to glean his field, where she was noticed by Boaz, a wealthy man. This story embodies pain in life, but the happy ending gives a reason for Ruth’s unfortunate situation—if she never had to glean the lands, she would not have remarried the wealthy Boaz. In the poem, both Israel and David try to convince Ruth that she needs to trust God’s will, that evil and suffering are a part of God’s universe and God will always prevail.
While Wilson does not write a conversion narrative, and her characterization of Frado exposes a rejection of white Christianity, the references to the importance of her “precious” Bible, Psalm 23, and this epigraph combine to expose to a close reader the Wilson’s faith in God still exists.
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