Freedom Pictures

Freedom Essay

Rachel Sickels
ENGW 1101
Professor Young
9 February 2015

What Freedom Is

     The word freedom is frequently used to describe different rights such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, the freedom to pursue justice, and the freedom to assemble. Freedom is in the United States Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” (Bill of Rights), as well as many other significant historical documents. The idea of freedom is the basis of our country.

     Freedom itself is a complicated concept. What one person considers free, another considers stifling or being in chains. In the Good Lord Bird by James McBride, there are two characters that represent two different sides of freedom. There is Pie, who while she lives in luxury, has no control over her body, and then there is Sibonia, who lives in the dregs but is free to do what she wants.  While they are not technically free because they are both slaves, one is freer than the other, and that is Sibonia. Sibonia has control over her body, is not judged harshly by her peers, and she is free to speak her mind. 

     Sibonia seems freer than Pie.  She does not work in a whore house. Therefore, she does not have to worry about men touching her without her permission.  While she lives in the pen with the others, they all give her space and do not come near her or touch her .As Onion, the main character, describes it, “The Negros gather back in the pen…but that silly fool in the middle of the yard [Sibonia]…setting on a wooden box” (McBride 148). This shows that Sibonia is not afraid of people coming near her. She does not have to worry about someone coming up and forcing her to do something she does not want to do with her body either. She is only a lowly worker slave. She just does the menial tasks they want her to do like tending the animals, nothing more, nothing less. She will likely never have to worry about rape.

     Pie, however, does work in a whore house, so she has to worry about “bad touches” every day. And she does get a “bad touch.” After the incident with Sibonia, Onion looks for Pie and walks in on her “working”; however, it looks different than her usual jobs. According to Onion, “I seen my Pie in there…buck naked, on all fours, and behind her was Darg…and he was doing something terrible, just having his way with her and striking her with that whip at the same time” (175). Onion walks in on Pie getting raped. There is nothing Onion or Pie can do about it, and there is no one to go to for justice, because not only does Pie work in a whorehouse, she is a woman.  Therefore, no one will take her word over a man’s, or think she even has the right to complain. This shows that Pie has no control over who touches her body, or who touches her private places. She is not free.  She is not able to ‘petition for a redress of her grievance’.

     Sibonia may be acting crazy, but she is somewhat accepted by her peers. They all are together for tough times because they are slaves; they stick together no matter how crazy a person seems. As Onion leaves the pen, he notices that, “the Negroes gathered ‘round her again, holding picks and shovels, working all ‘round her, glaring at me….while she set on her box in the middle of’em, cackling like a chicken” (154). Onion, when he first entered the pen, said some things that made the others not trust him, things like Sibonia should be flogged for her behavior. When he found out she was intelligent, he was surprised. Her being intelligent means that she is one step closer to freedom, especially with Sibonia planning the rebellion. When he moved to leave, the Negros, as one, surrounded her like they were protecting her, and glared at Onion until he walked away. Sibonia is free of harsh judgment from her peers.  She is free to act as she wishes.

     Pie is a different story. Her peers, no matter how much she tries to deny it, are both white and black. Both races seem to hate her and judge her harshly. The whites treat Pie harshly, because she looks black, and the blacks treat her harshly because of the way she interacts with them, saying they’re trouble and disassociating herself from them whenever she can. Pie treats them terribly because she lives in the big house and they live in the pen. She treats them like dirt even though she has the same status as they do, even going as far as alerting the sheriff of Sibonia’s rebellion. The slaves do not take that well. They reject her, such as when Onion finishes talking to Bob, the other slave Darg comes by and questions Onion on why he is there. When Onion replies Pie sent him, Darg angrily says, “Don’t mention that high-siddity bitch to me.” The slaves do not appreciate the way Pie treats them, so they resent her.  They feel as though she acts superior to them.  Pie has to deal with the judgment of her peers and that chains her freedom to act as she wishes.

     Sibonia speaks her mind. She does not have to guard what she says, because no one will listen to her anyway. Since she is a pen slave, not many people notice her, or what she says. People notice Sibonia even less than the others because she acts crazy all the time, screaming things like pretty yeller or making mud balls in the middle of the pen, which allows her to say what she wants at whatever time she wants.  It also acts as a cover for her true mission-a rebellion.  Later, Onion watches as Sibonia is arrested for rebelling, and is put in a jail cell. The minister, because he felt close to her, goes to find out why Sibonia planned the rebellion.  She says “Reverend, it was you and your wife who taught me that… in His eye, we are all equal. I was a slave. My husband was a slave. My children was slaves. But they was sold. Every one of them. And after the last child was sold, I said, ‘I will strike a blow for freedom’” (166). Not many slaves would feel able to speak that way to a reverend when they were to be hanged. Most would either just accept it and do nothing, or beg for their life.  Sibonia speaks her mind on the matter. She feels free to speak the truth.

     Pie needs to guard what she says, though.  She is at the mercy of many others.  Because she works in the whore house, and lives there too, her job and her safety depend on keeping everybody happy. If she wants to keep living there, and not in the pen with the people that hate her, Pie needs to avoid upsetting the customers in any way. This includes saying only what she is allowed to say, and keeping her mouth shut when told to, no matter what happens. She cannot even speak against the brutal rape she suffered at the hands of Darg, for she is a slave at the whore house and if she is accused of “lying” she’ll be kicked out into the slave pen before morning.

     Freedom is complicated. What one person considers free is another person’s version of slavery. Sibonia is freer than Pie, despite living in the pen, because she has control over her person and actions. She is able to do what she wants without anyone bothering her.  She is able to speak the truth as she sees it. While Pie may not consider Sibonia free because she lives in the pen, in reality Pie is the one who is in the most chains. Sibonia reaches her ultimate freedom though, when she is hanged for trying to help free her people. And Pie is still stuck in the whore house, chained to the role she created for herself.

Works Cited

 McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. New York: Riverhead, 2013. Print.

"The Bill of Rights: A Transcription." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.