Haunted Property: Slavery and the Gothic

237 Pages·2020·2.687 MB·English

by  Sarah Gilbreath Ford

HAUNTED PROPERTY

HAUNTED
PROPERTY
SLAVERY AND THE GOTHIC
Sarah Gilbreath Ford
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
The University Press of Mississippi is the scholarly publishing agency of
the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning: Alcorn State University,
Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University,
Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi Valley State University,
University of Mississippi, and University of Southern Mississippi.
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of
the Association of University Presses.
Copyright © 2020 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2020
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ford, Sarah Gilbreath, 1968– author.
Title: Haunted property : slavery and the gothic / Sarah Gilbreath Ford.
Description: Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2020. | Includes bibliographi-
cal references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020014594 (print) | LCCN 2020014595 (ebook) | ISBN
9781496829696 (hardback) | ISBN 9781496829702 (trade paperback) | ISBN
9781496829719 | ISBN 9781496829726 | ISBN 9781496829733 | ISBN 9781496829740
Subjects: LCSH: Slavery in literature. | Gothic revival (Literature)—History and criti-
cism. | African Americans in literature.
Classification: LCC PS374.S58 F67 2020 (print) | LCC PS374.S58 (ebook) | DDC
810.9/355—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014594
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014595
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
To Connor

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
- ix -
introduction
The Bill of Sale: Gothic, Property, Slavery, and the South
- 3 -
chApter one
From Damsels to Specters in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl and Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative
- 29 -
chApter two
Playing Con Games in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, Mark Twain’s
Pudd’nhead Wilson, and Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose
- 62 -
chApter three
Specters on Staircases in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, Eudora
Welty’s Delta Wedding, and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon
- 100 -
chApter Four
Claiming, Killing, and Haunting in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- 128 -
chApter Five
Claiming the Property of History in Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Natasha
Trethewey’s Native Guard
- 154 -
viii contents
epilogue
What the Gothic Can Do
- 191 -
notes
- 196 -
works cited
- 208 -
index
- 226 -
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The opportunity to write this book was afforded by the gracious support of
my university, colleagues, friends, and family. Although I cannot pinpoint
the exact moment when this project began because the various threads were
sparked at different times, most of these wonderful sparks occurred in con-
versations with my students at Baylor University. I am thankful for their
curiosity and enthusiasm.
This book benefitted from generous institutional support, including a
Research Leave from the College of Arts and Sciences under the leader-
ship of Dean Lee Nordt and travel funds for conferences from the English
Department under the leadership of chair Kevin Gardner. I am fortunate to
be in an incredibly supportive department, and several colleagues offered
invaluable feedback on portions of the book: Jerrie Callan, Julia Daniel, Tara
Foley, Hope Johnston, and Coretta Pittman. Many other colleagues offered
encouragement throughout this process, including Mona Choucair, Richard
Russell, Lisa Shaver, and Ron Thomas. Two graduate research assistants,
Lajoie Lex and Loren Warf, also helped in innumerable ways. The English
Department staff, Lois Avey and Julie Sherrod, were always helpful in making
every task easier and every day more cheerful.
From the beginning of my career, the Eudora Welty Society has been an
academic home for me, and I have learned so much about literature from
its members, especially Mae Miller Claxton, Susan Donaldson, Julia Eichel-
berger, Michael Kreyling, Rebecca Mark, Suzanne Marrs, Pearl McHaney,
David McWhirter, Harriet Pollack, Peggy Prenshaw, and Adrienne Akins
Warfield. Audience members at the 2016 and 2018 meetings of the Society for
the Study of Southern Literature offered helpful feedback on portions of the
book. I am grateful to Editor Katie E. Keene and all of the wonderful people
at the University Press of Mississippi who worked on the manuscript. The
book benefitted immensely from the careful attention and incisive comments
of the anonymous readers. An earlier version of chapter 5 was published in
ix