Yellow Wife

by Sadeqa Johnson

Overall: Yellow Wife takes on one of the most thorny and difficult topics of slavery, forced marriage between an enslaved woman and her master. Pheby Delores Brown may have grown up as a favored child on an isolated plantation, illegally taught to read by her master’s sister, given piano lessons, and allowed to live with her mother, but all that changes when her master takes a wife. Pheby ultimately finds herself friendless and with only the clothes on her back in the Devil’s Half Acre, a slave jail in Richmond, Virginia. When her new master, the jail’s owner, decides to take the beautiful young woman as his “yellow wife,” she has no choice but to comply.

Likes: The book does a great job of highlighting all the difficult nuances of Pheby’s place in the world. She is materially privileged, wearing nice clothes, getting enough to eat, and allowed to play the piano and educate her children. The other enslaved people she encounters treat her warily, and some even with hostility, because of this. However, she is no freer than any other enslaved person, with no choice but to bear the Jailer’s children and assist in the preparation of young, enslaved women for sale. And would she ever really try to escape, knowing that the Jailer would keep their children forever? The book is built around in-depth research, and even a plot point about a fugitive who is returned to the jail that seems like melodrama is based on an actual (and difficult to fathom) event.

Dislikes: The ending is a bit abrupt; I would have liked to know more about Pheby’s journey through the Civil War and her choice to remain in Richmond. But this did not diminish the power of this slim but engrossing novel for me.

FYI: rape, torture, murder, violence, death of a parent, death of a child, slavery, prejudice.