On Sheriff Skiffington's wall hangs a large map of America titled “The
Known World." Florida is missing from the map, and North America is not
even labeled; South America is depicted as "America." Ironically, a
German who lived in France and had a Russian descendant made this map (174). So
clearly, whoever constructed this map does not have a very accurate depiction
of America. Either this mapmaker is a foreigner or an American who has severe
misconceptions about America’s geography but no desire to cure his ignorance. However,
this is all the mapmaker knew, and he did his best with the knowledge he did
possess. In other words, he did not make the map correctly by any means, but
the mapmaker was ignorant in his endeavor. This ignorance allowed him to assume
that he was doing the right thing by creating the map his way.
The map’s inaccuracy parallels Skiffington’s white construction of
slavery in The Known World. For
Skiffington, slavery is like this map in his house – it is incomplete,
confusing, and definitely wrong. However, Skiffington cannot put his finger on
exactly why it is morally fallible, since even the Bible contains slavery,
prostitution, rape, and other evils that occur daily in his line of work. He
does not fully understand the evils of slavery but does not wish to do so, for
actively seeking information and changing his ways would jeopardize his career
as sheriff. Thus, Skiffington becomes a slave patroller to uphold his white
community’s “civic duty,” although he and Winifred decide early in their
marriage not to own their own slaves (33). Here, Skiffington’s willingness to
follow the crowd trumps his knowledge that slavery is wrong, just as his desire
to keep his established map rather than Broussard’s outweighs the probability
that Broussard’s map is more accurate.
By remaining flippant in his attitude toward slavery, does
Skiffington remain content with his life? Yes and no. On one hand, he
successfully rules as sheriff over his deputies and townspeople, and he is a
religious man who finds comfort in Scripture. On the other hand, however, Skiffington
sometimes appears torn between his beliefs on the evils of slavery and his
career as a slave patroller. So perhaps contentedness is not the right emotion
to assign to Skiffington, but rather apathy. Rather than confronting this
tension of morality versus duty, he chooses to remain as passive as possible.
Skiffington even uses Scripture to justify his apathy. “He knew that Lot and
the daughters and the angels posing as strangers were all part of God’s plan”
(161-62). Just as Lot’s near prostitution of his own daughters was “part of
God’s plan,” Skiffington accepts slavery as part of his Southern culture.
Skiffington uses the “that’s just the way it is” mindset to follow God’s plan
(which is really his plan) of slavery and to let himself remain ignorant of his
own world without much concern for what lies beyond his reach.
I agree that Skiffington’s view of slavery is definitely congruent with the map that hangs in his office. I also think that it is noteworthy that he originally bought it for his wife and that it hung in his home briefly. To me, this shows the difference between Mr. and Mrs. Skiffington, as well as another connection between his home views and his professional views.
ReplyDeleteWhile John is incredibly passive about slavery, his wife, while still quiet about her views, is more obviously against the cruelties of slavery. For example, she takes Minerva, their “slave,” as a daughter and is devastated when she is gone and buys posters of her so that she can remember her. While Minerva is still with them, she ensures that she is well clothed, fed, and educated and that she is living a relatively comfortable life with kind parental figures. While John does not want Minerva to learn to read, his wife “had not been able to help herself” (280).
The parallel becomes obvious when we read that Skiffington first hung the map in their home, thinking that his wife would appreciate it, even though it was incorrect, yet when she returned home, she told him to remove it immediately. It is probable that, unlike her husband, the mistakes bothered her enough that she could not handle it being hung on her wall just as the issue of slavery is not something that she can simply overlook as her husband does. Since it could not be hung in his home where he and his wife rejected slavery in their own way, he hung it up in his office where he assists in keeping slavery alive. Overall, with the map and with slavery, Skiffington is willing to overlook problems that do not affect him directly while they bother his wife.
I followed the same thought process about what the map of the known world represents in the novel. It definitely seems that Skiffington is aware that slavery is a horrible thing, but I think he also feels helpless in front of it. He understands the map and the known world which he lives in are morally wrong. He refuses to own slaves in his own home where he has power but he understands that in Manchester county, William Robbins is the ultimate source of power. The last sheriff was let go for being too lenient with the slaves so Skiffington has to set up the new slave patrol to appease Robbins. While Skiffington may personally be against it, his support and perpetuation of the institution of slavery show that ultimately he is a pro-slavery character. None of the characters in the book take a public stand against slavery. Most are intimidated by the amount of power the institution holds and do not act against it even if they personally believe it is morally wrong.
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