1966 novel by Margaret Walker
Jubilee (1966) is a historical novel written by Margaret Walker, which focuses on the story of a biracial slave during the American Civil War. It is set in Georgia and later in various parts of Alabama in the mid-19th century before, during, and after the Civil War.
Plot summary
Jubilee is the semi-fictional story of Vyry Brown, based on the life of author Margaret Walker's great-grandmother, Margaret Duggans Ware Brown. Vyry Brown is a mixed-race slave—the unacknowledged daughter of her master—who is born on the Dutton plantation in Georgia. The novel follows her experiences from early childhood to adult life.
The story of Vyry's life in the novel spans three major periods of American history: Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Setting (location)
The historic novel is set in parts of Georgia and Alabama, such as:
Historical events (chronological order)
Before the Civil War the Bible was quoted to justify slavery as a natural and righteous state. Slaves meanwhile identified with the Old Testament Hebrew slaves who were liberated by Moses.
Jubilee follows the course of the Civil War and Reconstruction, where violence by the Ku Klux Klan was unfortunately common. Specific events from this historical novel (in chronological order) include:
- 1857: The South was victorious in the Dred Scott case.
- March 4, 1861: Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated the sixteenth president of the United States. (184)
- April 1861: Guns of Charleston, South Carolina, fired on the Federal flag at Fort Sumter. President Lincoln declared the seceded states of the Confederacy to be in a state of rebellion which must be put down if the Union was to be preserved. (195)
- July 1861: The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery to Richmond. (201)
- 1862: The South was winning the war. (208) (Despite Union victories at the battles of Pea Ridge and Shiloh)
- July 18, 1862: 'Fighting Joe' Wheeler was named commander of the cavalry of the Army of Tennessee by General Bragg. (213)
- Summer of 1863: Battle of Gettysburg with General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia which "failed in their second attempt to invade northern territory" (214) (Union Victory)
- July 1863: Battle of Vicksburg with General Ulysses S. Grant. (Union victory)
- 1863: Marked a turning of the tide in favor of the Union forces (245); word spread that Abraham Lincoln would issue an proclamation to free slaves in Union-held territories. Thousands of slaves fled plantations. The South saw a wholesale disappearance of blacks seeking the "protection of the Union armies" (246). Abraham Lincoln was seen by blacks as a new Moses. The war also evinced technological progress: Union soldiers now fought with repeating rifles and longer projectiles, while the navy began to use iron-clad gunboats instead of wooden sail ships.
- February 17, 1864: To fight currency depreciation, the Confederate Congress passed Treasury Secretary Christopher Memminger's plan requiring citizens to turn in their paper currency and buy long-term war bonds. The measure failed to prevent the collapse of Confederate credit.
- August 7, 1864: End of the naval battle on Mobile Bay, a Union victory
- January 1, 1865: Emancipation Proclamation repeated in Georgia (Vyry and family are free)
- 1868: The Ku Klux Klan rode for three days and nights during the national elections, resulting in terrible violence.
Court case
In 1978, Margaret Walker sued Alex Haley, claiming that his 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family had violated Jubilee's copyright by borrowing from her novel. The case was dismissed.[1]
Adaptation
Jubilee was adapted into a three-act opera by Ulysses Kay, to a libretto by Donald Dorr; it was commissioned by Opera/South and premiered in 1976.[2]