The Marrow of Tradition

“Had the baby been black, or yellow, or poor-white, Jane would unhesitatingly have named, at his ultimate fate, a not uncommon form of taking off, usually resultant upon the infraction of certain laws, or in these swift modern days, upon too violent a departure from established social customs. It was manifestly impossible that a child of such high quality as the grandson of her old mistress should die by judicial strangulation; but nevertheless the warning was a serious thing […] “

Mammy Jane interprets the birthmark on Dodie’s neck. Had Dodie been of a different race, she would have predicted death by a noose, a tool used to punish a departure from social customs rather than a departure from the law. As a Black woman, Mammy Jane knows that upper-class white people are essentially immune from lynching or hanging: Their actions seem always to fall within the bounds of social customs, as they themselves create them. However, this realization is filtered through the lens of internalized racism and classism, such that Mammy Jane considers the child’s inherent nature—his “high quality”—protection against real or perceived misbehavior.

“‘I beg your pardon, major,’ observed old Mr. Delamere […] . ‘Sandy is as honest as any man in Wellington.’

‘You mean, sir,’ replied Carteret, with a smile, ‘as honest as any negro in Wellington.’”

Mr. Delamere and Major Carteret debate Sandy’s honesty. While Mr. Delamere unhesitatingly calls his manservant a man, Carteret corrects him, stating that because Sandy is Black, he cannot possibly be as honest as a white man. Here, Major Carteret also implies that Black men are subhuman.

“These old-time negroes, she said to herself, made her sick with their slavering over the white folks, who she supposed favored them and made much of them because they had once belonged to them,—much the same reasons why they fondled their cats and dogs.”

An unnamed servant in the Carteret home is disgusted by Mammy Jane’s behavior. Mammy Jane admonishes her to care for Dodie as if he were her own son. Having grown up free, this servant knows that she is not a mother-by-proxy but merely an employee. She realizes that Mammy Jane is so favored by the Carterets because they see her more as a pet than as a human being.