The Right to Letters

Shedding Light on America's Dark Past in Nightjohn

The ability to read is one that many people take for granted in America. Although there are millions of adults in the United States who function at the lowest level of reading proficiency, no one is denied the freedom to read. Such a thing is unfathomable in 21st century America. Yet, less than 150 years ago, slaves in this country were denied that right and threatened with bodily harm should they ever learn to read. Writer Gary Paulsen researched this horrible time in America's past. From that research came his novel Nightjohn.

Although written for young adults, Nightjohn is a historically accurate tale of slavery and censorship in America. The novel is told from the point of view of a 12 year-old girl named Sarny. Born into slavery, Sarny knows nothing else. Her point of view is limited by her circumstance. She can neither read nor count. Too young to work in the field and not of age for breeding, she helps her "mammy" Delie by spitting tobacco juice on the house roses. Life in slavery is unchanging until the arrival of a new slave named Nightjohn. The new man is willing to trade his knowledge of letters for a lip of tobacco. Sarny knows it could cause trouble, but she is unwilling to pass on the opportunity. She gives him some tobacco, and in exchange Nightjohn shares his knowledge of the alphabet with her.

Soon Sarny has half a dozen letters learned, but the consequences of her reading cause suffering for Delie and Nightjohn. Delie is beaten and Nightjohn loses the middle toe on each foot, leaving him scarred for life. He soon runs away, but promises to return to teach Sarny the remaining letters of the alphabet. When he finally does return, he takes her to a hidden school ("pit school" she calls it) where he is teaching several children how to read.

The story of Paulsen's novel is simple, but powerful. It is a testament to the freedoms we enjoy in the United States and the adversity that many had to overcome to receive the same freedoms as others. Nevertheless, Paulsen paints his canvas with very broad strokes. In his recounting, the slaves' conditions are the nadir of all possible realities. The slaves eat from a trough (which the youngest children must lick out). They are not given clothes to wear. They must eat and defecate standing in the hot field. The plantation owner and his overseers are cut from the same cloth as Simon Legree, the cruel slave dealer in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Not to deny that conditions such as these did exist, but putting Sarny in a place where all the worst things are true is to stretch believability.

In 1996, Hallmark Entertainment produced a movie based on Paulsen's novel. The film expanded the youth-oriented story, flushing out many of the minor characters and giving a more complete picture of the time. In the film, writer Bill Cain and director Charles Burnett do a better job of tempering Sarny's life as a slave with her life as a person. Surrounded by an extended family of sorts, she is not a lone child as she is in Paulsen's book. In addition to "Dealey" (as Sarny's guardian is called in the movie), she also has the Old Man (played by veteran actor Bill Cobbs) and Outlaw (Gabriel Casseus), a young man in love with a slave on another plantation. Incidentally, Outlaw is based on a character named Pawley (in the novel) who is likewise in love with a girl on another plantation, except he is eventually caught and castrated by Waller.

In addition to flushing out some of the other slaves, Cain also adds other characters that offer opposing viewpoints of slavery. While Waller (played by Beau Bridges) is every bit as mean in the film as in the novel, his son refuses to beat Outlaw because he considers him a friend. There is even a scene in which a British guest of the Wallers' expresses her distaste for slavery. However, she is reminded that England did not so much abolish black slaves as trade them for white ones.

Perhaps the most striking change in the film is the fact that it does not end after a few simple letters have been learned by Sarny. John (Carl Lumbly) teaches her all the letters and then tells her that sooner or later she will know how to read. It does not come quickly, but Sarny practices in various ways until she discovers one day that she can read the words of "The Lord is My Shepherd" from the hymnal at church. Moved to tears by the revelation, she is mistaken by the preacher for having a religious conversion. "Are you saved?" he asks her. She smiles and nods saying "Yes!" but with quite a different idea on her mind. The act of reading is salvation to her.

There is a fantastic turn in the film in which the Old Man discovers that Sarny is reading and threatens to turn over to Waller anyone who is trying to teach her. John confronts the Old Man and asks him what he knows of it, to which the elder replies with a halting rendition of his ABCs. He then shows his mutilated hand to John and reminds him that reading is punishable by "the loss of an extremity." As Sarny learns to read, however, she shares her gift with the other slaves by reading a newspaper to them, including one article that reports about Nat Turner and his slave rebellion. Her gift gives them hope, and gives her a reason to keep reading. Soon, the ability to read and write would become a salvation to her and others in a very real sense.

The idea that a runaway slave would return to slavery to teach reading and writing is an amazing story of courage and sacrifice. It is the stuff that folktales are made of. Whether there really was a man named Nightjohn is inconsequential because there were - and always will be - those like him. Everyone who gives the gift of reading to someone is sharing a precious freedom that can never be taken away.