Choosing the Best blood

Raised as the daughter of a well-to-do, white Mississippi planter, Iola Leroy learns later on in life that she has African blood and is consequently sold as a slave. After being freed, Iola pledges the remainder of her life to live as a black woman instead of passing. The shameful experiences she had during her time as a slave and her admiration for the African American race to which she newly belonged were the motivating factors of her decision to live as a black woman and labor for racial uplift.

“… I was sold from State to State as an article of merchandise. I had outrages heaped on me which might well crimson the cheek of honest womanhood with shame, but I never fell into the clutches of an owner for whom I did not feel the utmost loathing and intensest horror. I have heard men talk glibly of the degradation of the Negro, but there is a vast difference between abasement of condition and degradation of character. I was abased, but the men who trampled on me were the degraded ones.”(Harper 115) “The best blood in my veins is African blood, and I am not ashamed of it” (208).

Iola was “sold from State to State as an article of merchandise” (115). The manner in which she describes herself as an “article of merchandise” gives the reader insight as to how she perceived her role as a slave. Merchandise is priced, purchased and peddled. It belongs to the highest bidder and is used however the purchaser wants to use it. As a slave you are a commodity that is bought and sold in a business transaction. You don’t belong to yourself or your family; you are someone else’s property, their possession. This decline from living as an educated, wealthy planter’s daughter, to the deprived and demoralized state of an African American slave had no...

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... way she comprehends the world in which she lives. During the time Iola Leroy takes place, physical appearance suggested intellect so their choice of living as black would have severe costs. However, for racial uplift, their coming together would cause them to be part of the elite group of blacks. This union would raise more respect for the black race because they would be an example of colored people who chose their race instead of hiding from it. Unlike others who chose to pass as white they were willing to put aside their own gains for their race.

After learning of her mixed-race ancestry and the experience of being a slave, Iola demonstrates her unwillingness to withdraw protection or care from the people that she so lately finds are hers. Iola sacrifices love, fortune and the upward mobility granted to whites to live as a black woman and promote racial uplift.