Race Portrayal in "Po' Sandy"

"W'en Tenie see so many things happenin' ter de tree, she ‘cluded she’d ha'ter turn Sandy ter sump'n e'se; en atter studyin' de matter ober, en talkin' wid Sandy one ebenin', she made up her mine fer ter fix up a goopher mixtry w'at would turn herse'f en Sandy ter foxes, er sump'n, so dey could run away en go some'rs whar dey could be free en lib lack w'ite folks” (49).

This is a quote from a story I recently read called Po' Sandy. This is not only helpful for me as a teacher, but helpful for your students as well. By having your students hone in on a certain part of a story, especially one with hard dialect such as this, it helps them to understand the story as a whole and practice their analyzing skills and making text-to-world connections. Taking parts of stories can helps the reader to understand what the author is trying to argue as a whole. Below is my personal thoughts on the above quote, and I would love to know how you interpret it as well! Making lesson plans and activities for class don't always have to be complicated - keeping it simple is always effective. This story would be great for learning more about the Civil Rights Movement, or about any literature that was written or based off of the time of slavery.

In the depiction of the couple’s plan to turn to foxes, “Po’ Sandy” suggests that white folk can obtain any dream they desire, while slaves are confined to knowing they will never live freely or escape their role as inferiors. The image of the fox in relation to white folk is similar to the nature of the depiction of Sandy as a pine tree. When looking up “foxes” in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of: “with allusion to its artfulness and cunning” as well as, “to act cunningly; to sham” fits the disposition of most discriminatory white people living in the 1890’s. In “Po’ Sandy”, we see Sandy and Tenie’s masters acting deviously toward their slaves without a bat of an eye. For example, Sandy’s master sends his first wife to another white man without even telling him, and offering a less than acceptable apology. Sandy’s owner also treated Sandy like disposable property when he sends him around to his other family members because he is such a “good slave” and he has to be “fair” to his family members. Somehow, being “fair” means sending Sandy away from his home, and people he cares about. While foxes are swift and sly, trees are simply stationary and can be used for innumerable purposes. A fox can live anywhere it desires and live a free life, such as the white people do in the story. A tree can only be moved if someone uproots it or saws it down. It is then forever damaged and reused. African American’s were constantly being uprooted from their homes and from the people they love, and being damaged by their owners who simply treated them as objects. Tenie conjures up the idea of her and Sandy becoming foxes and being free, but in the end, both her and Sandy can only imagine this sort of life.

The larger argument that Chesnutt suggests is that no matter how hard they dreamed and aspired to become something more than a slave, African American’s were bound to a life of misery because of their race during this time. I whole-heartedly agree with this aspect of his theory of history from my prior background knowledge, and from reading about how Sandy and Tenie were treated. They were passed around like objects. For example, when Sandy is gone, his master ships off his first wife and feels no remorse. The narrator tells of Sandy’s master referring to Sandy as a “gift” when the master cannot just give him to one of his children, but must send him to be with all of them to be fair. Fairness only comes into play when it applies to white people. Sandy and Tenie are constantly being treated like objects, and are shipped away without any warning. White people can find love, get married, have children, be treated like humans, and work any job of their choosing, while African American’s had to obey or they were killed. Just as the tree was cut down and destroyed, in the 1890’s, ignorant white people shattered an African American’s physical and mental being.

Though everyone else in “Po’ Sandy” thought Sandy just ran away, Tenie knew the truth, and instead of comforting or consoling her, they turned her away. They deemed her as insane, and all of the white people wanted nothing to do with her. Even if the white people didn’t know the truth, they still acted as though she was wrong for being upset that the love of her life was gone. White people disregarded any feelings the slaves had, which then made the slaves feel like they weren’t even human. Tenie, Sandy, and slaves not only wished they could run away and live like white people, they wished they could express their feelings, thoughts, and beliefs like white people without being reprimanded for them. White people are like foxes in the sense that they move swiftly, and they had no problem with swiftly moving Tenie out of their lives to maintain normalcy and supremacy in theirs. Foxes are rarely ever caught, just as the white people were never “caught” or punished for the way that they treated other human beings.

One would never think that they could get such a wealth of knowledge from analyzing one simple quote. The best part about doing an exercise like this is that each student could offer a different perspective that you never would have thought of yourself, because writing can be interpreted in so many different ways.

If you'd like to ask your students a few thought-evoking questions about the story and about the activity itself, here are some examples!

1. Do you feel that the narrator feels the same way that Sandy and Tenie did, even if his employers were kind to him?
2. Did you feel that this activity was helpful? If so, why? If not, why?
3. What do you think the significance is of Sandy wanting to be transformed into a tree?
4. How did you go about reading the story's different dialect?

I hope to hear your thoughts about this activity, and if worked well for your classroom!