1. Lecture Code: PS_L.17
ENGL 559: Postcolonial Studies UNIT 3: Postcolonial Literature from the US Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
Min Pun, PhD, Associate Professor
Dept of English, PN Campus
Pokhara
31 December 2018

2. The Author: Charles Johnson
Born in 1948, an African American writer
Professor Emeritus at University of Washington
A novelist, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, cartoonist, and screenwriter.
Published both fictional and non-fictional books, and books on philosophy.
Received National Book Award for Middle Passage in 1990

3. About the Novel
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson is a masterpiece novel about slavery and slave trade from Africa to America. It is a slave narrative.
Set in 1830, the novel depicts a personal and historical perspective of the illegal slave trade in the US that tells the story of a freed slave named Rutherford Calhoun.
Johnson tells his tale in the form of a journal (diary-like format); written by a freed slave as journal entries in a ship’s log (log means ‘an official record of events during the voyage of a ship or aircraft).

7. shackles

8. Chapters in the Novel
Entry, the First, June 14, 1830 (New Orleans, Republic leaves for Africa)
Entry, the Second, June 20, 1830 (on the way to Africa)
Entry, the Third, June 23, 1830 (the ship reaches Africa)
Entry, the Fourth, June 28, 1830 (the ship returns from Africa)
Entry, the Fifth, June 30, 1830 (on the way back America, white sailors revolt against their captain)
Entry, the Sixth, July 3, 1830 (on the way back America, Allmuseri tribes revolt against the white sailors)
Entry, the Seventh, SAME DAY (on the way back America, Falcon commits suicide)
Entry, the Eighth, August 1, 1830 (Rutherford becomes sick on the way back to America)
Entry, the Ninth, August 20, 1830 (Juno rescues the survivors)

9. List of Characters in the Novel
Rutherford Calhoun: A black who is a newly freed slave in the US and travels to Africa on a ship called Republic. Although he is black, he manages to work with other white sailors on the ship and successfully returns from Africa.
Ebenezer Falcon: A white man from the US and the Captain of the ship named Republic who has involved in the illegal slave trade. Rutherford closely works with him.
Isadora Bailey: A schoolteacher who is ready to pay Rutherford’s debt and marry him. She is going to marry him when he returns from Africa.

10. Contd….
Philippe Papa Zeringue: A white man who is one of the owners of the ship Republic. He is also the creditor of Rutherford. Papa wants to marry Isadora but Rutherford intervenes Papa’s plan.
Josiah Squibb: A white man who works as cook for the ship Republic. He closely works with Rutherford and one of the survivors in the ship.
Peter Cringle: A white man who is the First Mate (chief officer) of the ship. Rutherford considers him as a moral man.

11. Contd….
Mgonyama: An Allmuseri tribesman on the ship Republic who was transported to America in the illegal slave trade. He takes charge of the ship after the mutiny.
Baleka: An Allmuseri girl child who survives in the travelling back to America. Her mother dies on the way to America on the ship. Rutherford takes care of her as his father.
Allmuseri Tribes: One of the African tribes and 40 in number who are transported in the ship as slaves. They revolt against the white sailors and most of them die on the way to America.

12. Plot Summary
The protagonist Rutherford Calhoun from New Orleans is a newly freed slave who wants to enjoy free life. He wants to drink, smoke and have fun with different girls and also becomes a thief. Once he meets Isadora Bailey, a schoolteacher. Unknowingly, Rutherford is attracted towards her and Isadora is serious about her relationship with him. She proposes him to marry her and live a stable life. But he does not want to get married rather wants adventure and new experiences in life.

13. Contd…
Isadora is hurt by Rutherford’s rejection of her marriage proposal, but still she is determined to get him by any means possible. So she goes to a wealthy business owner named Philippe Papa Zeringue to whom Rutherford has borrowed a lot of money. Isadora and Papa Zeringue agree to help each other. According to their agreement, if Rutherford agrees to marry her, she will pay Rutherford’s debt to Papa Zeringue from her savings.

14. Contd…
When Rutherford comes to know their deal between Isadora and Zeringue, he runs away from New Orleans on a ship named Republic to escape Isadora’s marriage proposal and Papa Zeringue’s debt. Rutherford then meets the ship’s cook named Josiah Squibb at a bar. Squibb then accepts Rutherford as a helper in the kitchen of the Republic. In this way, Rutherford manages to run away from Isadora and Papa Zeringue and is allowed to travel to Africa on the Republic.

15. Contd…
On his travelling to Africa on the Republic, Rutherford convinces the ship’s captain Ebenezer Falcon (white man) as a loyal servant. Although the captain Falcon is cruel, he likes Rutherford and behaves friendly. Now, the ship reaches the coast of Africa where they load up their cargo with 40 Allmuseri tribe people as slaves. Rutherford discovers that the slaves are not the only cargo on board, the captain Falcon also brings with him the Allmuseri’s god which could be sold to museums.

16. Slave ship

17. Slave ship plan showing slaves

18. The way the slaves were kept in the ship

19. Cargo of living dead slaves

22. Contd…
On the way back to America, the captain Falcon and other sailors treat the slaves cruelly. The sailors who believe the Allmuseri to be sorcerers begin to worry about the ship’s fate. At the same time, a violent storm hits the ship. So as other sailors (crew members of the ship) prepare a mutiny (rebel) against the captain Falcon, the slaves themselves revolt against the captain Falcon and his crew members. The slaves take control of the ship under Mgonyama’s leadership and kill all white crew members, but after the captain Falcon commits suicide instead of taking the ship to a safe place. The ship runs out of food and water, and the conditions in the ship worsens as the terrible storm hits the ship more. Rutherford becomes very ill and is in a terrible state.

23. Contd…
All other sailors and slaves die, except Rutherford, the cook Squibb and a few Allmuseri children (including Baleka) who are rescued by the ship Juno. Rutherford soon discovers that Isadora is also aboard the new ship and that Isadora is being forced to marry Papa Zeringue who is also one of the ship Republic’s owners. Then, Rutherford bargains with Papa Zeringue that Rutherford has the ship’s log book that documents Papa Zeringue’s immoral and illegal dealings. In this way, Rutherford gives the ship’s log book to Papa Zeringue and Papa Zeringue will allow Isadora to marry Rutherford. And, Rutherford agrees to marry Isadora at last.

24. Themes
Slavery and race relations (Slavery officially ended in the US on December 6, 1965, after the 13th amendment to the constitution was passed and ratified, abolishing slavery)
African American identity
Bondage and freedom

25. Analysis of the Novel: From A Postcolonial Approach
Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage can be analyzed from both colonial and postcolonial perspectives.
From the colonial perspective, the novel sheds light on traditional European colonial notions of African savagery, the inferiority of African people as sub- human and commodities.
For instance, the novel deals with the slave trade that is continued by the captain Ebenezer Falcon who sails to Africa on the ship named Republic and returns with 40 African tribes called Allmuseri who is considered sub-human who can be bought and sold like commodities. So the Europeans take the blacks as inferior, savage and sub-human beings.

26. Contd….
But at the same time, the novel presents the postcolonial perspective of the archetypical American Negro serving as a “middle man” between Europeans and Africans.
For instance, the protagonist Rutherford Calhoun is a newly freed slave who takes his adventure on a ship to Africa and returns back to America safely.
Charles Johnson has presented Rutherford as a postcolonial African American who manages to travel to Africa on the ship Republic with other all white sailors and returns to the US successfully. Similarly, he even blackmails his creditor Papa Zeringue and is successful to marry the schoolteacher Isadora Bailey.
Thus, Rutherford is a postcolonial character.

27. Conclusion
Charles Johnson is a postcolonial novelist who has presented his characters as successful ones to defeat the colonizers. For instance, Rutherford and Allmuseri tribe people are representative characters who become successful in defeating the white people. The Allmuseri take over the ship and kill the white sailors although many of them lose their lives while revolting against the white sailors.
Thus, Johnson’s Middle Passage is a postcolonial novel set in the mid nineteenth century during the slavery in the US.

28. Associate Professor, Dept of English Tribhuvan University
Min Pun, PhD
Associate Professor, Dept of English
Tribhuvan University
Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara
Website: