Madeline
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The Story of the Invention of Wings is told by Sarah and Handful or Hetty. Sarah is the daughter of slave owners who later becomes, along with her sister, heros against slavery. And Handful is the slave dedicated to Sarah, even though Sarah has no interest in having her own slave. Through the book I feel as though Sue Monk Kidd is giving a nod to the Black Lives Matter movement, similar to my post on books written by black authors.
The Premise of the Invention of Wings
The book alternates between Sarah and Hetty, each telling their stories as they are going through life. Although they are not very close to each other, they play a significant part of each other’s lives, even when they are not living in the same state. They ping pong off each other and complement the story of the other one without needing to be in the lives of one another.
The book starts with the two as young girls. Hetty has been gifted to Sarah and Sarah has no interest in having Hetty as a slave. When Sarah realizes she does not have the power to free Hetty, she does what she can to protect her and, although illegal, teaches Hetty to read and write. However, the time Sarah spends with Hetty is taken away with the birth of Sarah’s younger sister, Angelina.
As they grow into young adulthood, Sarah travels with her ill father in hopes of finding him a place to recuperate other than Charleston, their home. On this journey, she meets a quaker and his family and learns that there is a whole religion with a value of anti slavery. They are heros against slavery and she wants to join and as time goes on, she eventually does and brings Angelina along for the ride as well.
Soon enough Sarah and Angelina become the most outspoken abolitionists and are banned from Charleston. They speak in front of huge crowds and do not let the unpopular belief about slavery stop them. They also speak out for women; however, this is not their true calling. They both die as heroes against slavery.
The Real Heros Against Slavery
Although the fictional story is very moving, it is not all fiction. The Invention of Wings is based on real life Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke, also known as the Grimke sisters, who both grew up in a rich family in Charleston, South Carolina owning slaves and later spoke in front of large crowds and government regarding abolitionism.
Although Hetty plays an important character in The Invention of Wings and grows up to be a full grown women, in reality she died when she was young. She is depicted in this book as the women she should have grown up to be, bold and strong, working on a slave revolt to free all slaves of Charleston. In the fictional story, Hetty is one of the heros against slavery as well.
Final Thoughts
The Invention of Wings is a must read for anyone living the the United States. The fact that it is based on a real story makes it even more moving. Previously to reading this book, I do not remember ever hearing about the Grimke sisters, but now I feel informed and will keep my eye open for other stories addressing their mission and being the heros against slavery that they were. Without them, we could be in a completely different place than we are now or it may have taken much longer to get here. We still have a long ways to go, but the abolition of slaves was a first and very important step.
The story is told well and defines an important part of American history. For anyone interested in learning more about this time, The Invention of Wings is a great way to get there.
