The Known World

The novel opens with an image of Moses eating dirt. He eats dirt to learn the secrets of the earth and ensure the proper timing of growing and harvesting. During a flashback, Henry and Moses wrestle in the dirt, playing and rolling on the ground. William arrives on his majestic horse in the middle of their playing and speaks to Henry from a great height, recalling the scene when Henry, nine years old, first met William, seated on the great Sir Guilderham: “Robbins sat high on his horse, a mountain separating the boy from the fullness of the sun” (16). Again, seated on high, William speaks to the naive Henry, who is covered in dirt. He instructs Henry to respect the line that separates master and slave. A master must elevate himself while lowering his slaves. When Henry returns to the waiting Moses, Moses is described as literally sinking into the mud as Henry cruelly puts him in his place as William advised. “Moses felt himself beginning to sink in the dirt. He lifted one foot and placed it elsewhere, hoping that would be better, but it wasn’t” (124).

In the future, when Frazier interviews Fern about the past, Fern discovers that she had dirt underneath her fingernail the entire time. Seeing this distresses her, especially as she has taught her pupils that such dirty appearances bring them low, closer to the slaves laboring in the field. It is her job to create distance between free blacks and the enslaved blacks through lessons on appearances and appropriate behavior. Even when she gardens, she refuses to bend in the dirt, instructing her loyal servant Zeus as he works in the dirt.

The intricately carved walking sticks made by Augustus symbolize freedom. They are highly desired and profitable, allowing Augustus to make money he then uses to buy his family out of slavery. The sticks are also a pathway to freedom for Rita, the slave who looked after Henry after Mildred was freed. Augustus hides Rita in a shipping crate of his walking sticks, helping her escape to New York. 

Like Augustus, Elias also carves wood, giving the carvings as gifts to his family to show his love. He is not as skilled a woodworker as Augustus, but it doesn’t matter. His poorly made comb is a symbol of his love for Celeste, who cries when he gives it to her, even though the teeth of the comb break as she pulls it through her hair. She worries when the comb breaks because it is the only object she owns in the world. Elias promises that he will always be there to make her many more combs. “I’ll make you a comb for every hair on your head” (100). He later carves a doll for his daughter, Tessie, who will treasure it all her life, asking for it when she is 97 years old. The doll is proof that Elias followed Alice’s advice when she instructed him, in a rare moment of lucid language as he carved the toys for his children, “Well, you just make it good, make it to last” (78).