Sherley A. Williams' Dessa Rose is a fictional story based on real events. In it, Dessa Rose, a slave convicted through her own confession-"I kill white mens"-of murdering her white master for killing her husband, meets Rufel, a white woman with a sympathy toward the liberation movement (Williams 20). Each woman suffers a bondage of her own. Dessa Rose is literally enslaved, while Rufel is figuratively enslaved in an adulterous relationships. The theme of the story is the triumph of enslaved women as they gain their freedom from their own individual bondages. The story could be interpreted as the alliance of enslaved women to break free together from the bonds of their individual forms of slavery. The women achieve this freedom through the development of their friendship, which provides mutual support, encouragement, and wisdom, and through their participation in a minstrel show that portrays a send-up of a slave auction. They earn money for their work in the show and in that manner gain their financial freedom, but their emotional freedom is the result of growth and their friendship.
Dessa Rose provides a unique perspective on slavery and abolition. While it addresses the horrors of slavery as one might expect, it also expands the subject to include other forms of slavery, such as Rufel's affair, and it demonstrates that liberation requires more than physical freedom to be fully accomplished. In the end, Dessa Rose and Rufel have gone through much together and have essentially helped to free each other. This mutual assistance is a picture of what all women can provide each other through joined forces and ongoing support and encouragement.
Williams, Sherley A. Dessa Rose. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999.
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