The Invention of Wings Revisited

I had already read and thoroughly enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings.  When my book club selected it for the month of September I read it again.  I find it amazing how much more you can enjoy a good book when you discuss it as a group.  My book club got into a deep discussion about slavery and the history of slavery.  The discussion started when one member said she thought the violence toward the slaves in the story was gratuitous.  I disagreed.  I can see how some violence can be gratuitous especially when it's fictional violence but historical violence is different.  I felt I need to know some of this violence.  I need to know how a slave, as punishment for stealing a bit of cloth, was chained on a short chain from her ankle to her neck and forced to balance on one foot for an hour.  If she lowered her ankle the chain pulled on her neck.  What a terrible thing to do to another person!  And this was done by people who thought they were doing the right thing.  They thought they were being Christian.   Slavery lasted in North America for 245 years.  And our slaves were not slaves of war or slaves of debt.  These slaves were kidnapped.  That makes it worse.  Twelve US presidents owned slaves.  Eight US presidents owned slaves while in the office of US president.  Slavery was a topic on the table in 1776 and was dropped because the southern states would not join a union without slaves.  So they dropped the topic. Ulysses S. Grant owned a slave.  As a group the people in my book club were not feeling especially patriotic after this meeting.  But we understood why the Grimke sisters of Charleston, South Carolina had such a difficult time living in the south in the 1820's while opposing slavery in their hearts.  As abolitionists and feminists they struggled in society. The bravery of the Grimke sisters paved an easier path for me and for all women. In one text Sarah Grimke writes "men and women were CREATED EQUAL.... Whatever is right for a man to do, is right for woman....I seek no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God destined us to occupy."