Good Dirt

Content Warning: This section includes discussion of animal cruelty, graphic violence, racism, child death.

The stoneware jar that the Freeman family calls Old Mo is a symbol of their legacy, their history, and their family struggles in context of the larger challenges confronting African Americans over the course of US history. The jar itself, carved by Moses in South Carolina, came north when Willis escaped the Oldham plantation and has been in the Freeman family for six generations. The jar’s stories continue to be passed down and shared, and the artifact becomes not just an heirloom but a member of the family.

The jar is called Old Mo because beneath the dark glaze, the initials MO are visible—possibly standing for Moses Oldham. The jar can store 20 gallons and has a “broad mouth and earlike handles” (16). There is a small trail of leaves painted over the glaze, and the inscription besides the potter’s initials showcase the year of its creation: 1847. There is another inscription on the bottom that Moses wrote from the depths of his sorrow at the injustice done to Flora, Betsey, and others for whom he cared. His words, “The mind cannot be chained” (343), go on to inspire not just Willis but everyone who reads them.

In addition to being a precious artifact made by an enslaved artisan (and therefore an example of an art form of increasing market value), Old Mo is a source of pride and a symbol for what the Freeman family has survived and overcome. Wilkerson writes, “Ed and Soh had used the jar to reassure their children that good could come of bad, that comfort could follow strife, that looking at their past could help to guide their future” (74). However, in addition to seeing Old Mo as an object of reverence, they feel affection for the heirloom. As the narrative states, “For the children, Old Mo had been like an ancient relative, an ancestor from long ago who was still around to share his lessons” (74). The jar is so important that, when the robbers come to take it, Baz intercedes and gets shot and killed in the process.

Old Mo also does the larger work of standing in for the accomplishments and survival of African American ingenuity, intelligence, determination, compassion, and wisdom. To Ed, “[t]hat jar represented all those stories he could tell his children that most people never told about black folks in America” (117). The robbers only know that “it was historic. A part of American history that not that many people knew. That’s why their client wanted it” (304). When Old Mo is placed in the museum later, this meaning gains a deeper resonance for viewers as a piece of American history. Likewise, the repair of the jar signifies that the Freemans, though permanently wounded by the loss of Baz, have endured despite their trials, just as their ancestors and Moses did.