Trouble Don't Last

This novel illustrates how enslavement in the United States was, as the title suggests, “nothing but trouble.” As Samuel remarks, “Trouble follows me like a shadow. To begin with, I was born a slave when other folks is born white. My momma was a slave and her momma a slave before that, so you can see we are nothing but a family of trouble” (1). On a basic level, enslavement required people to work for a lifetime without pay (unless they escaped or were set free), and they were forced to produce profits for others who legally “owned” them. As the property of others, enslaved people had no legal rights of their own and were abused in a variety of ways. Although plantation owners sometimes killed enslaved people outright, they suffered no repercussions and were allowed to do what they wanted with their “property.” Throughout the novel, many enslaved people express their outrage at the many injustices they are forced to endure. In addition to working for no pay, they are not allowed to leave the plantation, they have no having legal rights, they are physically abused, and they are often forcibly separated from their families. These are some of the many hardships associated with enslavement, and the intensity of this list clarifies why many enslaved people historically attempted escape despite the dangers associated with this choice.

In the very beginning of the novel, Lilly points out why the institution of slavery is inherently problematic as she tries to make Samuel understand the broader implications of his situation. As she tells him, “Being worth money means being bought and sold. You understand that, Samuel? […] You proud of the fact that yo’ black skin ain’t no different than these clothes or this wash pot? You proud it’s got a price, same as them?” (44). With this forceful diatribe, Lilly drives home the point that designating some people as the “property” of others dehumanizes those who are deemed to be property. Stripped of all rights, enslaved people were not really viewed as people at all, and their enslavers dehumanized them as a weak attempt to justify the act of enslavement. More people would take issue with the idea of enslavement if the enslaved were viewed as actual people or humans, so dehumanizing rhetoric was employed to suggest that enslaved people were not people but were instead objects or “property.” This dangerous idea led to the institution of slavery itself and was also used to justify the myriad forms of abuse that were legalized and practiced under the institution.

The novel explores the long-lasting effects of physical abuse through the repeated discussion of scars, especially Harrison’s and the river man’s scars. Symbolically, scars symbolize the fact that even after a wound is healed, a reminder of the wound remains. Just like physical abuse, emotional and psychological abuse can produce long-lasting traumatic effects and invisible scars. The emotional effects of being enslaved in the first place are therefore shown to be just as disastrous as the physical abuses that ensue. Treated as if their lives have no value beyond their ability to generate profit for people who don’t care about them, the enslaved and formerly enslaved people in the novel find many ways to rebel against the entire reprehensible institution.

Based on the experiences of the characters, one of the worst hardships of enslavement is the forcible separation of families, which is also a result of the dehumanization and objectification of enslaved people. As Samuel remarks, “Master sold Momma before I was even old enough to remember her, and two old slaves named Harrison and Lilly had to raise me up like I was one of their own, even though I wasn’t” (1). Far from being uncommon, this experience was normalized, as plantation owners would often sell family members away from each other with no concern for the trauma and long-term damage that such separations cause. As part of the dehumanizing rhetoric that was used to legally justify enslavement and rationalize the forcible separation of families, enslavers spread the lie that Black people did not experience familial love in the same way that white people did. However, the narrative of Trouble Don’t Last is designed to illustrate the deep grief and hardship that ensued from such separation. As Harrison says:

I lost as many people as there is stars on this quilt…my birth momma. Sold. My father…whipped to death…my two little sisters. One sold. One sent off as a wedding gift. My three brothers…All put in irons and sold south…And my only wife, Belle, worth more than all the stars in the sky—took away from me and never heard from again (194).

This accounting of the extreme hardships of enslavement is representative of many that are described throughout the novel, and it is clear that Samuel and Harrison can only prevent further suffering by risking a long and arduous journey to freedom.