Antebellum America was commonly thought of as the time of slavery and the divide between the North and South. In the Invention of Wing, Kidd went into great depth to illustrate the everyday struggles of slaves and women by describing the lives of Handful and Sarah. However, despite their significant weight in the book, slaves and women only represents a slice of the antebellum American world. The ones who truly defines America from 1812 - 1860 were the white, anti-abolitionist landowners like Judge Grimké. While they might not be the majority of the population, their wealth and political power dominated the society and ultimately shaped the world into the way it was. Judge Grimké is the prime example of a wealthy landowner who was against …show more content…
Had he not been so afraid of confronting his real reason to support slavery, Judge Grimké could have easily became one of the abolitionists. He had the empathy to realize the horror of slavery and the unfairness of being born a girl, but instead of questioning the system and asking why human beings were being treated differently, he simply accepted it. If he revealed his true reason for supporting slavery before he started dying, Sarah might have found a way to convince Judge Grimké into freeing Handful and her mother. By freeing his slaves, Judge Grimké would be ostracized by his peers, but he would be following his conscience and perhaps leave behind less regrets. His position of power would also allow him to be heard by more people, perhaps even changing the law in a way that benefits the slaves. Another direction he could have gone was to be a shadow that supports Sarah from behind. He did not necessarily have to go out and say that he was an abolitionist, he could have just silently helped Sarah toward her goal. For example, he could have privately encouraged her to pursue her goal instead of shaming her. If he had done that, his relationship with Sarah would be very different, and he would not have the guilt of knowing that he did her