# II: My Father’s Death explained — Our Nig

> Chapter companion for Our Nig by Harriet E. Wilson.

## What happens

This chapter recounts the death of Jim, Mag's husband and Frado's father, and Mag's subsequent descent into poverty and desperation. After Jim's death, Mag returns to her hovel and eventually enters a relationship with Seth Shipley. Facing destitution, they decide to give away the children, and Seth proposes leaving Frado with the Bellmont family. Frado briefly runs away in fear but is returned. The family then migrates toward the Bellmonts' home, where Mag leaves Frado, never to return.

## Themes in this chapter

### Class and Economic Exploitation

Mag and Seth's poverty forces them to give away Frado, highlighting how economic desperation leads to the exploitation and abandonment of children.

### Family and Abandonment

Mag's decision to leave Frado at the Bellmonts and never return underscores the theme of family disintegration and abandonment driven by hardship.

### Racial Oppression and Prejudice

Frado and her sibling are called 'black devils' and taunted as 'Black, white and yeller,' reflecting the racial prejudice they face even from other poor whites.

## Character check-ins

### Frado

Frado is a six-year-old beautiful mulatto child, wild and frolicky, who is left by her mother at the Bellmonts' home.

### Mag Smith

Mag, now widowed after Jim's death, descends into poverty and desperation, eventually leaving Frado with the Bellmonts.

### Jim

Jim, Mag's husband and Frado's father, dies of consumption, leaving Mag with two children and a legacy of Christian patience.

### Seth Shipley

Seth, Jim's former business partner, becomes Mag's common-law husband and proposes giving Frado away to the Bellmonts.

### Mrs. Bellmont

Mrs. Bellmont is described by Mag as a 'she-devil' and is the one who reluctantly agrees to let Frado stay temporarily.

### Mr. Bellmont

Mr. Bellmont, John, is the son who inherited the homestead; he is aging and most of his children are away from home.

## Key lines

> He loved Mag to the last. So long as life continued, he stifled his sensibility to pain, and toiled for her sustenance long after he was able to do so.

Jim remained devoted to Mag until his death, enduring pain and working for her support even when he was too ill to continue.

_This shows Jim's loyalty and self-sacrifice, contrasting with Mag's later abandonment of Frado._

> A feeling of cold desolation came over her, as she turned from the grave of one who had been truly faithful to her.

Mag felt a deep, cold emptiness after burying Jim, who had been the one person truly loyal to her.

_Mag's desolation marks the beginning of her moral and social decline._

> She had ceased to feel the gushings of penitence; she had crushed the sharp agonies of an awakened conscience. She had no longings for a purer heart, a better life. Far easier to descend lower.

Mag had stopped feeling remorse or guilt; she no longer desired a better life and found it easier to sink further into degradation.

_This passage illustrates Mag's complete moral surrender and descent into 'perpetual infamy.'_

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_nig_se/chapters/ii-my-father-s-death
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_nig_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_nig_se/chapters