SOURCE: Carmichael, Jacqueline Miller. “The Struggles and Journeys of the ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ Woman.” In Trumpeting a Fiery Sound: History and Folklore in Margaret Walker's Jubilee, pp. 37-48. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1998.

In the following chapter from her full-length study of Jubilee, Carmichael discusses recent critical re-evaluation of the novel and a brief history of critical trends in relation to Walker's work.

Our birth and death are easy hours, like sleep and food and drink. The struggle staggers us for bread, for pride, for simple dignity. And this is more than fighting to exist; more than revolt and war and human odds. There is a journey from the me to you. There is a journey from the you to me. A union of the two strange worlds must be. 

Ours is a struggle from a too-warm bed; too cluttered with a patience full of sleep. Out...