What an irony that a slave, who was refused the status of a human being and was treated as a piece of property, was actually the fount of motherly affection, every kid aspires for! I struggled to stop my tears when infant Elizabeth falls ill on being separated from Mattie and I could hardly suppress my laughter when little ‘lisbeth’ looked upon her own grandmother and mother as strange patrons and snuggled to Mattie to draw solace. On one hand, the Wainwright family hardly allowed slaves to feel like human and on the other hand, their own kids were totally dependent on the whims and fancies of these very bonded people. The writer portrayed the closed slaveholders community very convincingly.
And, as Mattie becomes responsible for delicate Elizabeth, her maternal instincts take over and she begins to love her as her own daughter. Like any mother, she loathes to leave her son, but since she is a bonded labor, she could hardly object. The slave Mattie is forced to abandon her three month old son to breastfeed her mistress’ newborn daughter. Though, thankfully Yellow Crocus is not a depressing tale on the evils of slavery, but is a true portrayal of a special relationship shared between a wet nurse Mattie and her charge Elizabeth. I had never before read a novel based on slavery in America and as I read the present novel set in the early 19th Century, strange customs and brazen brutality of slaveholders jolted me. Yellow Crocus, the debut novel by Laila Ibrahim was a total revelation to me.
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