Genre: Historical fiction novel

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The book: The Known World 
Genre: Historical fiction novel 
About: The book examines the issue regarding the ownership of Black slaves by both white and black 
Americans.
Theme: This book is about freedom, ownership, love and slavery as a social system.
Message:The message is the messiness of slavery made real by the vivid lives of each character. 
Atmosphere: Each character feels so real, their personal stories and histories so authentic. 
Major characters: 
Henry- Born into slavery on William Robbins' plantation in 1824, Henry Townsend is intelligent, 
hardworking and ambitious. August and Mildred's son Henry is bought out of slavery by his father in 
1843. However, instead of distancing himself from the institution, Henry embraces it as a means to gain 
status and wealth. When he died in 1855, he owned over 50 acres of land and 33 slaves. He is the 
author of the main tool that Edward P. Jones uses to explore the heart of slavery and its consequences – 
allowing it to be seen as a human problem rather than a racial one. Henry's choice to become a slave 
owner stems from his long association with William Robbins, first his owner and then his mentor.
Robbins provides a model of power and authority that Henry seeks to emulate. His choice shatters his 
parents' belief that slavery is wrong and creates an irreconcilable conflict between Henry and his father.
Henry simply wants to be «God's intended shepherd master» and he inevitably fails. The conditions of 
slavery require Henry's emotional distance from his «property,» diminishing his compassion and 
distorting his sense of justice. 
Moses – Moses was 35 years old when Henry died. He was born into slavery and bought by Henry for 
«$325 and a bill of sale from William Robbins.» Moses is Henry's first slave and becomes his trusted 
overseer as the plantation grows. In some ways, Moses mirrors Henry. They were both born into 
slavery, about the same age, and in the early days of their ownership, Henry treated her as an 
equal. Moses' subsequent position as an overseer sets him apart from the other slaves, just as Henry is 
set apart from them by his position as master. After Henry's death, Moses also marries Henry's widow, 
Caldonia, and aspires to succeed him as the freed black owner of his plantation. He creates a different 
life for himself in the slavery system, but never fully escapes it and the damage it has done to 
him. Moses' world is a plantation – he knows everything. In this world, the land he works for means 
«almost his life.» It can assess soil health and seasonal changes based on the taste of the land. When 
he tries to escape, he cannot find his way to freedom. He ends his days as a slave on a plantation, 
physically and mentally crippled.

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William Robbins – dominates the slaveholding class in Manchester County with 113 slaves. He is the 
most important person in Henry Townsend's life. Robbins owns the Townsend family, but eventually 
Augustus pays enough money to buy himself, his wife, and son out of slavery. However, when Henry is 
freed, Robbins becomes his father figure and mentor, seeking advice as Henry works his way in the 
world. In Robbins' character, writer Edward P. Jones explores the complex race relations created by the 
conditions of slavery. Jones noted that Robbins is one of the «few white people who don't suffer from 
sitting across from a black person.» This demonstrates the social divisions of slavery, emphasizing 
Robbins' powerful social position. It also shows that Robbins is not inherently racist. Although he 
observes laws and customs that prohibit crossing certain lines, he has no prejudices based on color.
Robbins actually has a free black mistress named Philomena, whom he loves more than his white wife, 
and she genuinely loves and respects Henry. Yet Robbins, a slave owner, cannot escape the toxic effects 
of slavery on relationships. It distorts his perspective and reasoning. For example, when Philomena 
runs to Richmond, Robbins is forced to follow her like a runaway slave. 
Minor characters: 
John Skiffington – is the retired Sheriff of Manchester County, nicknamed «Big Bear». He grew up in 
North Carolina in a family that owned slaves. However, things changed when his mother died and his 
father dreamed that God wanted him to give up his slaves. As a result, Skiffington was strongly against 
slavery. Her story provides insight into the insidious effects of slavery, even for those who were not 
active participants in the institution. Skiffington's wife Winifred was also anti-slavery. When the couple 
is given Minerva, a young black girl, as a wedding gift, they are faced with a moral dilemma. They do not 
violate their faith by selling the child, and he is too young to be safely released. They have to 
compromise by keeping him, but they raise him as their own child. In this way, they adapt to slavery, 
which inevitably destroys their relationship with Minerva. A personal battle for Skiffington begins with 
his inappropriate attraction to the mature Minerva. His moral beliefs are at war with the knowledge 
that the conditions of slavery allow him to accept Minerva as his lover. Skiffington's moral stance on 
slavery is further undermined by his work. One of his main duties as sheriff is to search for runaway 
slaves and return them to their owners. His commitment to the law requires him to accept terms that 
directly contradict his belief that human slavery is wrong. 
Caldonia Townsend – is a well-educated, free-born black woman; Calvin's twin sister. He was raised by 
parents who owned slaves, even though his father believed that slavery was wrong. Henry's wife 
Caldonia was 28 years old when Henry died and was childless. Early in her marriage to Henry, Augustus 
Townsend hopes that Chaldonia will influence his son in a positive way and lead him to free his slaves.
He sees in Henry «a ray of failure.» She is compassionate and gentle and sometimes wonders if the life 
path she and her husband have taken is the right one. However, she loves her husband and cannot 
judge him harshly. When Henry dies, Caldonia has adjusted its values to accept slavery for what it is and 
cannot imagine freeing its slaves. He was still running the plantation when he received a letter from 
Calvin dated April 12, 1861 – on the brink of the Civil War. 
Augustus Townsend – is a master slave carpenter. At age 22, he buys his freedom from white slave 
owner William Robbins, then works diligently to buy the freedom of his wife Mildred and son Henry.
While most freed slaves must leave the state within a year, Augustus is allowed to stay at the request of 
Robbins, who respects his art and skill. Although Augustus was Henry's father, the institution of slavery 
kept them apart for much of Henry's youth. Having bought his son out of slavery, Augustus realizes that 
he is not the most influential male figure in his son's life. This role was taken by slave master Robbins.
Augustus, a man of unbreakable principle and a staunch opponent of slavery, is horrified when he 
follows in the footsteps of Henry Robbins and buys his first slave, Moses. The resulting conflict creates a 

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rift between father and son that has never been bridged. Augustus is, in fact, an active abolitionist—
something his son will never know. He and Mildred are members of the Underground Railroad, a secret 
network of abolitionists who help fugitive slaves escape to freedom in the North. After Henry's death, 
Augustus is kidnapped and sold into slavery again, where he dies rather than serve. 
Summary 
Edward P. Jones’s novel The Known World, published in 2003 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 
(2004), tells the interconnected stories of the people living at the antebellum Virginia plantation of 
Henry Townsend, a black slaveowner. The novel begins on the night of Henry’s death in 1855, but the 
story is not linear. The narrative seamlessly moves both backward in time to provide context for 
characters and forward in time to reveal characters’ destinies, sometimes extending far into the future 
to tell the stories of their descendants long after Emancipation. This free movement through time allows 
the novel to explore the complexity and legacy of slavery as it grips various characters, both slaves and 
slaveowners. 
Henry Townsend owns 33 slaves in fictional Manchester County, Virginia. Henry was born into slavery. 
His father, Augustus Townsend, was able to buy his own freedom and later his wife’s freedom; Augustus 
eventually purchases Henry’s freedom as well, but only after Henry has lived on William Robbins’s 
plantation for most of his childhood. Henry grows to admire William, working as his groom and 
shoemaker, and William trusts Henry. William has a white family with his wife and a black family with his 
mistress. He worries about his black son, Louis, and his black daughter, Dora, but he hopes that Henry 
will be able to look out for them in a way that he cannot.
Henry’s relationship with his parents becomes strained after he reveals that he has saved enough 
money to purchase his first slave, Moses. Henry’s parents cannot understand how their son could 
choose to be a slaveowner, and Augustus bans Henry from ever visiting their home. When Augustus 
visits Henry, he refuses to stay under Henry’s roof, choosing instead to sleep in a slave cabin. Henry 
turns to William for guidance throughout his life, instead of Augustus. And William is happy to guide 
Henry, especially in matters of being a slave master. 
In the present time of the narrative, Henry’s wife, Caldonia, is devastated by Henry’s death. She leans on 
a support network of family and friends that includes her former teacher, Fern Elston; her mother; and 
Calvin, her twin brother. Calvin is upset when he realizes that Caldonia will not free her slaves following 
Henry’s death. Caldonia’s mother, Maude, disagrees; she is adamant that Caldonia protect her “legacy,” 
suggesting that Caldonia buy insurance for her slaves. Caldonia rejects this idea until her slaves begin 
running away. 
Henry’s overseer, Moses, is present in the novel’s opening and closing scenes. When Henry first 
purchased Moses, their relationship was more like one between peers than that of a master and slave, 
but this dynamic changed after William instructed Henry to act more like a master. After Henry’s death, 
Moses grows close to Caldonia, visiting her nightly to bring her news of the plantation. Their 
conversations become longer and eventually Moses and Caldonia begin to have sex. Moses hopes to 
become Caldonia’s next husband, so he encourages his wife, Priscilla, and son, Jamie, to escape with 
another slave, Alice, saying that he will join them later. But when Moses realizes that his dream of being 
master of the plantation will never materialize, he too runs away, only to be captured and crippled by 
the slave patrollers, who return him to the plantation. 
The novel ends with a letter Calvin writes to Caldonia in 1861. He tells his sister that he is now living in 
Washington, DC with many former slaves who ran away and are now living free. He has met Alice and 
Priscilla again, and they are nothing like their former selves. He is humbled to be in their presence and 
hopes they will not kick him out of the hotel he is staying at, which they own. Alice is now an artist who 
has created two powerful tapestries, one depicting the entire county of Manchester and the other 

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detailing the entire plantation and everyone who lived on it, both living and dead. “Each person’s face,” 
Calvin writes, “including yours, is raised up as though to look in the very eyes of God” 
Setting 
The Known World is set in Manchester County, Virginia, 20 years before the start of the Civil War. 
My opinion 
This is a complex novel, with dense writing, a non-linear structure, and an abundance of characters. It 
reads much like a true historical account of a place, Manchester County, Virginia, and time, pre-Civil War 
1800s. This could very nearly have passed for a non-fiction book; . The author even goes so far as to tell 
us what happens to many of them ten, twenty or even fifty years in the future. And yet, Edward P. Jones 
himself states: «The county and town of Manchester, Virginia, and every human being in those places, 
are products of my imagination… The census records I made up for Manchester were, again, simply to 
make the reader feel that the town and the county and the people lived and breathed in central Virginia 
once upon a time…»At first I really thought such a county existed and the data presented were genuine 
facts. The institution of slavery of course was all too real and cruel, and that’s what this book is about, 
and this is the truth. Slavery in all its forms is evil. 
Henry Townsend is a black farmer. He is a former slave that with the purchase of freedom and some 
land becomes a slave owner himself. Henry and his wife Caldonia own a small plantation near the 
border of his former master’s much larger one. I could not wrap my head around why on earth a freed 
man would ever want to enslave another human being. Henry and other black slave owners like him 
justify their actions: «Henry had always said that he wanted to be a better master than any white man 
he had ever known.
A narrative that seems to jump around in time and between characters eventually comes together into a 
whole as consequences and events snowball out of control. Lives are permanently changed. Some for 
the worst, others (we hope) for the better. They all become woven together much like the massive 
tapestry hanging on the wall of another place in another time. Each is part of the story. Everyone is 
responsible for the events which passed, were allowed to pass despite the huge injustice to humanity. 
This book is not easy to read. The structure is challenging and the topic is gloomy, albeit important. 
What happens to the people we grow to care for is often horrifying and heartbreaking. But it is well-
written and extremely impactful. An important novel which is well worth your time and attention if you 
are up for the challenge. It won't suit everyone, but if you are at all interested, I encourage you to pick 
this one up. 
My mark for this book 20/20 
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY 

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Edward P. Jones was born in Washington, D.C., on October 5, 1950, and raised by his single mother, to 
whom Jones dedicated his first two books. He grew up well aware of the widespread poverty and 
desperation in the U.S. capital, particularly among African Americans, and this problem was a frequent 
subject of his writing in the 1990s and early 2000s. Jones himself was homeless for a period in the 
1970s, and he struggled with depression. He did well at school and earned a scholarship to Holy Cross 
College, and he took care of his mother when she became ill and died in 1975. Jones went on to earn a 
Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Virginia, where he studied with authors James 
McPherson, John Casey, and Peter Taylor. He held a variety of jobs, including summarizing business 
articles, working as an assistant at Science Magazine, and teaching writing at universities, including 
Princeton and Georgetown. For most of his life, he has resided in or near Washington, D.C., and for 
twenty years preceding the publication of The Known World (2003), he lived in the same flat in 
Arlington, Virginia. Jones's first book, a collection of short stories entitled Lost in the City, was published 
in 1992 to critical acclaim; it won the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and received a 
nomination for the National Book Award. The stories vividly portray African Americans coping with 
confusion and decay in poverty-stricken, inner-city Washington, D.C., during the 1950s, 1960s, and 
1970s. Though they tend to portray bleak circumstances, the stories generate sympathy for their 
characters, many of whom are warm-hearted. Jones won a Lannan Foundation grant in 1994 and 
another in 2003, the same year he published The Known World. In 2004, Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for 
Fiction for The Known World.Jones has published short stories in journals, including the New Yorker and 
Ploughshares. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005, and in 2006, he published a collection of short 
stories, entitled All Aunt Hagar's Children, which focuses on characters living in Washington, D.C., many 
of them from the rural South. As of 2006, he continued to live and write in the Washington, D.C., area. 
Books 
The Known World 
Lost in the city 
In the Blink of God's eye 
Tapestry 
All Aunt Hagar's Children