A Mercy

Jacob Vaark, a farmer and trader in 1680s New England, is nonplussed when a Maryland plantation owner offers him a slave girl, Florens, instead of cash for a debt. Jacob doesn't believe in slavery and has actually rescued other women from harsh living conditions, giving them a home on his farm. He considers accepting this slave "a mercy," for surely her life will be better with him, where she will be considered a servant rather than a slave.

Morrison skillfully gives perspective on how the addition of another woman to the household changes the familial ecology by telling the story from multiple viewpoints. Her luminous prose highlights the other conditions which amounted to alternate forms of "slavery" in those times, particularly those based in economics and class like indentured servitude.

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