BY C HUES
1/27/2021
In “Cross”, Hughes uses the myriad meanings for the word “cross” to convey several different messages to the reader. The poem shows the difficulty of being a mixed-race person born to a black mother and a white father, and how the identity of this person causes them existential torment and angst. Hughes shows that being the product of black and white parentage raises more questions for the child of those parents than answers.
The speaker mentions that “My old man’s a white old man / And my old mother’s black”[1]. The speaker is mixed or mulatto, which substantiates that the speaker is a Cross: “a person or thing that is intermediate in character between two others”.[2] “Cross” can mean “to interbreed”[3]; the speaker is the product of two people in society who belong to antithetical cultures and places in the racial caste system. Further, the word “shack” supports this definition of the word “cross” that is used in the poem regarding interracial sex, as shack can mean “to have illicit sexual relations”.[4] Despite laws against interracial relationships,[5] it was commonplace for slave owners to rape their slaves and have mixed race or mulatto children.[6] In fact, African Americans today descend from such relationships during slavery and have “excess European male and West African female ancestry”;[7] genetic DNA studies reveal that “African Americans in the US typically carry segments of DNA shaped by contributions from peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas.”[8] The “excess European male” ancestry further confirms the regularity in which white men fathered children with black slave women; the nature of these relationships were specifically to “shack” up. A “shack” can also mean “a rough cabin; shanty”;[9] as the speaker mentions that their “ma died in a shack.”[10] Perhaps the poem is also influenced by Langston Hughes’ own ancestry:
“James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, the second son of James Nathaniel Hughes and Carrie Mercer Langston Hughes…Both of James Nathaniel Hughes’ male grandparents were white, his female grandparents black. On the paternal side, he was descended from Sam Clay, a whiskey distiller of Scottish origin who lived in Henry County, Kentucky, and on the maternal side from Silas Cushenberry, a Jewish slave trader from Clark County, Kentucky. Langston’s mother, who preferred to be called Carolyn, had been born on January 1873 on a farm near Lawrence, Kansas. Her paternal grandfather was Ralph Quarles, a wealthy Louisiana County, Virginia, planter, who had attained the rank of Captain in the Revolutionary War. Her grandmother, Lucy Langston, was his half-Indian, half-Negro housekeeper. Carrie’s father, Charles Howard Langston, was the second of three sons born to Ralph and Lucy. The Louisiana County court record shows that in 1806 Quarles declared Lucy and her heirs, including a daughter Maria, free and “clear of the claims of all persons whatsoever.” The three sons grew up on their father’s Virginia plantation, and when he died in 1834—the year of Lucy’s death also—his will provided for their education and, upon reaching the age of twenty-one, financial independence.”[11]
Hughes’ ancestry is reflective of the speaker’s heritage, with paternal European and maternal African ancestry. Although the speaker questions where they’ll die because they are “neither white nor black”,[12] mulatto children were usually considered by society to be closer to black than white when the conditions were that the father was white and the mother was a black slave (the typical case). This is substantiated as all of Langston Hughes’ mulatto grandparents were still enslaved when they were born. However, Hughes’ maternal great-grandfather did eventually free his children upon his death and provided for their education. That slave owners sometimes did these acts of kindness does not suggest that they are somehow redeemed of their evil, corrupt, and licentious actions towards slave women or their general cruelty. Still, the occasional act of freeing the children does show that sometimes being mulatto would place a person in an incredibly unique position in society. They would much more often have the opportunity of being freed due to familial connections. Thus, the speaker’s question of where they will die is an existential one that also reflects the nature of who exactly they are in society—are they slave or free, white or black, and can they become rich or will they stay poor? The answer is usually that they are slaves, black, and poor, yet being mulatto also means that these things can change. Some mulatto people were able to pass for white and ascend to places in white society that no darker skinned black person could ever hope to attain. As Allyson Hobbs notes in A Chosen Exile, “Passing illuminates the ways that African American identities function as an intangible space of imagination or a set of symbols to which people feel powerful attachments.”[13] Thus, even if the speaker chose to pass for white to make life substantially easier, they would be abandoning their black identity, culture, and people. They find themselves in an impossible position. Langston Hughes similarly found himself conflicted with his father when he chose to fully embrace his blackness and celebrate black pride; he wrote the poem “Passing”, which criticizes those who rejected their blackness for what he considered material wealth and social convenience.[14]
One of the definitions for the word “Cross” is “a structure or monument in the form of a cross, set up for prayer, as a memorial, etc.”[15] In the poem, the speaker talks about the death of both their black mother and their white father: “My old man died in a fine big house” and “My ma died in a shack”.[16] Here, “cross” can refer to a memorial or structure that is present on the graves of the parents when they die. Further, “cross” particularly carries a religious meaning, and it can also mean “the crucifixion of Jesus as the culmination of His redemptive mission”;[17] the speaker shows in the second stanza that he is musing about death and the afterlife: “If I ever cursed my black old mother / And wished she were in hell, / I’m sorry for that evil wish / And now I wish her well.”[18] Cross also means “to move, pass, or extend from one side or place to another”;[19] death is the ultimate form of “crossing over”[20] according to Christianity and many religions. The speaker believes that beyond death there is an afterlife, and they express regret for cursing their father and wishing that their mother was in hell. This regret is indicated to have come suddenly because the speaker’s parents have both died, and now the speaker is closer to death as they have become older. When the speaker was younger, it did not trouble them to curse and condemn their parents to hell because of the troubled circumstance of being mulatto in a racist, slave owning society. The speaker feels “cross”, which means “angry and annoyed”[21] at the life they feel thrusted into by their parents, and they are forever stuck. However, as they grew in age and both their parents died, they began to question death. The speaker’s expression for sorrow and regret does not emanate from a genuine feeling of remorse; rather the speaker seems to be motivated by the fear of their own mortality and the realization that they will die just like both of their parents. However, even death cannot truly connect or empathize the speaker with his parents because they end the poem with the lines, “I wonder where I’m gonna die / Being neither white nor black?”[22] Even though death would seem like the one thing that would unify the speaker with his mother and father because everyone experiences it or will experience it, the liminality of being a mixed race slave still separates the speaker from both parents.
Ultimately, the poem “Cross” offers no answers for the speaker of the poem, but it does show that being a mixed-race person in society (in particular American society) leaves one feeling like they do not belong. The burden of being mulatto is their “cross”[23] to bear. The feeling of anguish and strife of not belonging to a particular group is only supplemented by the fear of choosing sides (or the fear that one cannot even choose a side). Although society would usually treat mulatto slaves as black, their appearance and ancestral connections sometimes offered them the opportunity to cross[24] over into white society. However, when doing so, mulatto people risked abandoning their family and culture, leaving many plagued by their decision.
[1] The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. W. W. Norton Company, Inc. 2005. Langston Hughes, Cross. p 914. 1926.
[2] Cross. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cross?s=t . Accessed January 27, 2021.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Shack. Dictionary.com https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shack?s=t. Accessed January 27, 2021.
[5] The Rape of Recy Taylor. Directed by Nancy Buirski. Produced by Nancy Buirski, Claire L. Chandler, Beth Hubbard, Susan Margolin. Written by Nancy Buirski. December 8, 2017 (Limited release). March 20, 2018 (Streaming). https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_rape_of_recy_taylor
[6] Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Root. “Exactly How “Black” is Black America. February 11, 2013. 12:32 A.M. Accessed January 27, 2021. https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185 .
[7] Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African Americans
Katarzyna Bryc, Adam Auton, Matthew R. Nelson, Jorge R. Oksenberg, Stephen L. Hauser, Scott Williams, Alain Froment, Jean-Marie Bodo, Charles Wambebe, Sarah A. Tishkoff, and Carlos D. Bustamante. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Jan 12; 107(2): 786–791.Published online 2009 Dec 22. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0909559107
PMCID: PMC2818934. PMID: 20080753. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2818934/ .
[8] The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States
Katarzyna Bryc, Eric Y. Durand, J. Michael Macpherson, David Reich, and Joanna L. Mountain. Am J Hum Genet. 2015 Jan 8; 96(1): 37–53. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.010. PMCID: PMC4289685. PMID: 25529636. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4289685/ .
[9] Shack. Dictionary.com.
[10]The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. W. W. Norton Company, Inc. 2005. Langston Hughes, Cross. p 914. 1926.
[11] Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem ; a Biography. 1983. 1992. Faith Berry. Carol Publishing Group. A Citadel Press Book. Chapter 1, p 1-2.
[12] The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. W. W. Norton Company, Inc. 2005. Langston Hughes, Cross. p 914. 1926.
[13] A Chosen Exile. Allyson Hobbs. 2014. Harvard University Press. P 16. https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Chosen_Exile/HaOmBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=slaves%20passed%20for%20white
[14] A Chosen Exile. Allyson Hobbs. 2014. Harvard University Press. P211-212, 214. https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Chosen_Exile/HaOmBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=langston%20hughes
[15] Cross. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cross?s=t . Accessed January 27, 2021.
[16] The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. W. W. Norton Company, Inc. 2005. Langston Hughes, Cross. p 914. 1926.
[17] Cross. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cross?s=t . Accessed January 27, 2021.
[18] The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. W. W. Norton Company, Inc. 2005. Langston Hughes, Cross. p 914. 1926.
[19] Cross. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cross?s=t . Accessed January 27, 2021.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. W. W. Norton Company, Inc. 2005. Langston Hughes, Cross. p 914. 1926.
[23] Cross: “Any misfortune, trouble”. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cross?s=t .
[24] Cross: “to move, pass, or extend from one side to the other”. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cross?s=t .