Gem of the Ocean

Citizen Barlow is a young man who journeys to Pittsburgh from Alabama. He is easily identified as a recent migrant by his “clodhoppers,” heavy-duty farm boots that, although common in the rural South, are out of place in the city. Citizen’s journey from Alabama to Pittsburgh places him squarely within the history of the Great Migration, and through his character Wilson adds historical grounding and cultural depth to Gem of the Ocean. Like many men who journeyed north during the period following emancipation, Citizen encounters conflict and in Pittsburgh. He obtains employment at a tin mill, but the working conditions there are a form of indentured servitude: Workers are housed and given food, but charged so much that they end up in debt to their employers. They are able to purchase basic necessities on credit from the mill store, but there too, they incur debt. When Citizen becomes fed up with the unfairness of this system, he steals a bucket of nails he feels he is owed and leaves without the permission of his employers. In so doing he unwittingly sets off the chain of events that leads to Garret Brown’s suicide.

Although struggling to find himself at the beginning of the play, Citizen is an honorable man, for he feels a deep sense of guilt and profound shame for causing another man’s death. He seeks out Aunt Ester for spiritual guidance and tells her that “it’s like I got a hole inside me” (44). The spiritual journey Aunt Ester takes him on is complex, rich with magical realism, and speaks both to the themes of the play and to the history of enslaved people. Through a figurative journey to the City of Bones, Citizen comes to understands his place within African American history as a whole and within his immediate community. The “spiritual cleansing” that he receives enables him to rejoin his community not only symbolically, by admitting his role in Garret Brown’s death, but also literally through his relationship with Black Mary and his choice to return to Alabama, in Solly’s place, to rescue Eliza.

Solly is a friend of Aunt Ester’s and was once a conductor on the Underground Railroad with Eli. Like Ester, he is a formerly enslaved person who made his way north. Although he has feelings for Aunt Ester and the two of them flirt, they are not a couple. He makes his living collecting “pure,” dog excrement he sells to leather tanneries. His birth name was Alfred Jackson, but when he escaped from the plantation where he had been enslaved, he renamed himself David and Solomon, after two kings in the Bible. “Solly” is his nickname.

Solly wrestles with The Nature of Freedom, and remains unsure of his purpose as a free man. Prior to his escape, he assumed that freedom would be simple, but because racist people and policies still make life so difficult for Black people, freedom is not quite the promised land that he envisioned. He muses: “I say I got [freedom] but what is it? I’m still trying to find out. It ain’t never been nothing but trouble” (28). Yet, in spite of his confusion, Solly has found purpose: Before emancipation, he ferried 62 people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, and even after emancipation, he remains dedicated to helping other Black people. He burns down the mill because he understands that it was ultimately the mill’s unjust working conditions that caused Garret Brown’s death, not Citizen. Even as he is making his escape from Caesar at the end of the play, he returns to free the mill workers who were jailed in the riots. Although it costs him his own life, he feels honor-bound to free his fellow men and women.

Black Mary is Aunt Ester’s housekeeper and Caesar’s sister. Although she ostensibly works for the elderly woman, Black Mary is a surrogate daughter to Aunt Ester and is learning from her how to be a spiritual leader. She, Aunt Ester, and Eli have a strong bond and their household is a happy one. They are active members of their community in Pittsburgh, and Black Mary plays an important role in Aunt Ester’s work. This is evidenced by her participation in Citizen’s trip to the City of Bones. She, Aunt Ester, Solly, and Eli all take part in the ceremony together, emphasizing the importance of community in spiritual healing.

Black Mary has an active love life and although Aunt Ester worries that the community will judge her for having simultaneous relationships with multiple men, Black Mary does as she pleases. She is a strong-willed woman and does not let anyone else dictate her actions. Citizen finds her attractive, but she initially rebuffs his advances, telling him that most men are “so full of their own needs” that they do not truly see the women they claim to love (42). She ultimately reverses her decision, though, as a result of Citizen’s spiritual cleansing, personal growth, and newfound role in his community. It can be assumed that Black Mary will one day take Aunt Ester’s place as spiritual guide to the inhabitants of the Hill District, and once Citizen redeems himself, he becomes a fitting partner for Black Mary. At the end of the play, the two agree to unite when Citizen returns from Alabama with Solly’s sister Eliza.

Although Black Mary initially defends her brother Caesar, telling the others that he is just doing his job and that sibling bonds should be respected, she ultimately rejects him, telling him that his treatment of other Black people is morally wrong, and that if the law itself is unjust, his actions are not defensible. She is willing to tell the truth and uphold her values, even if it means losing a family member. Ultimately, however, Black Mary does not need Caesar. She has found an alternate family in Aunt Ester, Eli, and Citizen.

Caesar is Black Mary’s brother. He is also a bakery owner, a local landlord, and a member of the police force. Caesar is the drama’s antagonist, and is revealed as such from the very beginning of the play. He is a cruel landlord who evicts his tenants at the very first sign of late payment, justifying his actions by arguing that he is merely practicing capitalism the way it was designed. He is a dishonest businessman and sells his bread for inflated prices because (he claims) it is superior to other products. As an officer of the law, he is quick to arrest and suspicious of anyone who appears to be unemployed, as well as all new arrivals from the South. He is the only Black character who mistreats other Black people, acting as an agent of white supremacy in Pittsburgh.

Caesar thus instantiates the theme of Racism and the Law. He argues that he is just upholding the law—“People want to blame me, but I got to keep order” (33)—but laws in America during this era sought to preserve white supremacy, segregation, and the subjugation of Black people. This trend is evident within Gem of the Ocean in the labor practices at the tin mill, which unfairly keep “free” workers in bondage through debt and indentured servitude. It is also evident in Caesar’s habit of arresting people who merely look suspicious to him. He openly boasts about this practice to Citizen, threatening to arrest him if Citizen cannot prove “visible means of support” (31). Not only is Caesar willing to arrest Black people without cause, but he is also willing to arrest them for being poor. Poverty is not a crime, and yet Caesar is perfectly happy to uphold a system that criminalizes it. Although he thinks of himself as the community’s moral compass because of his role as police officer, the play’s other characters reveal themselves to have a much better sense of right and wrong than Caesar does. He might uphold the law, but the law itself is unjust.

Eli is Aunt Ester’s caretaker. Along with Aunt Ester and Black Mary, he is a member of the household at 1839 Wylie Avenue. Although he cares deeply for Aunt Ester and frets over her health, he is much more than her caretaker. He is an active participant in her spiritual healing work, including Citizen’s journey to the City of Bones. Along with Solly, he dons a European mask and briefly plays the role of enslaver to help Citizen understand his identity and his role within the African American community in Pittsburgh.

Eli has a long history with Solly. The two men worked together as conductors on the Underground Railroad and as scouts for the Union Army. Unlike Aunt Ester, Solly, and Citizen, Eli does not express his moral beliefs in long monologues. However, because of his work with Aunt Ester, his standing within the Hill District, and his history with Solly, he can be understood as a deeply moral character. Eli in his own way has dedicated his life to his community, both in the way that he serves Aunt Ester and in the time and energy he has devoted to the liberation of Black people.