The Bill of Sale, which is a record of Aunt Ester’s former enslavement, symbolizes the gap between what’s moral and what’s legal. The Bill of Sale—a legal document—says that Aunt Ester was sold from one enslaver to another for $607, which implies that she is a piece of property, not a person. Of course, this is wrong; Aunt Ester is now a free person, and she always should have been free, which is why she tells Caesar that despite what the law says, has always known that nobody had any right to treat her like property. Unlike Aunt Ester, Caesar has a hard time seeing that what’s legal isn’t always moral, and he enforces racist laws in ways that hurt his family and community. She shows Caesar the Bill of Sale as a way of helping him see that the law isn’t something that he should unquestioningly follow or uphold, since enforcing immoral laws is itself immoral.
The Bill of Sale Quotes in Gem of the Ocean
You see, Mr. Caesar, you can put the law on the paper but that don’t make it right. That piece of paper say I was property. Say anybody could buy or sell me. The law say I needed a piece of paper to say I was a free woman. But I didn’t need no piece of paper to tell me that. Do you need a piece of paper, Mr. Caesar?
The Bill of Sale Symbol Timeline in Gem of the Ocean
