de Turkey and de Law

How did Hurston's research impact her portrayal of life in Eatonville in de Turkey and de Law?

Summary

Setting

Title: de Turkey and de Law

Year of Publication: 1930

Setting: Eatonville, FL

Length: 3 acts

Published in 1930, de Turkey and de Law follows an assault trial in the small community of Eatonville, Florida. In three acts, this comedic play follows the community divided along religious lines as the mayor, Joe Clarke, attempts to prosecute a young Methodist man, Jim Weston, for assaulting a Baptist man, Dave Carter, with a mule bone and stealing his turkey. From the beginning, it's clear to both the townspeople and the reader that this fight had far more to do with competition over a woman, Daisy Blunt, than it does with any turkey. The play takes the audience from a squabble at the local store preceding the crime, through the hectic trial, and the punishment, albeit brief, of Jim Weston. The townspeople mock each other and air out old grievances while the two priests, Reverend Sinletary of the Baptist Church, and Reverend Simms of the Methodist Church, argue the case. In the end, Jim is found guilty and driven out of town to the railroad tracks, where Daisy finds him. Not long after, Dave arrives as well, and each man attempts to prove he loves Daisy more than the other. She eggs them on until finally choosing Jim, but when she insists the man she marries get a job doing manual labor for the white people in a nearby town, both lose interest in the girl, and return to Eatonville together, friends once again.

de Turkey and de Law is not unique in being set in a place Hurston visited in real life. Eatonville, a small rural town in Orange County, Florida, was Hurston’s home for much of her childhood. It was the first incorporated all-Black city in the United States. Although Hurston returned to the town later in life as part of her anthropological research into the folklore of southern Black communities in 1935, this trip would occur five years after the publication of the play, meaning it was her childhood in the community and research of other towns that would have influenced her portrayal of Eatonville in this text. Learn more about Eatonville and the demographics of Orange county on our Florida page.

Overview

The Portrayal of
Black Women

Hurston’s play, de Turkey and de Law, preserves the sound and flow of rural black southern vernacular. The nature of the voice Hurston was observing and recording did not make as much sense to read, as it did to hear. The voice of the text is better grasped through hearing it read out loud, it makes more sense on the ear rather than through text. Tests for literacy at this time according to the U.S. Census Bureau of 1930, rates of illiteracy were measured by being able to read and spell out one's own name. This difference in reading, speaking and writing, leads to the question of how literacy can accurately be measured. While studying Hurston’s play featuring southern rural black vernacular it becomes easier to understand this cultural voice from over 130 years ago. Hurston’s lived experience and research informed her playwriting to bring conversations to stage.
Hurston describes Polk County homes in the particular sawmill, as “Few attempts at decoration or relief from the ugliness. Everyone lives temporary. They go from job to job, from jail to jail. Or from job to jail or from jail to job”. This quote is illuminated by the large number of working and single women, as well as the smallest median family size belonging to the rural non-farm demographic.

What does this mean?

Read the Play

Read the original manuscript here through the Library of Congress:

De Turkey and de Law: A Comedy in Three Acts | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

Purchase the full collection of Hurston's plays here.

A defining feature of Hurston’s plays is her complex and realistic portrayal of her characters, often informed by her anthropological and ethnographic research, as well as her own experiences living in the rural South. In particular, Hurston writes Black women as powerful and opinionated, not independent of contemporary gender roles and dynamics, but far from quiet and obedient.

Daisy Blunt Takes Control of her Situation:
- In the face of Jim’s uncertain future at the end of the play, Daisy is the one to take control of the situation. She comes up with a concrete plan, almost persuading Jim to pursue a path that best suits her goals and needs. While Daisy doesn’t succeed in persuading either man to pursue that future with her, Hurston’s choice to show her actively trying to control her future and find someone who satisfies those goals paints Daisy as a powerful and realistic character. Daisy is not a prize to be won, despite the competition framed around her; she is a person trying, among other things, to secure a financially stable future for herself.
Women at the Social Center of the Community:
- It's noteworthy that in Act 2, Scene 1, Hurston uses the conversation between two women, and those who pass them by, to express the town's reactions to the trial for the audience, underlining how ingrained these women are in the community.
- At the trial, it is primarily the women who speak up, not only controlling the situation by actively preventing the trial from proceeding, but being the voice of the majority of the community conflict. It is Sister Lewis and Taylor that speak and argue the most, not their husbands or other men in the town. These women refuse to yield to the men and the trial only progresses when they choose to allow it, not because they are forced to stop.
Men’s Perception and Discussions of Women:
- A large portion of Act 1 is dedicated to men’s discussions of women’s bodies. Words like “portly” and “big” are associated with healthy and attractive women. Hurston used her ethnographic research to represent the importance of the physical appearance of women in pursuing a reliable husband. This play also gives us insight into how men use women’s physical appearance to judge how healthy the woman is to bear their children.

Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Playwriting