"Kindred" by Octavia Butler

Like The Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglass, Octavia Butler's novel Kindred incorporates elements of Christianity. Douglass's work argues that the most religiously devout slave-owners are the ones to be feared the most. This appears to be the case with Margret Weylin in Kindred, who reads the Bible regularly, interpreting life through scripture, such as the Second Book of Kings. She is basically a walking time bomb who blows up at slaves for the pettiest things, making her husband, by comparison, seem like an ethical slaveholder. The Bible also has significance in Dana's time period, serving as a written record of her ancestry in the days of slavery instead of for prayer and reflection. Douglass's Narrative also suggests that Christianity fails to recognize the immorality of slavery, and Dana's ancestors' choice to chronicle their own history amid scripture is a response to Douglass's theory.