Kindred: Setting 1 key example

1976 was a notable year in American history, as it marked the bicentennial of the United States, or the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Founding Fathers who played a major role in the American Revolution. Though there were celebrations across the country to mark this event, Kindred turns its attention to the violence of slavery in early America through its depiction of Dana’s time-traveling. These two parts of the novel come together in the Epilogue, when Dana and Kevin return to Maryland in 1976: 

There, we rented a car—Kevin was driving again, finally—and wandered around Baltimore and over to Easton. There was a bridge now, not the steamship Rufus had used. And at last I got a good look at the town I had lived so near and seen so little of. We found the courthouse and an old church, a few other buildings time had not worn away. And we found Burger King and Holiday Inn and Texaco and schools with black kids and white kids together and older people who looked at Kevin and me, then looked again.

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When Dana is sent back to the past, she also finds herself far removed from her home geographically, transported across the American continent to a plantation, or an estate on which enslaved people are forced to work and support their enslaver, outside Easton, a town in Maryland. After Dana and Kevin return permanently to their own time, they visit Easton in order to research the lives of those whom they met in the past. Butler’s writing in this passage reflects upon both settings, noting the ways in which Easton has changed, as well as the racism that united past and present. While “black kids and white kids” attend school together, “older people” still stare at Dana and Kevin because they are a mixed race couple. In Kindred, Butler uses these settings to reflect on American history and the long history of racism.