The Garies and Their Friends (1857) is the only novel by author Frank J. Webb, a Black man from Philadelphia. It is one of the first published novels by a Black American and is considered a social novel or social problem novel. The Garies and Their Friends is the story of a multiracial family, the Garies; their allies, the Ellis family and a Black real-estate developer, Mr. Walters; and their enemies, the Stevens family. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Routledge Press. It was not published initially in the United States because of its treatment of the subject of interracial marriage, which was controversial in the US at the time. This novel deals with issues of race and racism in the antebellum Northern United States and the solidarity and resistance of Black communities in the face of this discrimination. The Garies and Their Friends is an important text in the history of Black American literature that raised awareness about the challenges faced by free Black communities in the North prior to the Civil War.

This guide refers to the 1997 Johns Hopkin University Press edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of enslavement, racism, racist violence, discrimination, offensive terms for Black people, murder and death, suicide, and alcohol addiction. This study guide touches on all these topics and quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word.

Plot Summary

The narrative opens on the Garie family enjoying a meal at their home in Georgia. Mr. Garie is the son of a Southern planter, and Mrs. Garie is a Black woman he originally purchased at auction. They now live as husband and wife with their two children, Clarence and Emily. Their friend Mr. Winston is visiting, and he shares news of his travels in the North.

The Ellis family of Philadelphia is introduced. The Ellis family is a respectable Black family made up of Mr. Ellis, a carpenter; his wife, Mrs. Ellis; and their three children, Esther, Caroline (“Caddy”), and Charlie. Charlie comes home late and dirty because he was out playing. Although he is very good at school, Charlie is sent to work as a servant in the house of a white woman, Mrs. Thomas. He is miserable there. One day, while serving at a dinner party at Mrs. Thomas’s house, Mr. Winston approaches Charlie and asks Charlie where he can find his father. It is revealed that Mr. Ellis and Mr. Winston knew each other long ago. Mr. Ellis introduces Mr. Winston to Mr. Walters, a wealthy Black real-estate developer.

After hearing of Mr. Winston’s travels in the North, Mrs. Garie begs Mr. Garie to let them move to Philadelphia, where they can be legally married, send the children to school, and be free of the threat of being sold into enslavement. Mr. Garie agrees. He writes to Mr. Walters, who finds a house for the Garie family and arranges for the Ellis family to help them set it up. Meanwhile, Charlie causes so much trouble in his rebellion against service at the Thomas residence that he is asked to leave. Since he is no longer working, he is tasked with bringing his sister Caddy her dinner at the house that she is preparing for the Garie family’s arrival. On the way, he stops to comment on some games of marbles, and while distracted, someone swaps her dinner for kitchen scraps. When she discovers that her dinner is gone, Caddy chases Charlie with a broom. He falls down the stairs and breaks his arm. The doctor recommends that Charlie go to the countryside to recover. It is arranged that a white woman named Mrs. Bird will take him to her summer home in the countryside.

Meanwhile, the Garie family is packing for their trip to Philadelphia. Mr. Garie’s uncle arrives and warns him that life will be difficult for them in the North as an interracial couple, but Mr. Garie says that it will be worth it for his wife and children to be emancipated. They arrive in Philadelphia and are very happy with their new home. Their neighbors, the Stevens, however, are virulent racists. Mr. Stevens is a crooked, scheming lawyer. Soon after their arrival, the Garies get officially married and send their children to school. As the Garies are settling in, Charlie initially has a difficult time in the countryside because the servants at Mrs. Bird’s house treat him with disdain and force him to do chores.

One day, Mr. Garie takes Mrs. Stevens to meet Mrs. Garie, who has been ill in bed. Mrs. Stevens realizes that Mrs. Garie is Black. She informs the other women whose children go to school with the Garie children, and they work together to get Clarence and Emily Garie expelled from school for being biracial. Mr. Stevens then receives a letter informing him that he is in fact Mr. Garie’s cousin. He decides to instigate a mob to attack Black neighborhoods so that he can capitalize on the real-estate speculation. He also wants them to kill Mr. Garie because, as the remaining white relative, he will get Mr. Garie’s fortune.

The mob attacks Black homes and community centers. The Ellises go to Mr. Walters’s house, where they defend themselves. In the chaos, Mr. Stevens murders Mr. Garie. Mrs. Garie, hiding out in the woodshed with her children, dies in childbirth that same night. In the attack, the Ellis home is burned down, and Mr. Ellis is badly wounded. It takes them all day to discover what hospital Mr. Ellis is in.

Following the attack, Mr. Garie’s will, which leaves everything to his wife and children, has gone missing, and Mr. Stevens makes a successful claim to Mr. Garie’s fortune, although he gives a little money to Clarence and Emily. Clarence is sent to a boarding school, and Emily lives with the Ellis family at Mr. Walters’s residence. Charlie gets news of the attack and returns from the countryside. He tries to get a job to support his family but is twice turned away because of racism. Finally, an engraver takes pity on him and hires him for his office.

Many years later, Clarence returns to his boarding school to talk to his teacher, who has become his surrogate mother. He has hidden his Black identity from his fiancée, Birdie, and he is worried about telling her. His teacher encourages him to tell the truth, but Clarence does not. One day, during his marriage preparations, George Stevens, Jr., arrives at Birdie’s house. He recognizes Clarence and tells his fiancée’s father of Clarence’s Black heritage. The man is furious, and the wedding is called off. Clarence’s health declines. Meanwhile, Charlie Ellis and Emily Garie are planning to get married. The night of their wedding, two of their guests, a clergyman and a lawyer, are called away to a bedside confession. They learn from an Irishman named McCloskey that Mr. Stevens killed Mr. Garie, and McCloskey gives them the missing will. A warrant is issued for Mr. Stevens’s arrest, but he takes his own life before he can be arrested.

Clarence moves in with his sister’s family because he knows he is dying. He sends for his ex-fiancée to say goodbye, but by the time she arrives, he has already died.