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Black woman were forced to neglect their own children and take care of their mistresses children, Which added to the dysfunctional slave family dynamics. It was difficult for slave mothers to have maternal relationships with their own children because slavery restricted such bonds. 

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Elizabeth Freeman

Elizabeth Freeman was born a slave. She grew up a slave, married and had a child as a slave, working for the Ashley family of Massachusetts. Elizabeth was never given an education. Despite this, she was remarkably intelligent.

During the American Revolution, she heard the Declaration of Independence being read and discussed by her masters and their company. One passage in particular stood out to her.

“All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.”

We often discuss the hypocrisy of Jefferson, who owned hundreds of people, writing this passage. Elizabeth noticed it too.

In 1780, Elizabeth’s mistress, Mrs Ashley, attempted to strike a slave with a shovel. Accounts differ as to whether the slave was Elizabeth’s sister, daughter or unrelated. But Elizabeth took the blow. Then she ran away and refused to come back. She had a plan, and she teamed up with a lawyer called Thomas Sedgewick to carry it out.

They went to Great Barrington Court (along with a fellow slave of Elizabeth’s, Brom) and argued that if all men were free and equal, then so was she.

They won. The court ordered compensation to be paid out to her. Elizabeth had to pick a surname. She chose the name Freeman.

Her old masters tried to convince her to come back and work for them, paid this time, but she refused. Instead Freeman went to work for the Sedgewicks, who had argued for her freedom.

It was the beginning of the end for slavery in Massachusetts. Elizabeth Freeman set a precedent which ended two years later with the Massachusetts Supreme Court banning slavery throughout the state. Freeman lived to be 87, dying in the house that she and her daughter had bought for themselves, a respected healer and midwife.

She is quoted as saying, “Any time while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told that I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it just to stand one minute on God’s earth a free woman.”

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                                          The Jealous Mistress

“I would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation, till the grave opened to give me rest, than to live with an unprincipled master and a jealous mistress.”- Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

The black woman did not only have to be cautious of their white master but also of the white mistresses who were often jealous and evil. White woman values were all about chastity and purity, meanwhile, their husbands went around doing as they please. This often leads to this evil mistress who instead of hating their husband's action hate the black oppressed woman. Harriet Jacobs dedicates a whole chapter in her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girls, to these jealous mistresses. Her mistress, Mrs. Flint, knew the sick obsession her husband had with Jacobs and she would force Jacobs to tell her what her husband would tell Jacobs. Mrs. Flint would go to a sleeping Jacobs and whisper in her ear as if she was her husband, Dr. Flint, to see Jacobs reaction. Jacobs would often wake up to her jealous mistress hovering over her. It was not long until Jacob had her children, and Mrs. Flint to wish death to them. Although Jacobs does not have kids with Dr. Flint, Mrs. Flint hate towards her did not change. This was because Jacobs was a reminder of the unfaithfulness of her husband. The white woman had a dislike towards the slaves her husband had sexual relations with because they could not stand up to their husbands but to whom they could stand up to was the mistreated black woman. This is seen in 12 Years a Slave where Mrs. Epps makes her husband choose her or Patsey. Mr. Epps responds that she should in a sense watch her or he will send her to the poor family she came from. 

“The poor girls have romantic notions of a sunny clime, and of the flowering vines that all the year round shade a happy home. To what disappointments are they destined! The young wife soon learns that the husband in whose hands she has placed her happiness pays no regard to his marriage vows. Children of every shade of complexion play with her own fair babies, and too well she knows that they are born unto him of his own household. Jealousy and hatred enter the flowery home, and it is ravaged of its loveliness.” - Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in The Life Of a Slave Girl    

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Dr. Yellin, author of a biography of Harriet Jacobs, discusses in this exclusive interview how she found the real historic person behind the author of the only slave narrative told from a feminine point of view.

Dr. Yellin comments on how many didn’t believe that “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” was written by a slave woman. Many though that it was a work of fiction. Would you think that it’s a work of fiction? It clearly states on the title page that it was written by “Linda Brent”, so why did many think that Lydia Child wrote it when it says she is an editor?

Harriet Jacobs and Dr. Jean Fagan Yellin. Perf. Dr. Jean Fagan Yellin. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2013. Film.

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Roots 3.0, 2017

Watercolor, Acrylic Pearlescent Ink, Leaves

Artist: AWAL (Alana Walters)

Instagram:  @ awal.art

Tumblr: @ awal-art

Website: awalart.com

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The Black Female Domestic Life: From Art to Rebellious Movement

We see through the reading of slave narratives how many slave women were able to escape slavery through a domestic sphere.  For example, Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl becomes a mother to gain autonomy over her own sexuality and also as a way to potentially escape the wrath of Dr. Flint.  However, there are other ways black women would use domesticity as a means towards freedom.  Black women were able to cultivate their cultural artistic forms of expression and common activities within the home, such as quilt making and hair braiding, and reform it into convert tools of rebellion against slavery.  

Through the common practice of quilt making, many slave women were able to weave intricate patterns that symbolized pathways to freedom or secret messages to one another. The quilt codes were used to navigate the Underground Railroad.  The quilts contained patterns with names like the "wagon wheel," "tumbling blocks," and "bear's paw".  The quilt was originally made by seamstresses on the plantations, who would sew a sampler quilt containing different quilt patterns.  Then the seamstress sewed ten quilts using one of the code's patterns.  The seamstress would hang the quilts in full view one at a time, allowing all the other slaves on the plantation thinking of escape to memorize the patterns.  Many slaves used the quilts as a map in order to escape or memorized the quilts as a mnemonic device to guide them to safety.

Braids are a tribal custom carried on from Africa.  Braid patterns were originally used to signify what tribe you belonged to, an occupation, community status and more.  However, as the tradition carried on in  the Americas, braids became another effective tool for women to find safe routes north to freedom.  During slavery, after a long day of work women would sit and braid each other’s hair.  The braids were often used to relay messages between slaves, signal that they were going to escape, or even used to keep gold and seeds to help them survive after they would run away.  Slave women would braid map routes into each other’s hair in order to discreetly spread information without the knowledge of their masters.  This technique was most popular within the Afro-Colombian community, and is a tradition they continue to celebrate through braid festivals. 

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“...Enslaved black males were socialized by white folks to believe that they should endeabor to become patriarchs by seeking to attain the freedom to provide and protect for black women, to be benevolen patriarchs. Benevolent patriarchs exercise their power without using force. And it was this notion of patriarchy that educated black men coming from slavery into freedom sought to mimic. However, a large majority of black men took as their standard the dominator model set by white masters. When slavery ended these black men often used violence to dominate black women, which was a repetition of the strategies of control white slave masters used.”

Bell Hooks

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Black Motherhood

A major theme displayed throughout the slave narratives is the contrast between the black female experience versus the black male experience.  Black women were burdened with navigating throughout the intersectionality of their womanhood and their blackness.  Although both men and women went through slavery and racial prejudice, ultimately they are burdened with more.  Black women, in contrast to black men, were forced into more domestic roles as mothers or caregivers.  We see in Frederick Douglass’s narrative his primary focus is on his individual journey to freedom.  In his narrative he recounts no deep connection toward his mother, and he mentions in passing that he has a wife and kids but never discusses how integral they are to Douglass.  We see this stark contrast in both Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Beloved, where Jacobs and Sethe’s relationship with their families is the center of their respective narratives.  Although at first Jacobs used her children as a way to escape from Dr. Flint, her children’s safety become her top priority.  Similarly, Sethe’s immense love for her children causes her to attempt to kill her children in a desperate last attempt to spare them from a life in slavery.  On page 914 in Beloved, Paul D says to Sethe “You got two feet, Sethe, not four”.  This quote to me highlights the drastic perspectives between not only Paul D and Sethe, but men and women in slavery.  Paul D’s inability to understand or empathize with Sethe’s decision and eventual decision to leave highlights the lack of responsibility and mobility of black men in comparison to women.  Douglass’ narrative as well as the story of Paul D before reaching 124 were very singular; they were about their own personal escape stories, with their own two feet.  In both the narratives of Jacobs and Morrison, slave women not only have to carry their own feet but the feet of their children into freedom.

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The Black female body was put on full display at all times. This heightened the stereotype that White Woman were virtuous and docile. 

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Lack of Reproductive Rights

Lack of reproductive freedoms is a subject not usually not talked about when discussing slavery. However, Black woman didn’t have agency over their own reproductive choice during slavery. Every woman of appropriate age (13 and up) needed to bear children. Many Breeding farms were established in the south, so slave owners can force what they considered good slaves together, so they can produce strong children for field work. Whites being able to decide black woman’s reproductive decisions was furthered by the fact that black woman were defined by their so-called sexuality. Even though black woman at the time had no control over their bodies, they were promiscuous, exotic, and impure. Black women were constantly birthing black and mulatto children and while being forced to prep their offspring for the same disastrous fate. The black female body provided white slave owners with free labor, which kept the system of slavery afloat. Sexual exploitation was used as a “tool” by whites in order to exercise dominance over female slaves and fuel plantations with more laborers. However, woman like Harriet Jacobs were able to use their reproductive abilities as resistance against their masters. For example, Jacobs uses motherhood as refugee from becoming Mr. Flint’s sex slave and eventually motherhood becomes her reason for escaping slavery. She becomes sexually involved with another white man to assert agency over her own body and have control over who fathers her children.

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Queen of the Field

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Sexual Slavery

Many female slaves were sold at slave auctions into prostitution or concubinage. Since the creation of North American colonies, white men enslaved African woman to be used as mistresses and as slavery developed in the United States, slave woman were taken advantage of by white overseers. The movie, “12 Years a Slave” does a great job highlighting the sexual degradation black female slaves were subjected to and how young black woman were groomed into sexual slavery. In the slave auction scene, the slave auctioneer refuses to sell Eliza’s daughter; who’s of mixed race because she can be sold for higher price into the sex slave industry. Mulatto slaves were fetishized because of their European lineage and were sought after by white men. Another scene where we see young female slaves being groomed into sexual slavery is when Mr. Epps is holding the little black girl and offering her candy. We can assume that eventually Mr. Epps will do the same he did to Patsey, when she hits puberty.

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Five hundred pounds of cotton! Day in, day out!

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 Women Bare It All    

    In my text and context classes, we focused on slave narrative and neo-slave narratives through books and film. Throughout this semester we have read Fredrick Douglass’ Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave, Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and have watched 12 years a Slave. Although I have enjoyed all three books we have read so far, Harriet Jacobs’ narrative stood out because it subtly exposes the sexual and mental abuse female slaves received from white males. Jacobs’ narrative shows to me time and time again that women do bare it all. Harriet Jacobs is such a strong woman who endured the evils of slavery. Although she does not explicitly say what occurs between her and Dr. Flint it is safe to assume he had a sexual relationship with her. Dr. Flint is abusive and controlling of who Harriet Jacobs can date, where she lives, and who can buy her. Dr. Flint forces himself unto Jacobs and this is seen in the constant letters he writes her, forcing her to stay in his room, and buying her a home where he could have her all to herself. Jacobs omits many things from her narrative but Dr. Flint is persistent in wanting her is something that Jacobs keeps present through her narrative. 12 years a Slave was the only film we have watched so far but just like the books we have read it also shows the mental and sexual abuse black women faced. Pastey a female slave owned by Mr. Epps is constantly abused by her master. She is chocked, hit, and raped by Mr. Epps. Female slaves were sexually and mentally abused by white males in these slave narratives, and write or talking about it explicitly was never an option.      

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Women are considered of no value, unless they continually increase their owner’s stock. They are put on a par with animals. This same master shot a woman through the head, who had run away and been brought back to him. No one called him to account for it. If a slave resisted being whipped, the bloodhounds were unpacked, and set upon him, to tear his flesh from his bones. The master who did these things was highly educated, and styled a perfect gentleman. He also boasted the name and standing of a Christian, though Satan never had a truer follower.

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself” by Harriet Ann Jacobs (via thenobody-inthecorner)