Living the Legacy: Pain, Desire, and Narrative Time in Gayl Jones’ Corregidora, by Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg, talks about the novel, Corregidora. Corregidora traces the legacy of slavery through the lives of four generations of women. It examines the “black female (sexual) subjectivity under a dominant patriarchal system and the subjectivity of a person experiencing the pain of torture”. Jones wrote this novel to examine the long legacy of sexual torture of women in the patriarchal slave era. Not only does this novel, express the topic at hand of my project, but it goes into detail of the events and torture that takes place in each of the women’s lives. It gives you a firsthand look at women’s struggles to uphold their dignity in slavery, and their struggles to stay alive among white men. Jones wrote this novel as a traumatic narrative to put the readers “in the position of “hearer,” or witness, rather than of spectator and what we witness is the traumatic impossibility of female desire, and therefore of full female subjectivity, resulting from torture’s legacy.” Elizabeth Goldberg examines Corregidora and the uses of empathy that Jones represents through her writing, in this article.

“Motherhood as Resistance in Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Stephanie Li, is an article written about the character from the book, Linda, and her maternal resistance to slavery. Stephanie Li also discusses what Harriet Jacob’s was trying to disclose to her audience, through Linda’s actions and feelings towards the patriarchal slave life she was enduring.

 Jacobs describes the “evil” of slavery as the “flagrant destruction of familial bonds.” Most slave women had to suffer not only through manual labor, and sexual assault, but they also suffered from losing their children to slavery. Most children were sold off to other slaver owners, never to see their families again, which breaks the ties of motherhood, creating the “evil” of slavery. Jacob’s portrays Linda as the type of mother who would do anything to keep her children safe. Linda defined her life work as “not simply an absolute devotion to her children, but as part of a concerted effort to defy slavery’s abuses.” By protecting her children as much she could, Linda was defying the abuses slavery had on Mothers and their children. Throughout Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda’s action of trying to free her children so they can have a better life, even though she herself may suffer, also shows how she defied slavery’s attempt to demolish the mother-child relationship. “Jacobs suggests that maternal sentiment aspires to the higher truth of human freedom rather than to the fundamental indignity of slavery.” As Linda endures many trials through the story, her love for her children grows, along with her determination to fight against the forces that enslave them. Jacob’s presents freedom as the “ability for a mother to provide for and protect her children, rather than just individual liberty.” Once a mother is able to achieve this, they will eternally be free from the evils of slavery.

This picture shows a typical job for a woman in slavery. Not only is she having to do manual work in the garden, she is also looking out for the two children in the back ground. More than likely these children are her own, but they too are doing slave work for the mistress of the house. Most of the jobs that slave women performed were the household chores, such as cleaning clothes, taking care of the white children in the home, and preparing the food for her Master’s family, which involved tending to the garden, and cooking.

I would also take notice of the clothes they are wearing in the picture. The clothing looks very old and tattered, which can resemble the hard work that is done every day. These clothes are also probably the only thing they have to wear, which is another reason they look dirty. It also doesn’t appear that any of them are wearing shoes, which was very common. Slave owners very rarely gave the slaves anything that might make them comfortable, and hardly ever gave them new clothes to wear.

Heroines in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Elizabeth Ammons, is an article discussing the femininity of the characters in the book. She also discusses Stowe’s purpose of identifying the characters as motherly. During the time Stowe was writing this novel, she had a child, and also lost one of her seven children. Stowe once said, “I remember many a night weeping over you as you lay sleeping beside me, and I thought of the slave mothers whose babies were torn from them.” When one of her children died she also said, “It was at his dying bed and at his grave that I learned what a poor slave mother may feel when her child is torn away from her.” Stowe was able to connect with women slaves, because of her own tragedies in life, which gave her the inspiration to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin from a motherly perspective. I think she knew that the novel would get a great response for the anti-slavery movement, because most women would be able to relate themselves to the characters in the book, whether they were female or not.

“Stowe’s insistence on maternal experience as the generative principle of Uncle Tom’s Cabin identifies the ethical center of the novel, and helps explain the unusual, and often misunderstood, characterization of Tom.” In the second half of the article, Ammons discusses Stowe’s feminization of Tom, and how the characters are links to a “constellation of mothers, black and white...” Almost every page of the novel shows the womanly figures as restoring the abuses against the slaves in the patriarchal money-making realm.

Ammons goes on to discuss what Stowe thought of as a true woman. She put these qualities into the characters in the novel, to prove that the woman was the best caregiver, and redeemer of violence that occurred during the slave era. I thought this article about Uncle Tom’s Cabin represented the women/ mothers of the slave era, and supported my main over arching theme, of the cruelty, and hardships that slave women endured.

Another thing to notice is all of the White Men standing around the auction block. One of the men even has a whip in his hand. The whip resembles, again, the harsh punishment all slaves endured. Also the way the men are looking at the woman, looks to me like they are looking at her as if she is just a piece of meat. This type of behavior shown by the masters, eventually normally lead to sexual harassment.