Motherhood As Resistance in Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

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Motherhood as Resistance in Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Li, Stephanie.

Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, Volume 23, Number 1, 2006, pp. 14-29 (Article)

Published by University of Nebraska Press DOI: 10.1353/leg.2006.0009

For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/leg/summary/v023/23.1li.html

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Motherhood as Resistance in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

stephanie li University of Rochester

Claudia Tate has observed that for female of love and self-sacrifice, the sexuality of en- slaves “motherhood was an institution to which slaved women and their relationship to their they had only biological claim” (108). Enslaved offspring must be understood as a complex women and their children could be separated at negotiation involving individual agency, resis- any time, and even if they belonged to the same tance, and power. Due to slavery’s basic desta- owner, strict labor policies and plantation reg- bilization of blood relations, the black female ulations severely limited the development of subject demands new terms of radical self- their relationships. Hortense J. Spillers con- determination. Spillers thus reminds her read- cludes that because of this fundamental mater- ers, “It is our task to make a place for this dif- nal outrage, and the concomitant banishment ferent social subject. In doing so, we are less of the black father, “only the female stands interested in joining the ranks of gendered in the flesh,both mother and mother- femaleness than gaining the insurgent ground dispossessed. This problematizing of gender as female social subject” (80). places her, in my view, out of the traditional It is precisely through her flesh as both symbolics of female gender” (80). George Cun- mother and slave woman that Harriet A. Jacobs ningham further argues,“Within the domain of in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) slavery, gender or culturally derived notions of claims the insurgent ground of her social iden- man- and womanhood do not exist” (117). The tity and formulates her resistance to human predetermined violence of slavery disrupts bondage. By emphasizing her narrator’s mater- conventional meanings attached to words such nal sentiments, Jacobs resists prevailing beliefs as “mother” and “womanhood.”What is moth- concerning black women’s indifference to their erhood for a woman deprived of the ability to children while also establishing an important care for and protect her child? How are we to association between her protagonist Linda conceptualize maternal identity under condi- Brent and domestic ideologies.1 Much like Har- tions of enslavement? Furthermore, because riet Beecher Stowe and other nineteenth- procreation by bondwomen can be regarded as century writers of sentimental fiction, Jacobs both a means of perpetuating slavery and an act describes “nurture as a quintessence of the maternal that crosses race and class bound- legacy, vol. 23, no. 1, 2006, copyright © 2006 aries” (Stephanie Smith 215). Relying upon an the university of nebraska press, lincoln, ne understanding of maternity as a form of innate 020 li (14-29) 5/25/06 9:07 AM Page 15

attachment, Jacobs presents Linda’s actions as THE LIBERATORY POLITICS OF largely determined by the effect they will have MOTHERHOOD on her children and their eventual emancipation. Many female slaves were unable to keep In an early chapter of Incidents, Linda describes their families together, yet by emphasizing the her brother’s confusion after he is called simul- oppositional action inspired by maternal senti- taneously by his mistress and father. Choosing ment Jacobs presents motherhood as a force to attend his mistress,William is then scolded by that resists slavery and its supporters. By fash- his father who states, “You are my child . . . and ioning a literary persona who is defined almost when I call you, you should come immediately, exclusively by her maternal identity, Jacobs if you have to pass through fire and water” (9). rejects the materialist logic of human owner- This episode introduces what Jacobs continually ship. Maternal love is shown to offer a model of describes as the fundamental evil of slavery: its relations that opposes the economy of exchange flagrant destruction of familial bonds. Slavery and possession characterizing the antebellum disrupts the relationship between parent and system of human bondage. Converting her child not only by allowing each to be sold to dif- body and reproductive abilities from sites of ferent masters, but by positing a figure of exploitation to vehicles of resistance, Linda authority and allegiance that takes precedence undermines the authority of the slave master over a child’s love and responsibility to his or her and works to liberate her children. parent. Caught between opposing obligations, Works by Carla Peterson, Valerie Smith, William is faced with two negative outcomes: and Claudia Tate have focused upon Jacobs’s either he will receive a whipping from his mis- departure from the assumptions and expecta- tress or a severe rebuke from his father. As these tions of the male slave narrative to articulate dueling figures lay claim to William’s actions, the experiences and concerns of bondwomen. both deny him independent volition. By contrast, I explore forms of female bodily Although the statement made by Linda’s resistance as well as ideological strategies of father emphasizes the loyalty a child must have literary representation. Rather than conflate for his or her parent, irrespective of slavery’s Jacobs with the text’s protagonist, as many demands, Incidents is a greater testament to a previous critics have done, I analyze Linda as mother’s dedication to her children than the a literary figure deliberately constructed to reverse. Throughout her narrative, Linda never perform certain political aims.2 As the embod- calls her children to her; she does not order iment of maternal love, she acts almost exclu- them or demand proof of their love. By refusing sively to improve the lives of her children. to equate the parent-child relationship with the Although Linda strains credibility as a result dynamic between master and slave, she avoids of her overriding maternal sensibility, Jacobs’s creating the double bind that entraps her reliance upon the trope of motherhood capi- brother. While her father demands a demon- talizes on the political import of prevailing stration of loyalty from William, Linda never beliefs in the sanctity and power of the mother puts her children in a situation in which their and suggests that a woman’s sexuality offers a devotion will be tested so explicitly nor in which vital means of resistance against patriarchal they will suffer as a result of her desire. By order- oppression. For Jacobs, motherhood is not ing his son to obey his command, Linda’s father simply a politically astute literary trope and a endangers William’s physical well-being as the means of describing the abuses of slavery spe- boy would likely have received a violent whip- cific to women; it is also a crucial form of ping for ignoring his master. Following her female empowerment. description of this critical scene, Linda reflects,

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“Poor Willie! He was now to learn his first les- her son Benjamin escapes to the North. Despite son of obedience to a master” (9). The ambigu- the heartache of Benjamin’s departure and the ity of this comment is striking, as “master” may impossibility of ever communicating with him refer either to William’s mistress or to his father. again, Linda’s grandmother celebrates her son’s Both figures of authority call for submission freedom rather than lament the effectual end of and operate from the assumption that human their relationship. Likewise, Linda does not beings can and do belong to others. seek to possess Benjamin and Ellen, but to free Although we may understand Linda’s father’s them so that they may possess themselves. command as emanating from a fundamental Despite Linda’s deep admiration for her crisis concerning black male paternity under grandmother, the text’s conception of the slavery, his demand threatens to alienate maternal also represents a critical reworking of William and to sever his son from his most the model provided by Aunt Marthy. Having important source of support and identity, name- repeatedly watched her children sold to differ- ly, his family. Spillers writes that slavery pro- ent masters, Aunt Marthy embodies the tragic duces a “dual fatherhood” that is “comprised of fate of many slave mothers. As a self-sacrificing the African father’s banished name and body maternal figure both to white and black people, and the captor father’s mocking presence”(80). Aunt Marthy presents Jacobs’s readers with a The response of Linda’s father to his son reveals model of caregiving that transcends race. the anxiety of black paternity and an uncer- Despite this inspiring depiction, there is a sig- tainty concerning biological relation that nificant tension between the values espoused by mothers simply do not share. By imposing Aunt Marthy and Linda’s more oppositional demands upon William, he seeks to assert a response to slavery. Although Aunt Marthy power and identity that slavery has under- ceaselessly strives to protect and care for her mined. Through this episode, Jacobs highlights family, she believes slavery is derived from “the a disturbing parallel between the roles of mas- will of God” and “though it seemed hard,” she ter and father while also establishing a point of instructs her children “to pray for content- opposition by which to define the liberatory ment” (17). Frustrated with these passive politics of motherhood. She challenges patri- domestic values, Linda declares,“It was a beau- archy in all its forms, suggesting that an author- tiful faith, coming from a mother who could itative black father may significantly jeopardize not call her children her own. But I, and Ben- the well-being of his child by demanding obe- jamin, her youngest boy, condemned it.We rea- dience and loyalty. soned that it was much more the will of God While there has been discussion of Jacobs’s that we should be situated as she was. We rebuke of slavery as a form of benevolent pater- longed for a home like hers” (17). While she fol- nalism that mimics familial relations, the scene lows Aunt Marthy’s injunction to “[s]tand by involving William and his father invites exami- your own children, and suffer with them till nation of the difficulties that arise in applying death” (91), Linda also escapes the clutches of the power dynamic which governs slavery to Dr. Flint and actively works to improve the lives the parent-child bond.3 Dr. Flint’s attempts to of her two children. She defines her life’s work portray himself as a caring father figure to his not simply as absolute devotion to her children, slaves are certainly absurd, but also troubling is but as part of a concerted effort to defy slavery’s Linda’s father’s use of language invoking pos- abuses. Although Aunt Marthy’s efforts to pur- session and subservience regarding his rela- chase her children are admirable, Linda seeks tionship to William. Linda instead follows the alternative modes of agency than those sanc- example of her grandmother, who rejoices after tioned by the slave economy; furthermore,

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Linda refuses to accept slavery and its power Jacobs naturalizes maternal sentiment even as dynamics as inevitable. Departing from the Linda’s actions demonstrate the need for a models of behavior offered by her father and willed and deliberate restoration of the mother- grandmother, Jacobs’s conception of the mater- child bond. nal unites a quest for the full emancipation of Jacobs cites examples of mothers separated Linda’s children with an inventive approach to from their children to demonstrate the horrors oppositional action. of slavery and establish a crucial point of identification with her readers, yet she is fully aware that the story she tells does not adhere to pre- MATERNITY: A RHETORIC OF vailing domestic values. Hazel V. Carby argues RESISTANCE that Jacobs’s narrative can be understood as “an One of the central aims of Incidents is to exposition of her womanhood and mother- demonstrate the absolute incompatibility be- hood contradicting and transforming an ideol- tween human bondage and the family unit. ogy that could not account for her experience” This opposition places the mother as the obvi- (49). Jacobs reconfigures the experience of ous antithesis to slavery. Grounded in an ethos womanhood such that the virtues of chastity, of liberty and compassion, she represents a sig- modesty, and physical beauty are presented as nificant counterforce to a deeply patriarchal socially constructed privileges available only to and male-dominated institution. Aware of the a select free white female populace. Slavery pro- rhetorical power and political potential of duces an environment in which it is often motherhood, Jacobs deliberately fashions her impossible for enslaved women to provide any text to appeal to the sensibilities of a largely type of care for their children, much less up- white, female, middle-class audience. These wo- hold values conventionally associated with men would have been especially sympathetic to femininity. Under such conditions, the ideals of Jacobs’s struggle to honor the relationship the antebellum bourgeoisie provide little guid- between reproduction and the development of ance in determining how best to mother one’s familial bonds, given the pervasiveness of sex- children. Jacobs’s narrative asks her audience to ual encounters between white men and slave understand Linda’s actions as derived from women and the predominance of domestic maternal love, even though her choices may ideologies that emphasized the mother as a contradict her readers’ social values. She sug- figure of purity and the guardian of moral val- gests that the ways slave mothers care for their ues.4 By appealing to her audience as women children, despite the immense restrictions and specifically as mothers, Jacobs enjoins imposed by their bondage, offer a potent means them to take political action and end the devas- of resistance against the institution and its pro- tating practice of slavery. Her opening plea, “to moters. Linda’s commitment to her children arouse the women of the North to a realizing inspires her to endure severe physical violence sense of the condition of two millions of and deprivation as well as to secure their free- women at the South, still in bondage, suffering dom. Her announcement to Dr. Flint of her what I suffered, and most of them far worse” pregnancy leaves her with a sense of “triumph” (1), posits a common womanhood between dis- because it signals a degree of independence parate groups. Although it is clear that her tar- from his domination (56). geted readers are white and the focus of her nar- The wide appeal of the sentimental novel, rative is the plight of black slaves, Jacobs avoids which Jane Tompkins describes as “a political identifying these two groups racially, concen- enterprise, halfway between sermon and social trating instead on geographic differences. theory, that both codifies and attempts to mold

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the values of its time” (126), also provided a mother to protect her children from the hor- Jacobs with a readership accustomed to view rors of life and establishes the text’s central literature as a form of moral edification. Tomp- opposition between maternal care and slavery.5 kins suggests that most sentimental fiction Although Linda was born a slave, she reflects,“I operates from “a theory of power that stipulates was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I that all true action is not material, but spiritual” was a piece of merchandise” (5). By presenting (151), but Jacobs does not focus exclusively on this “happy childhood” as a direct result of her matters of inner enlightenment. Unlike Stowe mother’s influence, Jacobs establishes an im- and other abolitionist writers who also invoked mediate narrative connection between a sense the sanctity of motherhood to combat slavery, of freedom and maternal care. In effect, Linda Jacobs demonstrates the need for specific polit- is not born a slave; she is born the daughter of ical reform and moves beyond abstract virtues. her mother, a happy child who need not trou- She rejects Stowe’s reliance on the spiritual ble herself with the weighty distinctions be- transformation of her readers, emphasizing tween freedom and slavery.6 Linda’s mother instead the bodily and material conditions of does not actually liberate her daughter, but only enslaved women. For example, as Elizabeth protects her from knowing the reality of her Ammons notes, the two “maternal Saviors” of condition. Nevertheless, she succeeds in pro- Uncle Tom’s Cabin are “the girl-child Eva and viding a time of innocence for her. Her mother the black man Tom” (162). Rather than idealiz- sacrifices the truth concerning their enslaved ing maternal values in characters who are not condition to promote the possibility of a hap- themselves mothers, Jacobs focuses upon the pier, freer life. Through this delicate deception, actual plight of slave mothers. Using Linda’s Jacobs suggests that maternal sentiment aspires maternity as a crucial point of identification to the higher truth of human freedom rather with her readers, Jacobs challenges her audi- than to the fundamental indignity of slavery. ence to conceive of the duties and obligations The paradox of a mother who misleads her associated with motherhood as a political posi- children to safeguard their innocence under- tion and as a movement of social reform that scores slavery’s inherent contradictions. Later exceeds the singular biological relationship when explaining her affair with Mr. Sands, between parent and child. She tells the stories of Linda states, “[T]he condition of a slave con- enslaved mothers in order “to kindle a flame of fuses all principles of morality, and, in fact, ren- compassion in your hearts for my sisters who ders the practice of them impossible” (55). By are still in bondage, suffering as I once suffered” foregrounding the moral quandaries which (29).By naming these slave women her “sisters,” slavery presents to mothers, Jacobs prepares her Jacobs urges her readers to conceive of black readers for the more controversial choices women as members of their own family. In this regarding Linda’s sexuality. way, Jacobs unites familial responsibilities with Following her mother’s death, Linda is left political action. vulnerable to her owner’s abuses as she becomes a servant to her mother’s former mistress. The figure of the slave master becomes a FREE AND SLAVE MOTHERS cruel substitute for the mother, demonstrating Incidents begins,“I was born a slave; but I never the ease with which slavery displaces and dis- knew it till six years of happy childhood had rupts familial relationships. Linda’s mistress is passed away” (5). Linda learns of her bondage a gentle woman described as having “been following the death of her mother. The conver- almost like a mother to me” and who was “the gence of these two events indicates the power of foster sister of my mother; they were both

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nourished at my grandmother’s breast” (6–7). Linda’s desire to eradicate “from my memory Linda characterizes her early childhood as filled that one great wrong” (8). In this subtle textual with “happy days” (7), in part due to the benev- move, Jacobs shifts Linda’s bitterness from the olence of her mistress. However, as a surrogate guilty woman to the memory of the betrayal. mother,Linda’s mistress fails because she allows This passage, like many others, demonstrates Linda to continue living in slavery. Although how Jacobs’s reliance on the controlling motif her mistress promised Linda’s mother that “her of motherhood stretches credibility and ex- children should never suffer for any thing,”after poses the limits of her narrative construction. the mistress’s death she bequeaths Linda to Dr. While it is crucial for Jacobs to establish an Flint’s daughter (7). Despite this betrayal, Linda empathetic relationship with her audience is surprisingly reluctant to condemn her mis- based upon shared maternal sentiments, this tress: “I would give much to blot out from my approach must also be understood as a narra- memory that one great wrong. As a child, I tive device subject to strategic revision. Jacobs loved my mistress; and, looking back on the refrains from condemning her mistress as a happy days I spent with her, I try to think with failed maternal figure in order to maintain a less bitterness of this act of injustice” (8). collaborative relationship with her audience. Linda’s hesitation to criticize her mistress Linda’s initiation into the hardships and reveals the depth of affection and love she had uncertainties of slave life begins as a result of for her and highlights the value Linda places the betrayal of her white mother figure. By pre- upon familial bonds. She refuses to denounce a senting the different ways her mother and her woman she once thought of as a mother; rather mistress respond to slavery, Jacobs offers read- than submit to a relationship defined by owners two models of the maternal figure: one who ership and economic value she attempts to protects her children from slavery and another maintain the integrity of the bond between who allows a child to continue to exist in family members. If Linda were to condemn bondage. Jacobs portrays Linda’s mistress as outright her mistress for her betrayal, she clearly having maternal capabilities, but the would ultimately privilege a relationship deter- white woman does not extend these sentiments mined by slavery over one involving genuine across lines of racial difference. By suggesting affection. As with the earlier episode involving that a maternal bond can and should exist her father and brother, she is shown to reject between Linda and her mistress,Jacobs suggests models of human interaction that inscribe that women must act as mothers to one another hierarchies of power. Like her grandmother, irrespective of differences involving color and Linda cultivates a form of interracial relation- social status. For Jacobs, maternal sentiment ship based upon kinship and care rather than encompasses a comprehensive approach to possession and economic value. human relations and is not limited to the indi- Linda’s response to the “injustice” commit- vidual bond between a woman and her biolog- ted by her first mistress exposes the tension ical child. operating within Jacobs’s narrative persona. Because Linda can rightfully blame the white THE LIMITS OF MOTHERHOOD AND woman for an agonizing lifetime of bondage, ITS REPRESENTATION Jacobs is at pains to present her protagonist’s absolute filial love. Linda cannot denounce a As Jacobs examines the challenges enslaved woman to readers who may share her mistress’s women face in caring for their children, she conflicted approach to slaves. Rather than risk relies upon maternity as a totalizing construct alienating her audience, Jacobs describes to describe Linda. Caroline Levander argues,

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“[M]otherhood becomes the means by which establish a school in Virginia, and, most impor- Jacobs represents both her evolving under- tant, penned her autobiographical narrative standing of her identity as a slave and the with an explicit political agenda. While Jacobs extreme violence to which she is subjected might have elaborated on these endeavors and because of that identity” (29). However, as the enjoined her readers to support the education narrative’s dominant theme, motherhood at of African Americans or their attempts to es- times becomes a limited and even inadequate tablish economic independence, she instead point of identification.Jacobs’s use of this motif focused on emphasizing the maternal sensibil- is astute from a political perspective, but ities of her narrator and other slave women. throughout the text it places Linda in the diffi- The title of Jacobs’s text is perhaps the best indi- cult position of existing only as a mother. cator of the woman who existed beyond the Reflecting upon the dangers of inhabiting an structure and events of her narrative. These are identity that is solely relational, Dorothy E. only incidents, selections culled from a lifetime Roberts writes, “First, motherhood extin- of experiences. Certainly motherhood, under- guishes women’s individual identities, and sec- stood in its narrowest terms as the relation ond, motherhood leaves women vulnerable to between a female parent and her biological patriarchal power because society and individ- child, played a crucial part in Jacobs’s sense of ual men hold their children hostage. Together, self and purpose. However, it would be a mis- these aspects of motherhood constitute the take to trust too much in the vehement self- essence of oppression—the denial of a person’s construction and focused address of her narra- ability to define herself and to determine the tive. Jacobs’s very insistence on the singularity course of her own destiny. A mother is a selfless of Linda’s identity suggests a range of complex- creature”(102). Roberts’s comments force read- ity and consciousness operating between and ers of Incidents to question whether the figure beyond the lines of her text. As Carla Peterson of Linda Brent exists independent of her chil- observes,“[T]he grammatical choice of person, dren. Given her adamant claim to her maternal like that of genre, is not a purely formal act but identity, what are we to make of the aspects of a profoundly political one” (151). A carefully Linda’s self, such as her sexuality and the vari- constructed literary persona, Linda is best read ous personal relationships that are not directly as a reflection of the political aims of her author connected to her children? Who is she without rather than as an unambiguous representation the sense of purpose and self inspired by mater- of Jacobs’s own identity and experiences.7 nal caregiving? Jacobs originally ended Incidents with a dis- Although Jacobs alludes to a life outside of cussion of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. Linda’s relationship to her children in Incidents, However, her editor, Lydia Maria Child, sug- these references are casual and undeveloped. gested she replace that material with a final At one point Linda teaches an older slave how reflection on her grandmother.Bruce Mills per- to read, and she briefly mentions her attempt suasively argues that Child’s recommendation to open an anti-slavery reading room in reaffirms the domestic values of the novel and Rochester; both are activities that parallel avoids discussion of a highly controversial Jacobs’s life experiences. Jacobs’s personal let- national event. In the final version of the man- ters attest to her keen awareness of current uscript, the original ending was incorporated events and describe her involvement with into an earlier chapter, “Fear of Insurrection.” numerous social reform projects; she actively Mills suggests that this editing decision severely corresponded with prominent abolitionists, mitigates the impact of Jacobs’s discussion of wrote letters to local newspapers, helped to Brown’s rebellion and the threat of violence

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against slave owners (257). Perhaps as a result of children and works to create a better world for this editorial intrusion, Jacobs’s closing refer- them, she honors the maternal capabilities of ence to Aunt Marthy reads as somewhat abrupt others and urges her white readers to see black and forced. She presents readers with a pleasant women as mothers like themselves. return to her grandmother even as the evils of slavery continue and her sisters remain in THE ASEXUAL MOTHER bondage: “It has been painful to me, in many ways, to recall the dreary years I passed in In order to present Linda as a caring and dutiful bondage. I would gladly forget them if I could. mother, Jacobs must gloss over her protagonist’s Yet the retrospection is not altogether without sexual experiences because such obvious “cor- solace; for with those gloomy recollections ruption” undermines her status as an empa- come tender memories of my good old grand- thetic narrator.8 Therefore, rather than focus on mother, like light, fleecy clouds floating over a her victimization and sexual experiences, Jacobs dark and troubled sea” (201). Compared to her identifies Linda exclusively as a mother. Karen impassioned introduction, the text’s final para- Sánchez-Eppler explains that Jacobs “proposes graph flounders in sentimentality and weak the role of the ‘good mother’ as a substitute for metaphor. This is not to suggest that Jacobs fab- chastity....Motherhood replaces sexuality” ricated the comfort of recalling her grand- (100–01). In fact, Linda negotiates this difficult mother, but to emphasize that there are other passage by suppressing references to her sexual- possibilities below the text which complicate ity and digressing into intricate metaphors the recurring motif of maternal care. Mills’s when confronted with sexually charged situa- discussion of Child’s recommended ending is a tions. For example, rather than elaborating on reminder that Incidents must be read as a delib- Dr. Flint’s menacing presence, she lingers on a erate performance which was subject to both vision of two girls playing together (29). By the prejudices of its editor and the politics of its describing her master’s abuse as an attack of author. While Linda is presented as the con- language, she avoids direct discussion of sexual summate mother who dutifully acknowledges matters (27, 54). Linda states,“If I went out for a the maternal figures of her life, Jacobs was a breath of fresh air, after a day of unwearied toil, woman with ambitions and opinions that far his footsteps dogged me. If I knelt by my exceeded the domestic reach of a conventional mother’s grave, his dark shadow fell on me even nineteenth-century mother. there” (28). By employing metonyms to refer to Given the narrative strains and representa- Dr. Flint, she obscures the specificity of his tional limits of Jacobs’s text, it is important to threat and avoids representing his body as a recognize that none of her anti-slavery activi- danger to her sexual virtue. ties are incompatible with Linda’s identity as a Writing amid stereotypes of black women as mother, although they clearly attest to a life that licentious and morally suspect, Jacobs presents exceeds her relationship to her children. For Linda as strictly asexual. She is never motivated Jacobs motherhood is not simply a biological by sexual desire, engaging in relations with Mr. relation. It encompasses an entire worldview: a Sands specifically to escape the advances of Dr. belief in the liberation of all people, a commit- Flint. Accepting the inevitability of her sexual ment to human equality, and the establishment assault, Linda attempts to exert some control of viable egalitarian economic opportunities. over the experience by choosing who has initial From this perspective, Jacobs’s political in- access to her body: “It seems less degrading to volvement can be understood as an extension of give one’s self, than to submit to compulsion. her identity as a mother. As she cares for her There is something akin to freedom in having a

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lover who has no control over you, except that she felt genuine sexual desire for him? Was Ellen which he gains by kindness and attachment” born of rape by Mr. Sands or are readers to (55). As Valerie Smith argues, Linda’s “relation- assume that Linda became pregnant again to ship with Sands provides her with a measure of infuriate and thwart Dr. Flint? The failure of the power” (33). However, while Linda states that text to address these concerns again under- this involvement was a matter of “deliberate scores the gap between Jacobs and her narrative calculation” (54), her manipulation refers only persona. Although all of Linda’s actions are to the selection of one of two white men to described as emanating from maternal senti- father her children and not to a decision to ment, Jacobs’s own life choices were undoubt- begin having sex at the age of fifteen. edly influenced by more complex motives and By having an affair with Mr. Sands, Linda desires. does nothing to impede the sexual threat posed Rather than elaborate on Linda’s troubling by Dr. Flint; should he want to rape her, he can sexuality, Jacobs seeks to resolve her protago- do so with impunity.9 She does not supply nist’s startling choices by returning to the pri- details concerning a possible physical relation- macy of her identity as a mother. When evad- ship with Dr. Flint and only implies that ing the advances of Dr. Flint, Linda considers by bearing Mr. Sands’s children she is some- the impact that an affair with Mr. Sands will how freed from her master’s advances. Again have on the freedom of her unborn children, Jacobs’s narrative strains credibility in the sud- suggesting that her sexuality exists only as a den disappearance of Dr. Flint’s sexual threat, necessary, albeit troubling, passage to mater- but to relate Linda’s rape surely would have nity. Having observed that Dr. Flint “never scandalized her audience. Irrespective of this allowed his offspring by slaves to remain long in textual gap, Linda succeeds in preventing Dr. sight of himself and his wife” (55), Linda can Flint from fathering her children. Although her more realistically hope to secure the freedom of children are inescapably born his property, they her children because they are fathered by are not his by blood. Despite this small but cru- another man: “Of a man who was not my mas- cial victory, she is unable to alter the slave sta- ter I could ask to have my children well sup- tus of her children or to protect herself from ported; and in this case, I felt confident I should sexual violation. However, in choosing Mr. obtain the boon. I also felt quite sure that they Sands as the father of her children, Linda fun- would be made free” (55). Despite the fact that damentally disrupts the power dynamic be- Mr.Sands requires immense urging to free Ben- tween master and slave woman and introduces jamin and Ellen, he is a far better choice as a the possibility of freeing her children. biological father than the malicious Dr. Flint. Although Linda’s involvement with Mr. Significantly, Linda takes actions that promote Sands demonstrates a key moment of agency the well-being of her children even before they for the enslaved woman, the birth of her second are born. Jacobs here implies that it is possible child problematizes Jacobs’s erasure of Linda’s to act as a mother without physically bearing sexuality and erotic desires. Unlike Benjamin, children. For an audience that certainly would Linda’s first child, her daughter Ellen enters the have included childless women, this distinction narrative with no textual explanation. Because is important. According to Jacobs’s example, she is born when Linda is free of the initial sex- motherhood involves an active attention to the ual threat posed by Dr. Flint, there is nothing to welfare of others and a willingness to act upon account for Ellen’s birth. Did Linda become the behalf of those who cannot help themselves; pregnant by Mr. Sands this second time due to such a response is not strictly a biological phe- a meaningful emotional attachment or because nomenon. This expansive notion of mother-

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hood is also evident in her portrayal of women Just as her mother protected her from the like Aunt Marthy and Aunt Nancy who fulfill knowledge of her enslavement and her father maternal functions for people who are not their taught her to value her family over her master, biological children.As Christina R.Accomando so she vows to protect her children from slavery observes, because there “is no legal mother- and its destructive influences: hood under slavery (except to the extent that I could have made my escape alone; but it was maternal status determines the child’s fate; more for my helpless children than for myself there are no positive rights of motherhood) . . . that I longed for freedom. Though the boon literal maternity is not all-important” (Regula- would have been precious to me, above all tions 173). By separating maternal caregiving price, I would not have taken it at the expense from the actual experience of giving birth, of leaving them in slavery. Every trial I Jacobs expands traditional Western concep- endured, every sacrifice I made for their sakes, tions of motherhood.10 She suggests that mater- drew them closer to my heart, and gave me nal obligations are not limited to the direct fresh courage to beat back the dark waves that exchange between parent and child; instead rolled and rolled over me in a seemingly end- they encompass a broader series of choices and less night of storms. (89–90) expectations. With words such as “price” and “expense,” Jacobs initially uses the language of economic USING AND PROTECTING exchange to describe the possibility of Linda’s MATERNAL POWER freedom. However, in turning her attention to Following the birth of Benjamin, Linda realizes the inspiring influence provided by her chil- that her life is now inextricably linked to that of dren, Jacobs develops a new metaphor involv- another:“I had often prayed for death; but now ing an “endless night of storms.” This organic I did not want to die, unless my child could die image naturalizes Linda’s relationship to her too” (61). Motherhood involves recognizing children and the strength she derives from their that her survival is necessary for the health and presence. While her individual freedom is pre- well-being of another. She comes to this under- sented as a market commodity, the mother- standing only after struggling with a wish that child relationship links her to a poetic land- her son should die because “death is better than scape rooted in grandiose natural imagery. slavery”(62). However, when he falls ill she des- As Linda endures numerous travails, her love perately prays that he may live; eventually she for Benjamin and Ellen grows, along with her realizes that her most meaningful source of determination to oppose the forces that enslave hope and purpose lies in her children. After them. Jacobs presents freedom not as a condi- becoming sick following one of Dr. Flint’s tion of individual liberty, but rather as the abil- harangues, Linda is relieved that she does not ity to provide for and protect one’s children. die “for the sake of my little ones” (78). As she After years of living in her grandmother’s gar- explains,“Had it not been for these ties to life, I ret, Linda finds that motherhood gives her the should have been glad to be released by death, will to live and the strength to do so: “I was so though I had lived only nineteen years” (78). weary of my long imprisonment that, had it not She endures the hardships of her existence been for the hope of serving my children, I specifically for her children, not simply to should have been thankful to die; but, for their secure her own freedom. Her motherhood, as a sakes, I was willing to bear on”(127). Despite the result, becomes the defining impetus behind social circumstances that distinguish Jacobs both her life and her resistance to slavery. from her readers, Linda is presented as a

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woman whose life and identity emanates exclu- slavery, they too will be like the “broke in” sively from her maternal sensibility. mothers who are silent witnesses to the suffer- Although Linda resolves to live, dedicating ings of their daughters. herself to the care and protection of her chil- Linda’s fear of losing her courage as a mother dren, she frequently exhibits a conflicted atti- and her desire to protect her children contributes tude concerning their survival as slaves. Like to her decision to leave the plantation. After other slave mothers mentioned in the text, learning that her children are also to be sent there Linda considers whether death is not preferable in order to “fetter me to the spot” (93), she to slavery. Watching her son open his eyes fol- reflects “that it was a good place to break us all in lowing a beating by Dr. Flint, she states,“I don’t to abject submission to our lot as slaves”(93–94). know whether I was very happy”(81). Similarly, Rather than subject her children to what she Linda questions if it might be better to watch views as the dehumanizing drudgery of field- her daughter die rather than witness her master work, she resolves to escape. Initially, Dr. Flint abuse her: “When I lay down beside my child, I assumes that she cannot be far away since he still felt how much easier it would be to see her die has possession of her children. However, after a than to see her master beat her about, as I daily few months, he sells Benjamin and Ellen as his saw him beat other little ones. The spirit of the wife concludes that Linda “hasn’t so much feel- mothers was so crushed by the lash, that they ing for her children as a cow has for its calf. If she stood by, without courage to remonstrate. How had, she would have come back long ago” (102). much more must I suffer, before I should be In fabricating her departure, Linda demon- ‘broke in’ to that degree?” (86–87). Although strates her awareness of the negative associations Jacobs’s repeated suggestion that death is a bet- attached to slave mothers. She manipulates such ter fate than slavery may disturb and even alien- stereotypes to her advantage by reinforcing in ate her readers, she uses this idea to emphasize the minds of her captors the notion that black the premium she places on the preservation of women have no emotional attachment to their maternal sentiment and care. Linda’s com- children. In this way, Linda frees her children by ments indicate that the death of a mother’s posing as a bad mother. Appearing to reject the courage is more loathsome than physical death maternal bond, she leaves her children available because it signals an end to human feeling. for sale to Mr. Sands. This savvy use of racialized Throughout the narrative, she demonstrates maternal images demonstrates another way that that especially abusive conditions contribute to Jacobs uses the discursive possibilities of moth- a loss of familial bonds among both men and erhood to oppose slavery. While Linda’s depar- women. Commenting on slave fathers, she ture from the plantation can be interpreted as an states, “Some poor creatures have been so bru- abandonment of her children—they no longer talized by the lash that they will sneak out of the have the comfort of her presence in their lives— way to give their masters free access to their she does not abandon her role as a mother.11 As wives and daughters” (44). Jacobs suggests that Carolyn Sorisio notes, “[I]t is not a lack, but physical abuse and degradation lead to an ero- rather a surplus, of motherly love that motivates sion of sentiment and a failure to honor the her flight” (207). By staying in the garret she is family. By emphasizing Linda’s fear of becom- able to monitor their lives. For instance, she tells ing “broke in”and succumbing to hopelessness, her grandmother of a potentially volatile ex- Jacobs also establishes a subtle parallel between change between Benjamin and Dr. Flint and herself and the audience she wishes to arouse insists that the children refrain from provoking to political action. Should Jacobs’s audience their former master. She also sews Christmas choose to read her book without acting to end garments for Benjamin and Ellen. Most impor-

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tant, however, she leaves the garret at great risk she makes her decision primarily because she to confront Mr. Sands and insist he emancipate will be in a better position to care for her chil- her children. dren,who have been relocated to the North.She By hiding in the garret, Linda succeeds in explains, “I was anxious to be there also, to protecting the love she has for her children. watch over my children, and protect them so far Fearing the brutalization of plantation life, she as I was able” (148). Again her maternal sensi- removes her physical body in order to safeguard bility determines her actions. However, once in her maternal sensibility. She rejects slavery’s New York, she finds that Ellen is not well emphasis on the corporeal by ascribing to a treated. The young girl asks her mother, transcendent human quality. She prefers to dis- “[W]hen will you take me to live with you,” appear rather than to live beside her children causing Linda to conclude, “In order to protect without the strength to care for them. To allow my children, it was necessary that I should own such an erosion of the mother-child bond myself” (166). After years of living as a fugitive would make orphans of Benjamin and Ellen, as slave, Linda resolves to work for her own eman- they would become children without a mater- cipation largely as a way to better provide for nal figure to mitigate the cruelties of slavery. her children. She equates freedom with an abil- Although Gloria T. Randle is justified in argu- ity to love her children, stating, “I longed to be ing that Linda’s confinement “compromises entirely free to act a mother’s part towards my crucial elements of the children’s upbringing, children” (169). She understands freedom not including a dependable and affirming maternal only as a condition of individual liberty, as a presence, positive mirroring, freedom from the claiming of a singular, independent self, but fear of abandonment, moral guidance, con- also as a means to care for others. As Beth struction of a sound racial identity, and a secure Maclay Doriani explains, “Freedom for Jacobs sense of self” (53), Randle’s analysis relies on a ...involves a relationship to others, interde- model of motherhood that takes for granted pendence” (211). Benjamin and Ellen’s life and liberty. Randle’s While living in New York, Linda uses her lofty expectation for the care the children motherhood to secure a job and, as a result, she should receive is ambitious for any parent, is able to begin saving money to make a home much less one living in bondage. While Ben- for her children. Mrs. Bruce hires her as a nurse jamin and Ellen are deprived of their mother’s largely due to the latter’s experience as a mother immediate presence in their lives, they are able (168). Although Linda had been concerned that to live with their great-grandmother with rela- it would be especially difficult for her to obtain tive freedom and security. Importantly, Linda employment due to her lack of recommenda- never actually considers departing to the North tions, her maternal experience is sufficient tes- without her children. Her flight is always tament to her competence and ability. This understood as a temporary ruse necessary for encounter indicates that the tasks related to the the betterment of their lives. She sacrifices care of children can have significant value in the physical and emotional intimacy with her chil- economic market and again demonstrates dren in order to pursue her ultimate objective: Jacobs’s shrewd understanding of maternal their emancipation. power. Through her employment with Mrs. Bruce, Linda establishes a crucial alliance with a white THE FREEDOM TO MOTHER woman against slavery. Although most of After nearly seven years, Linda finally leaves the Jacobs’s narrative describes how she uses her garret. Although the roof is in severe disrepair, own motherhood as a means of resistance, Mrs.

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Bruce offers an example of a white woman who subsumed by a deeper emotional attachment. uses her maternal resources to oppose the Once freed from bondage, Linda fully embraces injustices of human bondage.Mrs.Bruce acts as her maternal identity, dedicating herself to the an important model of courage and political children of her employers even though she is activism for Jacobs’s readers to emulate. As a unable to attend fully to Ellen and Benjamin.As result of the Fugitive Slave Law, Linda becomes Levander observes,“At the end of her narrative, subject to slave catchers in the North. She tells she is what her readers might describe as a ‘good Mrs. Bruce of her perilous condition, and the mother’—but to Mrs. Bruce’s children, not to white woman responds by sending Linda along her own” (38). Moreover, although Incidents with her own baby to a safe home in New En- praises the Bruce family (the Willis family in gland where the two remain for an entire real life), in letters to Amy Post, Jacobs writes month. Linda is astonished by the nature of her that “with the care of the little baby and the big mistress’s generosity: Babies I have but a little time to think or write” and that “housekeeping and looking after the But how few mothers would have consented to Children occupy every moment of my time” have one of their own babes become a fugitive, (238, 243). Jacobs’s duties in the Willis house- for the sake of a poor, hunted nurse, on whom hold severely restricted her family life and the the legislators of the country had let loose the writing of her narrative, the most public of bloodhounds! When I spoke of the sacrifice she Jacobs’s political acts against slavery. These was making, in depriving herself of her dear conditions lead Franny Nudelman to assert, baby, she replied, “It is better for you to have “[T]he possibility of political union between baby with you, Linda; for if they get on your black and white women is compromised by the track, they will be obliged to bring the child to demands of servitude, which constrain Jacobs’s me; and then, if there is a possibility of saving freedom as a mother and as an author” (961). you, you shall be saved.”(194) Although Jacobs may have felt a rekindling of This episode indicates how Mrs. Bruce uses her maternal sentiment through her care of the motherhood as a tool of resistance against Willis baby, her simplistic portrayal of Linda’s those who perpetuate and enforce slavery. By stabilizing maternal identity belies the actual giving up her child, she protects Linda from obstacles of her continued servitude. There is falling into the hands of slave catchers. no mention in the text of the challenges Jacobs While the baby serves most importantly as a faced in writing her narrative or of the demands way of alerting Mrs. Bruce to Linda’s possible of the Willis household. Within the value sys- capture, the child also provides Linda with tem constructed by the narrative, any obstacles solace and comfort. Linda develops an im- to freedom which are somehow derived from mense affection and love for the children of her motherhood or the tasks of caregiving must be employer (170). She refers to Mary as “the dar- eliminated in order to preserve Jacobs’s repre- ling little babe that had thawed my heart, when sentation of the unassailable virtue of mater- it was freezing into a cheerless distrust of all my nity. fellow-beings” (190). The act of caring for a The discrepancy between Linda’s relation- child restores her faith in other people and ships with her children and her young wards returns to her a key aspect of her identity. This suggests that the injustices caused by slavery depiction of the naturalizing and calming endure long after emancipation and continue to effects of mothering strongly reflects the polit- threaten the bond between mother and child. ical purpose of Jacobs’s narrative, especially as Levander notes that Ellen is unwilling to share the racial difference between Mary and Linda is with her mother the full truth of the harassment

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she receives from Mr. Hobbs in much the same “Linda”—rather than “Linda Brent” or “Brent.” By way that Jacobs refused to tell her grandmother contrast, I cite Jacobs as the author of Incidents,a about Dr. Flint’s advances. In both cases, open woman who, conscious of prevailing social values and communication between a maternal figure and conventions, crafted a textual protagonist and adopted the daughter figure for whom she is responsible a strategic rhetorical stance that would best fulfill her is hindered. For Linda, the great aim of her life, political objectives. to care and provide for her children, is a task still 2.Jean Fagan Yellin’s biography, Harriet Jacobs: A unfulfilled at the close of her story: “The dream Life,offers the most complete account of the differ- of my life is not yet realized. I do not sit with my ences between Jacobs’s life and its literary rendition. children in a home of my own. I still long for a 3.In “The Spoken and the Silenced,” P. Gabrielle hearthstone of my own, however humble. I wish Foreman argues,“Jacobs’s text explores the complex- it for my children’s sake far more than for my ities of the ‘patriarchal institution’ and undermines own” (201). These closing words raise the con- the myth of the Southern extended slave family even cern that an enslaved or formerly enslaved as she admits that the ties the myth exploits do exist” woman may never be able to mother her chil- (321). dren to the full extent she desires. Discrimina- 4.In The Empire of the Mother,Mary P. Ryan tion and the lack of economic resources inher- explores the unique social role mothers occupied in ited by emancipated slaves further disrupt the nineteenth-century America. She writes, “Under the bond between mother and child; even after both banner of the cult of motherhood, women partici- she and her daughter are free, Linda struggles to pated in the creation, circulation, and generational provide basic necessities for Ellen. Jacobs offers transfer of social values, thus providing the vital inte- a critique of the South and the North as racism grative tissue for an emerging middle class. . . . With and institutionalized structures of inequality motherhood their symbolic crown and the home the operate in both regions. functional center of their empire women did, in fact, Incidents demonstrates that the legacy of command a critical social position” (18). As Linda K. slavery and its restrictions on the ability of Kerber notes, however,“to use the language of domes- mothers to care for their children endure long ticity,”as Jacobs does,“was also to make a conservative after women such as Linda are legally emanci- political choice among alternative options” (20). By pated. Jacobs calls upon her audience to bring appealing to her audience as mothers and emphasiz- freedom to the enslaved women of the South. ing Linda’s quest for a home, Jacobs unites conserva- However, other forms of social injustice derived tive values with a more radical social agenda. from slavery—forms which are prevalent in 5.The description of the mother as a shield from both the South and the North—must also be bondage is common in slave narratives. In Witness- confronted. Only then will the freedom of all ing Slavery,Frances Smith Foster calls the separation nineteenth-century African American women between mother and child “the best-known scene of to mother their children be protected. the slave narratives” (98). 6.As indicated by Foreman in “Who’s Your Mama?” Jacobs overturns “partus sequitur ventrem” NOTES such that association with the black mother “pro- 1.In the rest of this essay, I refer to Linda Brent as duces freedom rather than enslavement” (506). “Linda” when writing of her as the protagonist of 7.In “Doers of the Word,” Peterson argues, Jacobs’s narrative and as the text’s constructed literary persona. Since I view her as a constructed character in Using characters with fictional names to recast the text (rather than the author of the text), I use the their life stories, both Jacobs and Wilson name she is called most frequently in the text— endeavored to distance themselves from such

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powerful emotions by containing them within “Slavery made it impossible for her to fulfill the role a “fictional” world. They demanded that their of mother, and increasingly her love for her children fictional rather than their factual selves bear became divorced from any attempt to do so. Unable the physical and emotional brunt of both racial to act as their mother, she could offer them nothing violence and the sexualized male gaze; they but love. She had no power to shape their lives and, sought to make these fictional selves carry the accordingly, did not feel bound to remain with them burden of their own anger as well as to redirect at any cost” (387). Similarly, in describing Linda’s this anger against fictional characters rather relationship to her children while she is living in the than historical persons and actual readers.(152) garret, Randle refers to her “grossly inadequate nurturing” for “there is no reciprocity, no nurturing, no Rather than speculate on the emotional motivations shared contact”between Linda and her children (53). behind Jacobs’s narrative choices, I am concerned I argue that such interpretations conceive of Linda’s with the political strategies and social consequences attempts to mother her children in absolutist terms, of her literary representation. which fail to account for the unconventional and 8. Linda’s fear that readers will condemn her somewhat counterintuitive ways in which she pro- actions is affirmed by her grandmother’s reaction to vides care. her pregnancy:“I had rather see you dead than to see you as you now are. You are a disgrace to your dead WORKS CITED mother” (56). Aunt Marthy’s threat that Linda’s actions will sever ties to her grandmother under- Accomando, Christina R. “‘The Laws were Laid scores Jacobs’s need to reaffirm her protagonist’s Down to Me Anew’: Harriet Jacobs and the maternal identity to an audience that may very well Reframing of Legal Fictions.” African American have shared her grandmother’s harsh response. Review 32 (1998): 229–45. 9.For a discussion of rape and slavery see Acco- ———. “The Regulations of Robbers”: Legal Fictions mando’s “‘The Laws were Laid Down to Me Anew’: of Slavery and Resistance.Columbus: Ohio State Harriet Jacobs and the Reframing of Legal Fictions,” UP, 2001. which analyzes Jacobs’s text alongside various legal Ammons, Elizabeth. “Stowe’s Dream of the Mother- documents including the 1859 Mississippi case, Savior: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Women George (a Slave) v. State,that determined rape is not Writers Before the 1920s.” New Essays on Uncle a recognizable crime against slaves. Tom’s Cabin. Ed. Eric J. Sundquist. Cambridge: 10.Jacobs’s presentation of women who are not Cambridge UP, 1986. 155–95. biologically related to the children they care for Carby, Hazel V. Reconstructing Womanhood: The reflects the African American tradition of “other- Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist. mothering.” Stanlie M. James defines “othermoth- New York: Oxford UP, 1987. ers” as “those who assist blood mothers in the Cunningham, George. “‘Called Into Existence’: responsibilities of child care” (45). James further Desire, Gender, and Voice in Frederick Douglass’s notes that othermothering “has its roots in the tradi- Narrative of 1845.” Differences: A Journal of Femi- tional African world-view and can be traced through nist Cultural Studies 1 (1989): 108–36. the institution of slavery, developed in response to an Doriani, Beth Maclay. “Black Womanhood in Nine- ever-growing need to share the responsibility for teenth-Century America: Subversion and Self- child nurturance” (45). Construction in Two Women’s Autobiographies.” 11. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Gloria T. Randle American Quarterly 43 (1991): 199- 222. have characterized Linda’s flight and subsequent Foreman, P.Gabrielle.“The Spoken and the Silenced confinement in the garret as a rejection of her mater- in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Our Nig.” nal role. Referring to Linda, Fox-Genovese writes, Callaloo 13 (1990): 313–24.

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———. “Who’s Your Mama? ‘White’ Mulatta Randle, Gloria T. “Between the Rock and the Hard Genealogies, Early Photography, and Anti-Passing Place: Mediating Spaces in Harriet Jacobs’s Inci- Narratives of Slavery and Freedom.”American Lit- dents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” African American erary History 14 (2002): 505–39. Review 33 (1999): 43–56. Foster, Frances Smith. Witnessing Slavery: The Devel- Roberts, Dorothy E. “Motherhood and Crime.” opment of Ante-Bellum Slave Narratives.Westport: Social Text 42 (1995): 99–123. Greenwood, 1979. Ryan, Mary P. The Empire of the Mother: American Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. Within the Plantation Writing about Domesticity, 1830 to 1860.New York: Household: Black and White Women of the Old Haworth, 1982. South.Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1988. Sánchez-Eppler, Karen. Touching Liberty: Abolition, Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Feminism, and the Politics of the Body.Berkeley:U Written by Herself. 1861. Ed. Jean Fagan Yellin. of California P, 1993. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1987. Smith, Stephanie. Conceived by Liberty: Maternal James, Stanlie M.“Mothering: A Possible Black Fem- Figures and Nineteenth-Century American Litera- inist Link to Social Transformation?” Theorizing ture.Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1994. Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Smith, Valerie. Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro- Black Women. Ed. James Busia and Abena P. A. American Narrative.Cambridge: Harvard UP, Busia. New York: Routledge, 1993. 44–54. 1987. Kerber, Linda K. “Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Sorisio, Carolyn. Fleshing Out America: Race, Gender, Woman’s Place: The Rhetoric of Women’s His- and the Politics of the Body in American Literature, tory.” The Journal of American History 75 (1988): 1833–1879.Athens: U of Georgia P, 2002. 9–39. Spillers, Hortense J.“Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An Levander, Caroline. “‘Following the Condition of the American Grammar Book.” Diacritics 17 (1987): Mother’: Subversions of Domesticity in Harriet 65–81. Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” South- Tate,Claudia. “Allegories of Black Female Desire; or, ern Mothers: Fact and Fictions in Southern Women’s Rereading Nineteenth-Century Sentimental Nar- Writing. Ed. Nagueyalti Warren and Sally Wolff. ratives of Black Female Authority.” Changing Our Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1999. 28–38. Own Words: Essays on Criticism, Theory, and Writ- Mills, Bruce. “Lydia Maria Child and the Endings to ing by Black Women. Ed. Cheryl A. Wall. New Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1989. 98–126. Girl.” American Literature 64 (1992): 255–72. Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs: The Cultural Nudelman, Franny. “Harriet Jacobs and the Senti- Work of American Fiction, 1790–1860.New York: mental Politics of Female Suffering.” ELH 59 Oxford UP, 1985. (1992): 939–64. Yellin, Jean Fagan. Harriet Jacobs: A Life.New York: Peterson,Carla. “Doers of the Word”: African-Ameri- Basic, 2004. can Women Speakers and Writers in the North (1830–1880).New York:Oxford UP, 1995.

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