African American Women Arrival in Colonies

Additionally,women in the slave communities acted like teachers to pass down stories, traditions and resistance of slavery to the younger generations. Black women had a lot to deal with: forced sexual encounters with the master, taking care of their children, working and looking after and being the strength of the slave communities. The life of enslaved Black women was brutalized, dehumanizing and sexually exploited, but they found strength through outside influences, one being resistance networks. Dehumanizing means to take away positive human qualities, and that is what happened to slaves. Slaves were looked down upon as though they were gum on the bottom of a shoe.

Relationships were close to nonexistent in the black communities during slavery. During slavery one of the biggest issues that occurred was the separation of the black family. Relationships in the black family were almost obsolete because of how slave owners would keep men and women apart. Slave owners would often sell the children and keep the mother, so they would not get attached. This is just the beginning of many relationship issues in the black culture.

They worked also hard in trying to hide secrets that they had seen and heard and often times were regarded as second rate by the woman that they indeed worked for. Jacobs would tell her story of anguish in her Memoir “ Incidents in the life of a slave girl.” Jacobs would write down her accounts to allow the others in the northern states to see what a slave in the southern states endured, and the conflicts that they were inflicted with on a daily basis. Jacobs also tells of unhappy Newer in which she is referring to the time of year when they are sold off into families and must leave their loved ones behind. This was especially hard for the mothers that would be separated from their children, which she refers to as “ peculiar sorrows.” Harriet was deeply touched by the removal of children from their mothers and surviving family, she touched on this quite a bit in her stories of her life and what she had seen.. Jacobs touch... ... middle of paper ... ... African Americans today still have deep wounds that will heal over time when it comes to the subject of slavery. Slavery as a whole is a wound on this country's history and a contradiction of what this country is founded on.

In this essay the southern black woman’s occupational identity, sexual identity, family identity, and gender identity will be examined. There are, of course, many more specific aspects of these women’s identity, but these are the ones that furnish the clearest and most specific view of what these women were about. It is through these four aspects of the southern black women’s identity a picture of them can be drawn. One will be able to recognize the hardships they overcame and the effort they put forth in order to be seen as citizens of the United States of America. Occupational Identity In the per... ... middle of paper ... ... to the strikers’ demands or burden their husbands’ salaries, ‘some of the first ladies of this city have announced themselves as ready to carry their accomplishments into the kitchen.’” These black women were standing up to those who had oppressed them, and, for a change, making their employers lives more difficult.

Jane says, “Them and the soldiers from the Secesh Army were the ones who made up the Ku Klux Klans later on” (Gaines 21). Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan terrorized black people in the South during the Reconstructi... ... middle of paper ... ... during this time. Problem involving the racial order in society caused many deaths not only in the book but in real life. Jane was free but lived as a slave her entire life. Jane tried to escape to the south but failed and work the same jobs as she did when she was a slave.

This common occurrence usually brought about tremendous pain and grief to the slaves. “West Africa family systems were severely repressed throughout the New World (Guttmann, 1976)”. Some slaves tried to continue practices, such as polygamy, that were a part of traditional African cultures but were unsuccessful. However, they were successful in continuing the traditional African emphasis on the extended family. In the extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents played important roles.

It was extremely dangerous for abolitionists, especially as women, to help slaves read, write, and become free. Women still fight for equal rights, and blacks still deal with racism on a day-to-day basis. Some say slavery of women still exists, but it is referred to as prostitution. To this day, women are held as sex slaves, maids, and cooks. Human trafficking is still a major issue and generally involves women.

This topic is significant because one will be informed of the progress of African American women and how they have overcome those barriers set not only by the world, but by the Black community itself. Barriers, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2014, can be defined as a law, rule, or problem that makes something difficult. Using this term in this sense means that there were rules and laws set into effect to make it difficult for African American women to achieve anything other than those roles assigned to them. It is also important because it shows how African American women who had children still worked within the labor force, although people had negatives sayings about what it would lead to. This means that people had negative notions that if black women began working within the labor force this will ruin the black community.

She faced the inevitable racial oppression of being an African American woman in a racist society. “Double jeopardy theory suggests that black women may face additional challenges because their race is devalued” (Buchanan 2008). She was also oppressed because of her gender, “For all women, gender is devalued and ascribed a low status” (Katz,Joiner, & Kwon 2002), and religion. Through these struggles Angelou strived to make a difference in her life, she continued to build a strong family relationship that helped assist in developing confidence against her intrapersonal oppression. Throughout Maya's life she continued to work to break racial barriers and she worked for equality non-violently.

Jacobs directs her account of the afflictions a woman is subjected to in the chain of slavery to women of the north to gain sympathy for their sisters that were enslaved in the south. In showing this, Jacobs reveals the danger of such self disapprobation women maintained by accepting the idealized role that men have set a goal for which to strive. She suggests that slave women be judged by different standards than those applied to other women. Jacobs develops a moral code that apprises the specific social and historical position of captive black women. Jacobs’ will power and strength shown in her narrative are characteristics of womanly behavior being developed by the emerging feminist movement.