According Hodes in “White Women, Black Men, and Adultery in the Antebellum South,” the relationship between white women and black men becomes a source of gossip. Dorothea has a mixed race child with her cheat lovers called Edmond. Her husband, Lewis, responsible for any financial needed for that child, and try to get divorce from her. However, the court decide that Lewis at the fault. Dorothea lives also miserable as the society does not accept her child, husband, and even herself. She becomes the source of gossip and she also get abuse by Lewis and Edmond. This miserable does not just end in her married life, but this also will haunted her after she divorce and leave the black man. I really interested with Dorothea’s story because she is very
There were also different problems in the 1900’s such as Discrimination and prejudice. Prejudice in this novel is expressed or presented by disgust and misinterpretation because of the difference of people skin color. People of different skin color were the majorities that were treated unjustly. Throughout this period in America, the southern states, black people had to exercise and use separate bathrooms from whites, as well as drinking fountains, section in restaurants, and even go to separate schools. Furthermore, a great deal of the discrimination was aimed towards black people; there were abundance of explanation towards poor families by individuals that have the riches. Discrimination is rampant when groups’ of people that are different are called names.
I believe that the short story clearly presents the stereotypes of rural Black women, and the challenges and struggles that African women faced with regard to heritage, personal fulfillment, and family relations as the past collided with the present realities. The concepts of family and Black women within this short story are highlighted by the fact that the three main characters among who the story revolves are all Black women and members of the same family. The clash of the past and future, personal fulfilment, heritage struggles, and the stereotyping of rural Black women is visible in the clear contrast of attitudes and ambitions of Dee and her boyfriend, who represent the future, and mama and her daughter Maggie, who in this case embody the past.
Do you know what Dorothea Dix did to make this world a better place? Dorothea Dix assured the lives of the Union Army and the mentally ill, through hard-work and overcoming obstacles. As a kind and thoughtful person, Dix reserved a portion of her life towards the mentally ill. With time, another door opened leading her to another accomplishment, being Superintendent of Nurses. As superintendent, Dix chose and trained many nursed to assist her and take their job as seriously as she did.Over a course of time, Dorothea Dix showed that women could fulfill the duty of many difficult tasks.
“Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.” In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs provides a portrayal of her life as a black slave girl in the 1800s. Though Harriet described herself as having yellowish brown skin; she was the child of a black mother and a white father. “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away.” Born with one drop of black blood, regardless of the status of her white father, she inherited the classification of black and was inevitably a slave. Harriet endured years of physical and mental abuse from her master and witnessed firsthand how slaves were treated based on the color of their skin. Years of abuse can only be taken for so long, like many
Dorothea Lynde Dix was quoted as saying, “In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.” Dix began at the age of 39, and spent the next 20 years as a social reformer for the treatment of the mentally ill. When asked to teach a Sunday School class at a women’s correctional facility, Dix was appalled at the conditions, as well as the fact that many of the women weren’t criminals, but were instead mentally ill. This is where her crusade began. Her work had immediate results throughout the country, and the changes are still being felt even today.
Since Mrs. Garner is viewed as a sympathetic slave owner, Sethe admits that she “told Mrs. Garner on em’. She had that lump and couldn't speak but her eyes rolled out tears” (10). Mrs. Garner lacks a voice in the Antebellum South. Her identity as a woman fails to hold weight in the presence of white men, specifically with Schoolteacher and his nephews. Noticeably, there is a difference between Sethe and her slave master Mrs. Garner. Mulligan indicates that “owning slaves was a way for Southern women to both excel in their domestic role and exert high levels of dominance over the slaves” (Mulligan 8). As a slaveholding white woman, her prejudice and economic sentiments will not permit this stable protection that Sethe wants for her children.
In contrast, the grandmother states that the blacks did not have things like the whites do (p.2118), putting the blacks down infront of her grandchildren, associating the blacks with poverty. We see how the grandmother fails to treat the blacks equally as human, solely because of their social status, as she perceives them merely as an inanimate object - a picture.
Practically everyone in the story has a hidden agenda for his or her actions. The protagonist, a 22-year-old named Helga, was a teacher at an institute of higher learning called Naxos where the true agenda was not education but instead was teaching Blacks their accepted status in life—lower than that of Whites. She became convinced that she needed to leave Naxos after hearing a speech from a visiting white preacher whose remarks she found offensive. The preacher stated that if everyone acted like those from Naxos “there would be no race problem, because Naxos Negros knew what was expected of them” because they “knew enough to stay in their places” (Larsen 1724). At the beginning of the story, the reader would feel sympathy towards the workers at Naxos, who truly believed they were preparing the students for better lives and sympathy for Helga who tried to convince the new principle, Dr. Anderson, as to the true state of affairs. Helga failed to realize, however, that Dr. Anderson was aware of the situation at Naxos but felt that for change to occur there needed to be “more people like you, people with a sense of values, and proportion, an appreciation of the rarer things of life” (Larsen 1735). Helga mistakenly became offended at Dr. Anderson’s compliment by calling her “a lady” with “dignity and breeding” because of her belief that being able to trace one’s ancestry was more important that one’s actions (Larsen 1735).
Following this is the relationship between Edith and her husband. Though we never hear from her husband, we learn about him through Edith. Edith is an elderly white lady who has been widowed for a long time. Her husband was a black man who had come from Africa to Scotland on a boat. He came over as a young man at the ‘turn of the century.’ At this time, racism was still very prominent and so interracial couples were virtually non-existent. Edith says that people were shocked that she was “going out with, no, married to, a black man.” A black man in a ‘white’ country at the beginning of the 20th century was almost certain to encounter racism and inequality. Like Joss, Edith’s husband was lucky enough to meet and marry someone who accepted him for who he was as a person. This total acceptance and love for a man who society at the time said she should discard and look down on as beneath her gives promise that had she of been told, she would have been accepting of Joss’ choice to become a man in the best embodiment that he could achieve as Edith has been portrayed as a non-judgemental, un-conforming and loving character.
Minrose Gwin‘s book, Black and White Women of the Old South, argues that history has problems with objectiveness. Her book brings to life interesting interpretations on the view of the women of the old south and chattel slavery in historical American fiction and autobiography. Gwin’s main arguments discussed how the white women of the south in no way wanted to display any kind of compassion for a fellow woman of African descent. Gwin described the "sisterhood" between black and white women as a "violent connection"(pg 4). Not only that, Gwin’s book discusses the idea that for most of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, a black woman usually got subjected to displacement of sexual and mental
Born in 1802, Dorothea Dix played an important role in changing the ways people thought about patients who were mentally-ill and handicapped. These patients had always been cast-off as “being punished by God”. She believed that that people of such standing would do better by being treated with love and caring rather than being put aside. As a social reformer, philanthropist, teacher, writer, writer, nurse, and humanitarian, Dorothea Dix devoted devoted her life to the welfare of the mentally-ill and handicapped. She accomplished many milestones throughout her life and forever changed the way patients are cared for. She was a pioneer in her time, taking on challenges that no other women would dare dream of tackling.
In a time period when women were considered inferior, as were blacks, it was unimaginable the horrors a black woman in the south had to endure during this period. African women were slaves and subject to the many horrors that come along with being in bondage, but because they were also women, they were subject to the cruelties of men who look down on women as inferior simply because of their sex. The sexual exploitation of these females often lead to the women fathering children of their white masters. Black women were also prohibited from defending themselves against any type of abuse, including sexual, at the hands of white men. If a slave attempted to defend herself she was often subjected to further beatings from the master. The black female was forced into sexual relationships for the slave master’s pleasure and profit. By doing this it was the slave owner ways of helping his slave population grow.
It was a common fear among the African-Americans. The Younger Family knew that the discrimination would hold them back from their dreams and goals, but because they believe in prosperity and pride, that was the last thing on their mind. The “want” in their spirits, is what sets them at place of tranquility and hope. “In fact, here’s another fifty cents… buy yourself some fruit today - or take a taxicab to school or something! (1.1.1840) Walter is letting his son know that there is no problem when it comes to their economic status. One of the difficulties that the adults faced was their self-righteousness. The discrimination was really enabled when it came to anything in their life. Whether it be buying certain houses, jobs, or even sitting in a restaurant, it was something so common; they learned that it is far more important for their child to know how to live with no fear and worrisome in life. When it came to Walter, he knew that keeping the innocence in Travis’ life was the right thing to do, where for Ruth she was far more upright. The self-doubt they displayed was becoming a burden in their lives, but that transformation and growth is what helped them come to a better understanding of themselves. The Younger Family’s moral development would be their sense of pride, and Mama’s destiny was to continue that pride. Mama’s development within herself had grown to great measures, but when it came to her
She emphasizes that the life of a slave woman is incomparable to the life of a slave man, in the sense that a woman’s sufferings are not only physical but also extremely mental and emotional. Whether or not a slave woman is beaten, starved to death, or made to work in unbearable circumstances on the fields, she suffers from and endures horrible mental torments. Unlike slave men, these women have to deal with sexual harassment from white men, most often their slave owners, as well as the loss of their children in some cases. Men often dwell on their sufferings of bodily pain and physical endurance as slaves, where as women not only deal with that but also the mental and emotional aspect of it. Men claim that their manhood and masculinity are stripped from them, but women deal with their loss of dignity and morality. Females deal with the emotional agony as mothers who lose their children or have to watch them get beaten, as well as being sexually victimized by white men who may or may not be the father of their children. For these women, their experiences seem unimaginable and are just as difficult as any physical punishment, if not more so.
Shielded from the atrocities of slavery during her childhood, Jacobs depicts family life among slaves as one that remains intact in a “comfortable home” (29) through the example of her own family. Each member held limited rights along with the ability to work and the privilege to use their earnings as they pleased. It is not until the death of her mistress where she finally begins to feel the effects of slavery in the sudden separation of her family who are “all distributed among her [mistress’s] relatives” (Jacobs 33). The separation of family is one of the most integral subjects of her narrative since “motherhood [plays a great role] in her life” (Wolfe 518). Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her female audiences by contrasting a slave mother’s agonies in her separation from her children with the “happy free women” (40) whose children remain with her since “no hand” (40) has the right to take them away. The separation of families in Douglass’s narrative does call for some pity but the event is not as tragic in comparison to