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• 1 media/215627a256f10e7.jpg media/360028-admin.jpg 2018-04-25T09:01:20-07:00 The Freedom of African American Women 11 A.J image_header 2019-05-14T10:18:41-07:00 Dana and Alice, from Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, represent two halves of one whole woman, for Dana represents the strength and defiance of Black women, while Alice represents the subordinating Black woman, the one who is forced to accept her fate for she can’t see any other way. These characters represent the reality of what Black women face in their societies, for they not only “are the main breadwinners of the Negro family” (Jones 4)¹, but also are expected to be a “mistress in the slave cabin” (Jones 7)¹, and the statistics for current times show that the Black woman’s position has not changed.

  "African American woman...are most likely to experience rape than women overall – 21.2% of black women are raped as opposed to 19.3% of women aged 18 and over"

  
              In the case of Cassy and Eliza in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, these women endure a more uncommon form of abuse, in which they suffer more than just physical abuse, but also psychological and emotional abuse that is a specific kind of abuse that does not get the amount of recognition it needs. Due to the fact that Eliza lives in the house and is treated as an almost equal to her master, she believes that “when all things go wrong [for them, they] must believe that God is doing the very best” (Stowe 15)², for it was what her mistress has told her. She has placed her faith in things that are otherworldly to her because she was conditioned to believe that faith would ensure good in the world. Her husband, George, however, has a more secular and practical view of redemption. To him, faith rcan only help those who have everything and don’t suffer similarly to that of a slave (Stowe 16)². For George, freedom must be taken. 
  
  Furthermore, Cassy was raised as a free woman, and therefore, she knows what it’s like to live in a world where she does not have to conform to the ideals of someone else. When the depraved and deranged Legree interacts with her, though, it is evident that in order to survive, she has to sacrifice her autonomy and strong moral code. She finds small moments of empowerment by acting as though she has “the devil in [her]” (Stowe 337)². She has to endure the psychological trauma of enforced relations with Legree, and that kind of torture is one that African American woman endure, even today, for they are most likely to experience rape than women overall – 21.2% of black women are raped as opposed to 19.3% of women aged 18 and over (DuMontheir 120 – 121)³.
  
  
  References
  1. Jones, Claudia. "An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!". Political Affairs, 1949.
  2. Stowe, Harriet B. Uncle Tom's Cabin . 2nd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.
  3. DuMontheir, Asha et al. The Status of Black Women in the United States. Washington: Institution for Women’s Policy Research, 2017. Print.