The Bestselling Novel: Currents in American History and Culture

The Black Woman: A Pillar in the African American Community

             In Kindred, by Octavia Butler, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the characters of Sarah, the cook, and Aunt Chloe, portray what it means to be a black woman. It is understood that, out of all the various races, the Black woman is the most oppressed. In a report published in 2017, it states that “Black women ensure their families’ overall well-being not only through their participation in the workforce, but also through their direct caregiving” and that “Black families depend on Black women's earnings, [for 80.6% of] Black mothers are breadwinners, who are either the sole earners or earn at least 40 percent of household income” (DuMontheir 45)¹. These current statistics can still be used to represent Black women both in the past and in the present, for the idea has not changed. In an article written by Claudia Jones in 1949 titled “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman,” she states “the Negro woman has had the responsibility of caring for the needs of the family” (3) and “that the Negro mother under slavery held a key position and played a dominant role in her own family grouping (7)².

“Black families depend on Black women's earnings, [for 80.6% of] Black mothers are breadwinners, who are either the sole earners or earn at least 40 percent of household income”


The portrayal of these women are found in Sarah, the cook, for she understands the way life on the plantation works, and due to that understanding, she has settled into what the speaker of Kindred claims is a safe life, because she “had accepted a life of slavery because she was afraid” (Butler 145)³, which is not the case. It is not the act of fear that has lead her to accept her fate, but rather an understanding that she is not capable of doing much else. Her children were sold into slavery against her will, and despite there being an idea that she may have tried to break free when she was younger (Butler 96)³, she realized her position as not only a slave, but also as a woman, for her position in the household is the reason why everything is still in operation.

“I don’t know when I’ll be gone to glory; but I’ve done got ready, chil’en; ‘pears like I’d got my little bundle all tied up, and my bonnet on, jest a waitin’ for the stage to come along and take me home”            


Furthermore, she, just like Aunt Chloe in Stowe's novel, isn’t afraid of what being free is like, but they do not have the luxury of actually participating in the idea of freedom. Aunt Chloe expresses her idea of freedom, which is largely ingrained in the idea of death. She says “I don’t know when I’ll be gone to glory; but I’ve done got ready, chil’en; ‘pears like I’d got my little bundle all tied up, and my bonnet on, jest a waitin’ for the stage to come along and take me home” (Stowe 26)4, meaning that she anticipates freedom through her death alone. She has found such great salvation in her death, for it is ultimately the salvation a Black woman can receive.

The amount of discrimination against and lack of appreciation for Black women is constant throughout history, and the reason the Black community is as strong as they are is due to the fact that the Black woman teaches them how to become that strong, based on their own hardships, in order to ensure the survival of their children. The characters in Kindred and Uncle Tom’s Cabin were not “the frightened powerless woman” (Butler 145)³, but rather, they, and those who were like them, are the “symbols [for the] many present-day struggles of the Negro people” (Jones 3)², because they knew that they could not afford to die at the hands of the slave-owner and leave their children without a backbone.



References
  1. DuMontheir, Asha et al. The Status of Black Women in the United States. Washington: Institution for Women’s Policy Research, 2017. Print.
  2. Jones, Claudia. "An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!". Political Affairs, 1949
  3. Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Beacon Press, 2003
  4. Stowe, Harriet B. Uncle Tom's Cabin . 2nd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2010

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