The Bond Between Mother and Child

I am not a mother, but putting myself into the position of motherhood, I could not fathom the thought of someone ripping my children away from me and never seeing them again. I could not imagine another human being having superiority over me and my children. After carrying a child inside you for nine months, feeling their heart beat and jumping when they kick, just so that they can be taken away from you once they are born and sold to another, would be devestating. I would rather die then endure such pain. Harriet Jacobs was a slave. Her tasks as a slave were not as cruel as other slaves, as she tells us, but she was nontheless, a slave. Someone had authority over her and her children. She had to live in fear for most of her life.

I can understand her thoughts on wanting her children to die at birth just so that they did not have to experience the cruelity in which she did. I know that if I were in that same position I would not have the strength and patience as she did. I would probably die before I brought any life into that Godforsaken world. Faith and justice would not be in question.

Harriet Jacobs wanted nothing but the best for her children, just like any other mother would want. I feel that she spoke eloquently to her audience, she had respect for her readers and apologized for some of the graphic pictures she had to paint in order to get her point across. She desperatly wanted to portray the image of inhumanity to the audience. She was not looking for sympathy, she was looking for justice to be served. For people to begin opening their eyes to the inhumane treatment of other human beings. She never wanted another mother to suffer as she had and never wanted to see the looks of torment in other mothers' faces when their children were taken away from them.

The white authors during this time period were blind to the monstrosities that were occurring to these women. They were white and never needed to worry about their children ever being taken away from them. They loved, raised, educated their children, which was the same dream Harriet Jacobs wanted for her children. She wrote this book for all people to be aware of the evil that was occurring right under their noses and wanted to prevent this to ever occurring again, but at the same time never forgetting. Other slaves took on this notion and wrote about their experiences and incidents of their lives as slaves. I feel that she was quite influencial during her time and during our present time in history.