Women in Chains : The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction

Looking at the work of such writers as Harriet Wilson, Frances E. W. Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Toni Morrison, Sherley Anne Williams, and Gayl Jones, Patton (English and African-American studies, U. of Nebraska-Lincoln) finds that they repeatedly link slavery with motherhood. She shows that the image of black women by others and themselves is framed and influenced by a portrayal of women slaves as mere breeders and not mothers. These writers, she says, counter the image with that of the mother.

Venetria K. Patton is Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.