Solidarity Threatened: Destruction of the Black Family in African American Literature

Solidarity Threatened

Destruction of the Black Family in African American Literature

During the time of American chattel slavery, the sales of enslaved Black people to other landowners often resulted in the physical separation of families, due in part to physical distance and in part to the lack of freedom of movement enslaved people enjoyed. This tendency of the institution of slavery to separate families appears well-documented in African American literature about the slavery and post-slavery eras, such as through the separation of a wife and husband in Charles W. Chestnutt’s“The Wife of His Youth.” The physical separation of families would have for the most part ended after the abolition of slavery in 1865; however, other works continue throughout the course of African American literature to depict an emotional splintering of the Black family under the pressure of enslavement, economic disadvantage, and double consciousness – all conditions resulting from white American society’s exploitation and oppression of Black people.

The slave narrative and autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl exemplifies an early instance of conflict that occurs between two Black family members due to racially oppressive conditions, in this case of chattel slavery. From the beginning of the book, the author and main character Harriet Jacobs has an extremely close relationship with her grandmother. In particular, their bond becomes Jacobs’ main source of comfort after her parents’ deaths, and according to Jacobs, “To this good grandmother I was indebted for many comforts” (Jacobs 13). After Jacobs is sold to Dr. Flint, a cruel master who predates her sexually, she sleeps with another man with the intention of becoming pregnant in a last-ditch act of rebellion against his advances. In her advocacy against slavery, Jacobs explains that “If slavery had been abolished, I, also, could have married the man of my choice”; instead, due to her circumstances as an enslaved person at the mercy of a master who desires her sexually, she is deprived of sexual freedom and the power of choice in marrying who she wishes (83). When her grandmother finds out about the pregnancy, she rejects Jacobs from her home, lamenting that “‘I had rather see you dead than to see you as you now are. You are a disgrace to your dead mother’” (87). Although she later forgives Jacobs after learning the thought process behind her actions, the grandmother’s initial disownment of Jacobs contrasted with how she “had always been so kind to me [Jacobs]” highlights the devastating effect that the institution of slavery had on their familial relationship (88). After all, Jacobs’ grandmother’s disapproval of the pregnancy originates from her Christian beliefs against extramarital sex. If Jacobs, rather than fearing sexual assault from her enslaver, had had the ability to preserve her virginity before marrying a man she loved, she would not have committed the sin her grandmother despises. This section of Jacobs’ account underscores the common theme of intersectionality in the overall book, that enslaved women face particular challenges that neither enslaved men nor free white women face. Unlike enslaved Black men, enslaved women endure the sexual predation of white masters alongside other forms of abuse and oppression, and their subordinate position in society means that, unlike free white women, enslaved women do not possess the privilege of maintaining their purity and chastity in accordance with societal expectations. Because of her powerlessness due to her status as both a woman and an enslaved person, Jacobs is forced to take action that alienates her from her most significant loved one.

        Despite occurring after the abolition of slavery, Zora Neale Hurston’s 1933 “The Gilded Six-Bits” similarly represents the emotional separation of two family members due to actions that one of them performed out of perceived necessity resulting from oppressive forces against Black American populations – in this case, the economic disadvantage of Black families due to the exploitation of their labor during slavery. Like Jacobs and her grandmother in the beginning of Incidents, married couple Missy and Joe are extremely close at the start of “The Gilded Six-Bits.” For example, when Joe comes home, they greet each other with a playful ritual that throughout the story represents their love for each other. That same love is what compels Missy to enter an affair with Slemmons, a rich man who Joe very vocally envies: because she believes that more money would make Joe happier, she executes actions that instead alienate him. After Joe finds out about the affair, the couple’s relationship becomes tense and cold, and “no laughter, no banter” occurs between them during this period of emotional distance (Hurston 8). In contrast to the “banter that pretended to deny affection but in reality flaunted it” in the beginning of the story, it is apparent that Missy’s actions, motivated by Joe’s dissatisfaction with their socioeconomic position, caused a drastic emotional separation of husband and wife (3). In turn, the dissatisfaction Joe feels toward their financial situation comes from a history of colonialist exploitation of enslaved Black people and the resulting economic disadvantage their descendants face. Thus, it can be concluded that the central marital conflict of "The Gilded Six-Bits" ultimately derives its cause from racially oppressive and discriminatory forces outside of the family's personal control.

        Carolyn Rodgers’s “JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED, or: It Must Be Deep (an epic pome)” shows a final example of emotional or ideological separation of Black families due to the effects of Western colonialism and capitalism. The primary theme of the poem is the narrator’s complicated and tense relationship with her mother, who holds very different religious and political ideologies than her. For example, her mother highly disapproves of the narrator’s lack of faith in Christianity, accusing that “U DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD / NO MO DO U????? / u wudn’t raised that way! U gon die and go tuh HELL” (Rodgers 31-3). This mother-daughter conflict based on religious values echoes Incidents, wherein a grandmother-granddaughter bond is similarly threatened by the older woman’s disapproval of the younger’s disobedience of Christian tenets. Additionally, the two characters of “JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED” disagree on racial issues, especially about how they feel about Black and white people respectively. The mother criticizes about the narrator’s participation in “hatin white folks and revolution,” insisting that the members of the Black Power Movement are “COMMUNISTS GIRL!!!” and declaring that “ne-groes don’t treat / nobody right… white folks wouldn’t treat yuh that / way” (Rodgers 25-8, 52-4) in a clear example of W. E. B. Du Bois’ theory of double consciousness. Despite being Black herself, the narrator’s mother has adopted the Western political ideas of race, religion, wealth that were pushed onto her due to the colonialist nature of racial oppression in the United States. These ideas, which her daughter has begun to move away from as she becomes more involved in the Black Power “revolution,” cause conflict and antagonism within the two women’s mother-daughter relationship. In this way, the oppression that Black people face in the United States and the double consciousness that arises as a result have created a rift between two Black family members, thus separating them emotionally and ideologically.

        Published decades apart from each other (1861, 1933 and 1975, respectively), all three of the works mentioned in this essay represent the separation of Black American families due to racially oppressive societal forces in the United States. Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl shows the emotional separation as well as the physical separation of Black families during slavery; Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits” shows the same emotional separation under the socioeconomic conditions of Black Americans in the early 20th century; and Carolyn Rodgers’ “JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED, or: It Must Be Deep (an epic pome)” shows emotional separation as a result of ideological conflict between the revolutionary thought of the Black Power Movement and the double consciousness that Black Americans internalize due to racial oppression and discrimination. These different forms of the same phenomenon, relevant to different forms of the Black American experience across different historical periods, highlight the prevailing ability of racial oppression in the United States to affect the lives and families of Black Americans across centuries of American history.

Works Cited

Jacobs, Harriet [Linda Brent] and L. Maria Child, editor. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Boston: Published for the Author, 1861.

Hurston, Zora Neale. “The Gilded Six-Bits.” 1933. Lifelong Learning Collaborative, https://www.lifelonglearningcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/hurston-the-gilded-six-bits.pdf.

Rodgers, Carolyn. “JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED, or: It Must Be Deep (an epic pome).” How I Got Ovah: New and Selected Poems. Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1975.