Heather Taylor
April 19, 2004

Black Women Amongst Women

            “The history of women is, for the most part, a history of wrong and outrage.  Created the equal companion of man, she early became his slave, and still is in most parts of the world” (Views of the).  In our day in time we seldom think of the inequalities of women, or view them or ourselves as slaves to the dominant culture of men, however, in many societies and households this is still a reality.  Imagine then, living in a world where you are not only subjected to a life of unfairness greatly due to your gender but also based on your race.  Both women and African Americans alike must face discriminations and are subjected to a cruel world of injustice based solely on their sex or the color of their skin but living with the double minority of being an African American female may carry the greatest toll.  Using the texts, I Know Why A Caged Bird Sings, The Classic Slave Narratives, Black Girl Lost, and other references I will attempt to display some of the common struggles that women of all races endured such as oppression and rape compared to those hardships African American women alone were forced to overcome like slavery and prejudice with an emphasis on Objective 2a., do “women of color” become “double minorities?”.

            Much like slavery, women were once sold as a commodity from father to husband for the price known as a dowry.  “Like slaves and cattle, they were a source of wealth.  They could produce new human beings whose labor power could be exploited.  Thus the purchase of women by men…became the social role defined as domestic servant and child bearer” (origin & nature).  Women were slaves even before slavery existed.  When you consider that there was a time when women had no say over the future of themselves or the future of their offspring you will begin to understand the concept of women’s oppression.  “As the exploitation of human beings became profitable for a privileged few, women, because of their biological role in production became valuable property” (Origin & Nature).  We say today that we have come a long way, and in a lot of respects, considering where we are coming from I would say that this is true.  Still though, we fight against wage wars and equal opportunities for women, and why, with all that we now know do we still seem to fall into the ideology that men are somehow superior?  “Women, it is said, were physically and mentally inferior to men and therefore were ‘naturally’ or biologically the second sex” (origin & nature).  “Most people who opposed woman suffrage believed that women were less intelligent and less able to make political decisions than men” (History of Women’s).  Notice still that even today we have yet to see a woman serve as president of the United States and the majority of the country is still run by men.  “Opponents argue that men could represent their wives better than the wives could represent themselves” (History of Women’s).  This is still an outlook that many women are still faced with, the reason that “all women, regardless of class are oppressed as part of the female sex” (origin & nature). 

            Although rape is not a crime that preys exclusively on the female sex, it is fair to say that the majority of rape victims are female.  As we witnessed in both I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings and in Black Girl Lost, rape is a heinous offense that carries both physical and emotional repercussions.  After her mom’s boyfriend raped Marguerite in I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings, she did not speak for days.  Because she had initially liked the attention that she received, like most rape victims, she felt it was her fault, that somehow she brought this tragedy on herself.  Rape, however, is not limited only to the African American race, unfortunately it is a sin imposed onto many of woman of many of races.  One in four women is raped everyday.  As objective 1b. points out, women are often “voiceless and choiceless.  Rape is a good example of how women can become powerless.  “She knew now that the men intended to rape her.  She opened her mouth to scream…he jammed his hand over her mouth, them removed a dirty hankie from his pocket and stuck it down her throat” (Goines 77).  Much like Marguerite, Sandra in Black Girl Lost had no choice and no voice. This was not Sandra’s first instance with sexual abuse, Sandra was also taken advantage of as a small child and once again she was left helpless. “His hand moved higher under the thin dress…many times in the past-ever since she could remember-one of her mother’s friends had put his hands on her in this fashion…one of the men would try and feel her whenever her mother wasn’t paying attention” (Goines 15-16).  Also, much like Marguerite in I Know Why A Caged Bird Sings, Sandra initially liked the attention that she received from the men.  “In her child’s mind she didn’t have any reason to fear it.  Nor did she dislike it, because attention was something she very seldom got.  She could recall times when she had gone out of her way to sit on the lap of a man who she knew liked to rub on her” (Goines 16). There is no doubt in my mind that when anyone reads either I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings or Black Girl Lost they feel a deep sympathy and compassion for the characters that face this horrendous crime, however, being a women, and being able to relate from a women’s perspective left me nearly in tears.  The honesty, and regardless how harsh, the reality of portrayal in these two novels is astonishing and paints a vivid picture of the destruction that one act can cause.

             As women of all races we indulge in a sense of “sisterhood” claiming to understand what a fellow woman has been through because we are all of the same sex.  We want to embrace our womanhood to put us all on a “common ground.”  Unfortunately though, this cannot always be done when considering women of different races.  Though we may realize the injustices endured by being a woman, we will never fully know what it means to be African American.  We were not there working in the slave plantations and we will never know the humiliation and cruelty that came with it.  “Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger” (Douglass 383).  There are issues; though fought against by women abolitionists will never be understood by them, for example, the “widespread violence against women by male planters and overseers, the horror of the flogging of pregnant women and the stripping of women for punishment by plantation owners” (Midgley 16).   There were also sufferings of destruction of family life under the slave system, and the overall degradation of women by slavery.  “When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own” (Douglass 405).  Women were forced to work even when their children were sick and needed their care, even when ill themselves.  “We were worked in all weathers.  It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard for us to work in the field…work, work, work” (Douglass 387). Frederick Douglass gives us a glimpse into the reality of slavery that I will leave with you:

“The blood was yet oozing from the wound on my head.  For a time I thought I should bleed to death; and think now that I should have done so.   From the crown of my head to my feet, I was covered in blood.  My hair was all clotted with dust and blood; my shirt was stiff with blood.  My legs and feet were torn in sundry places with briers and thorns, and were also covered with blood.  I suppose I looked like a man who had escaped a den of wild beasts, and barely escaped them. (Douglass 393).       

“We meet the monster prejudice everywhere…prejudice is the cause.  It kills its thousands everyday; it follows us everywhere, even to our grave.” (Lawrence 116).  This quote was taken from the mid 1800’s, yet it still rings true in 2004.  “If you were black that was good enough to find you guilty” (Goines 66).  Hate crimes, discrimination, job inequality, it is still everywhere that we turn in our society.  “A mob threatened delegates and burned Pennsylvania Hall because of the presence of African American women” (Lawrence 116).  Because of the presence of an African American women; it was mortifying to me when I read this article, that someone would go to such extremities, that someone could have such little disregard for human life based on the color of a person’s skin.  After all, was there not something written stating that “all men are created equal.”  Granted, it should have been written that “all men and women are created equal,” but nonetheless, at this time African Americans did not have the right to freedom, the right to vote, the right of free speech, so they wanted to take away the only right that they did have- the right of life.  A bit of naivety runs through my head when I read these novels about the obstacles overcome by African Americans and then I am brought back to reality with the reminder of the KKK fifteen miles down the road and the highly publicized police brutality that happened just years ago.  “She was just some black who had found the nerve to strike back at them…they ain’t no better than a couple of damn animals, the way they act” (Goines 62-63).

We must remember, as said by Susan B. Anthony, “the life and happiness of a woman is of equal value with that of a man.”  It will continue to be an uphill battle to fight against any type of discrimination or prejudice, I am thankful to say that I believe the “day of the women” will soon be upon us.  We have come from a time when women were not allowed to speak freely, vote, own their own land; a time when we were born to raise children and keep a good home, our sole purpose being reproduction.  We have come from having no voice to having the loudest voices heard.  We now write our own music, publish books and various writings, we scream out for freedom; and we are heard.  Racism, I am sad to say, has not come so far.  The racial slurs, the economic barriers and the constant injustices of our great nation are still knocking on the door of all the Frederick Douglas’ and all of the Marguerites and Sandra’s of the world, but it is a battle that we will continue to fight until the “American Dream” is a dream in which we all can share. “Where most has been given her she has become best.  Liberty never degrades her; slavery always does” (Views of the). 

Works Cited

Angelou, Maya.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  Random House. New York City, NY.  1969.

Douglass, Fredrick. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass. 1845. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. et al. New York: Penguin, 2002. 323-436.

Goines, Donald.  Black Girl Lost.  Holloway House Publishing Company. Los Angeles, CA. 1973.

Lawrence, Clarissa C.. Convention of American Women. Sterling.  We Are             Your Sisters. 116-117.

Midgley, Clare. Sisterhood and Slavery: Transatlantic Antislavery  and Women’s Rights. 2001. Yale University.  New Haven.  Connecticut.

Origin & Nature of Women’s Oppression.  April 3, 2004. http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/fi-women.html.

Views of the Congressional Minority Favoring Women’s Suffrage (1886). House Report No. 2289.  http://www2.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm029a.html