It is clear from these works that both Negros and white women were oppressed during the slave era. In her drama, “A Black Woman Speaks,” Beah Richards concurs with this statement. Francis Hasper in, “The Slave Mother,” portrays the despair of Negro women losing their children. Sojourner Truth’s, “Ain’t I a Woman,” speech further displays the hardships of African-American women during the slave era. “The Declaration of Sentiments,” shows all the rights women should have, but didn’t, as detailed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. All readings have one common idea; that women were at the bottom of the totem pole during that era, all essentially, slaves to the white men.
Negro women were at the bottom of the food chain. As inscribed in Richard’s drama, black women were raped and forced to give birth to their masters children. Then, their children were taken from them and sold away. “[Your] husband disowned his seed that was my son, and sold him apart from me,” (Richards 12) she says to a [white] woman about her pain. During the slave era, women were barely seen as people. They were treated as if they had no feelings and couldn’t feel the motherly pain of being separated from her children. “They tear him from her circling arms…She is a mother, and her heart is breaking in despair” (Hasper 7) These works, especially “The Slave Mother,” were written to portray the feelings of a Negro mother. To show that they weren’t heartless creatures, but mothers who loved their children. They were hurting when they were forced apart. In this time of oppression for Negro women, taking their child from them was their most terrifying event.
“They brought me here in chains,” (Richards 11) Forced into slavery, away from freedom. They worked their whole lives as slaves. “Ain’t I A Woman,” describes the work the narrator is forced to do during slavery. “Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns…I could work as much [as a man],” (Truth 3) A slave woman’s life was hard work. From sun up till sun down, they worked for their master for no reward. They were treated like cattle and worked in the fields all day in the sun and rain, working. They received no breaks, no time to even collect their thoughts. They did physical labor for their entire lives. They were legally enslaved and oppressed during the slave era. White women were treated much better than Negro women, but they still were enslaved civilly. The difference is,