ENGL 281 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Slave Narrative, Umbilical Cord, Patrilineality
Document Summary
Condition of the mother laws: would govern the status of children born, we have a patrilineal society [women can only inherit, can"t own] Douglass focusses greatly on his father, his master, rather than his mother. This is because his father was white, but these laws dictated that he identity with his mother. And thus make him another part of his father"s property. There was no such thing as a concrete family during slave times bc people could be sold whenever, Welfare today separates families by making black women to tell their children that he did not know his father and thus receive welfare as a result of a lack of a male figure. This is an immense way of emasculating the black race. Home grown narrative components: douglass claims his birth as the one thing we all claim [we all have an umbilical cord that connects us to a mother] In claiming his birth, he is also claiming his humanity.
