I’d like to build on my last post by looking at the same area of Incidents and sticking with the idea of family, but this time analyzing a different textual object. I found this section of the text to be incredibly rich for analysis.
After talking about Benjamin, Linda then goes on to talk about the experiences that her mother and grandmother had endured. She states, “My mom’s mistress turned into the daughter of my grandmother’s mistress. She turned into the foster sister of my mother; they had been each nourished at my grandmother’s breast. In truth, my mom were weaned at three months antique, that the babe of the mistress may attain enough meals. They played together as children” (Jacobs, p. 7). These lines highlight the complexity that slavery imposes on familial relations, and renegotiates the meaning of family in its entirety by drawing “familial” bonds between slaveholders and the enslaved, and highlighting the biological connection between people.
Linda makes the connection between biology and the idea of family when she says that her grandmother’s mistress’ daughter became her grandmother’s daughter, and her own mother’s sister, because her grandmother had breastfed this child. Linda’s grandmother and mother were the slaves of these white people, but because Linda’s grandmother was forced to breastfeed this child, there is an odd change in the “family” dynamic. Linda’s family members were subservient to this child because they were her family’s slaves, but this intimate connection through breastfeeding complicates this and blurs these lines of power. Linda’s mother and her mistress both being breastfed by Linda’s grandmother inextricably bound these two children together in the most intimate of ways. They had the same nutrients coursing through their veins, yet were separated by the social dynamic of enslaved and mistress. Linda’s mother was legally bound to serve her mistress, and this power dynamic cannot be ignored, but it is important to think about how these two girls were leveled in a sense by their shared breastfeeding experience. Linda refers to the two girls as “sisters,” which I already touched on the power of this term in my last post, so I won’t be repetitive here. Linda goes on to say that the two girls would play together as well, further complicating the power dynamic that defined their relationship – seeing each other as companions and being intimately connected through breastfeeding, but also being separated by slavery.
When this quote is analyzed through the lens of the implications that slavery already imposes on family relations of enslaved people by way of separations, these lines stand out as complicating this concept of family even more. Slavery has the power to dictate the family of enslaved people in two distinct ways: by removing family members by way of slave trades, and adding family members by way of forcing enslaved women to breastfeed the children of their masters, sometimes (like in this case) at the expense of their own child because there is a limited amount of breastmilk to go around. Slavery had so much power over a very intimate concept: family. This speaks to the invasive and controlling power that slavery held over Black people.
Questions:
- As a general question, what do you think is more defining of family: biology, or social relations?
- Do you think that Linda and her mistress felt more connected because of their shared breastfeeding experience? We have seen in other books, like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, that sometimes, enslaved children would play with slaveholders’ children (Topsy and Eva), but do you think that the connection afforded through breastfeeding made the connection between Linda’s mother and her mistress stronger in any way?
- Do you think that Linda’s grandmother viewed her mistress’ child differently, perhaps more intimately, than the other people she served, because she fed this child from her own breast?
In reading this post, I decided to respond to this specific one for many reasons. I relate to the way in which Linda changes her views on the idea of family when she says that her grandmother’s mistress’ daughter became her grandmother’s daughter, and her own mother’s sister, because of the way that they became like family, despite not being biologically related. Their situation was especially difficult because they were separated by the social dynamic of enslaved and mistress. However, I see where she is coming from in the way that she seems everyone as family. My step-dad has basically raised me, and fully taken the place of my father over the past decade. I see him, and his biological family as being apart of my family. I see my biological dad as not being my father because of his social interactions with me, despite being biologically related to me. In response to Claires question “As a general question, what do you think is more defining of family: biology, or social relations?”, I would have to say that I feel social relations are predominantly more defining of s family over biological relations. Family is a difficult term and is different with each and every family. To feel loved and cares for is the most important feeling, and if that comes from somebody outside of your biological family, then I would consider that the most important aspect and make those two people connected in a family.