In this weeks post, I will be discussing Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s poem “The Slave Mother”. I will be elaborating on my interpretation of “The Slave Mother”, and how this poem relates back to the poem discussed in class ,”Ain’t I a Women?” by Sojourner Truth. Harper describes a tragic image of a slave mother being torn apart from her son, and having to live with the grieve that she would never see her son again. What’s shocking the most is when Harper explains, “He is not hers, although she bore For him a mother’s pains; He is not hers although her blood is coursing through his veins!” The most ironic phrase that she emphasizes, “He is not hers”, reveals the devastation slave mothers had to endure when having their children, that one day their child would be taken away from them for good. No one can explain the love a mother has for her child, and this cruel act was projected onto many slave mothers.

In comparison to Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Women?”, Sojourner Truth too experienced the same tragedy of having her child taken away from her, and brought into slavery. Truth explains, “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most of all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me!” Harper explains this same feeling of a mother’s grief and sadness. These cruel actions done by white men during slavery is only traumatizing, but hard to turn your head away from. The injustice that took place during this time is unimaginable. It’s sad that these slave mothers had to carry their child, give birth to their child, and still try to not gain any attachment to their child because they know that some day they’ll be sold off. This explains Harper’s repetitive phrase, “He is not hers”, Harper wants the reader to understand that even though the slave birth this child, she still cannot grow any attachment to her kid because she only has his temporarily, and soon he would taken away from her. What’s even more monstrous is that these slave mothers had to mother the children of the slave owners who sold their kids.

Sojourner Truth and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper reminds me how grateful and blessed I am to be born and raised by my biological mother. Many enslaved women did not get the opportunity to raise and built a relationship with their children, and women like Sojourner Truth and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper made it their mission to stop this act of cruelty. We have to give thanks for women like Frances Harper who helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad, was a civil rights activist, and a women’s rights leader who made it he mission to educate her community and prevent any more potential lost or family separation that could of taken place. Sojourner Truth was the first Black woman in history to sue a white man, to gain custody of her son, and win in 1828. She brought many out of slavery and gave hope to those enslaved, that better days are coming for them, and they can achieve any thing they put their minds to.