The motherhood of Afro-American women in 1850s seen through the character of Afro-American mothers in Toni Morrison`s Beloved.

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THE MOTHERHOOD OF AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN
IN 1850s SEEN THROUGH THE CHARACTER
OF AFRO-AMERICAN MOTHERS
IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By
HINDRA SETYA RINI
Student Number: 074214079

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012

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THE MOTHERHOOD OF AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN
IN 1850s SEEN THROUGH THE CHARACTER
OF AFRO-AMERICAN MOTHERS
IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By
HINDRA SETYA RINI
Student Number: 074214079

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012

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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

THE MOTHERHOOD OF AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN
IN 1850s AS SEEN THROUGH THE CHARACTER
OF AFRO-AMERICAN MOTHERS
IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED

By
HINDRA SETYA RINI
Student Number: 074214079
Defended before the Board of Examiners
on March 26, 2012
and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswi Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama

: Hindra Setya Rini

Nomor Mahasiswa : 074214079
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE MOTHERHOOD OF AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN IN 1850s AS
SEEN THROUGH THE CHARACTER OF AFRO-AMERICAN
MOTHERS IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,
mengalihkan dalam bentuk lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data,
mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media
lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu ijin kepada saya maupun
memberikan loyalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai
penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta,

Pada tanggal: 28 Maret, 2012.
Yang menyatakan,

(Hindra Setya Rini)

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Th ous and mil es
jou rney
m u s t b e g in
wi th
a si ngle ste p

(Anonymous)

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This thesis is dedicated to
My Beloved Mother,
Na r
To her I owe who I am

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the Supreme Being
who enlightens my way through these challenging years. My gratitude is also
given to my thesis advisor Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M. Hum., for
giving smart advices and patience guidance during my time of writing this
thesis. I would like to thank my Co-advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.
Hum., for the detail corrections and suggestion on the writing of my thesis.
I owe big thanks to all of the lecturers and secretary staff in Sanata
Dharma University for all supports during my study that I can not mention
one by one. Nevertheless, I owe big thanks to Sanata Dharma University
for the whole times and experiences I spent there. It was an open door which
allowed me passing a wonderful journey. Now, I would open other doors for
other journeys.
Next, I would like to thank my dear friends at Garasi Theatre
Yogyakarta and all staff for giving me a great support, and let me take a

break from my works while I was writing my thesis. I also owe big thanks to
Lusia Neti Cahyani, a librarian friend who helped me choosing some
reference books for my thesis via air mail since I found it difficult to find a
piece here (Indonesia).
My special thanks go to Iwan & Ria (Papermoon Puppet Theatre)
for giving me a bunch of supports and encouraging me when(ever) I was
down or during my difficult time. They are the people whose spirits always
inspire me to be independent, to be creative, and to be happy within. Other
special thanks goes to Irene Ossi and Nurvita Wijaya, they are smart and
good friends in talking and discussing many things about our study. I also
thank my friends who always support me; I would like to mention them in
their dearest nick name: Puput, Icha, Dewi, Ibel, Billi, Tombro, Lala, Umi,
Sony, Adit, Sukma, Herman, Martin, Tomomi, Nana, Siti, Iip, Yuni,
Nunung, Dian, Atut, Zuli, Eko, Botak, Ipunk, Hana, Gembul, and
Dhinar.
Last, my deepest gratitude goes to my kind-hearted friends: my
beloved mother Nar, and my step father Heri for giving me a great trust. I
also thank my best partner Rifqi Mansur Maya for giving me a bunch of
loves, supports, and times. They are the people whom I always miss so much
even though they do not leave me yet.

Hindra Setya Rini

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………………………...i
APPROVAL PAGE…………………………………………………………….ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE………………………………………………………...iii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI…………………...iv
MOTTO PAGE…………………………………………………………………v
DEDICATION PAGE…………………………………………………………vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………..vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………...viii
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………….x
ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………………...xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION . ..…………………………………………...1
A. Background of the Study ..…….……………………………………………..1
B. Problem Formulation ….……….…………………………………………….3
C. Objectives of the Study………………………………………………………4
D. Definition of Terms…………………………………………………………..4
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW…………………………………..7
A. Review of Related Studies…………………………………………...7
B. Review of Related Theories………………………………………….10
1. Theory of Character and Characterization……………………….10
2. Theory of Motherhood… ………………………………………..11
C. Theoretical Framework………………………………………………18
D. Review on Afro-American Women Under Slavery in 1850s………..19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………...27
A. Object of the Study…………………………………………………..27
B. Approach of the Study……………………………………………….28
C. Method of the Study…………………………………………………29
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS……………………………………………………30
A. The Afro-American Mothers Characterized in Morrison’s Beloved…30
1. Sethe Suggs………………………………………………………30
2. Baby Suggs……………………………………………………….36
B. The Motherhood of Afro-American Women Reflected Through Sethe
Suggs and Baby Suggs……………………………………………….41
1. Traditional Motherhood………………………………………….42
a. Other-Mothering …………………………………………….42
b. Matrifocality…………………………………………………45
c. Cultural Bearing ..………………………………………….. 47
d. Social Activism…………………………………………….. 49
e. Providing a Home Place……………………………………..50
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2. Mother’s Acts Reflected Through Sethe Suggs and Baby Suggs are
as Resistance toward Slavery ...………………………………….51
a. Runaway……………………………………………………. 52
b. Infanticide…………….……………………………………..53
c. Participation in Revolt (Movement)……………….………...54
d. Teaching the Offspring about Dignity and Pride…………....55
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ………………………………………………. 57
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………... 60
APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………… 63
Apendix 1. The Summary of Toni Morrison’s Beloved ...……………….64
Apendix 2. Toni Morrison’s Life………………………………………...65

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ABSTRACT
HINDRA SETYA RINI. The Motherhood of Afro-American Women in 1850s
as Seen Through the Character of Afro-American Mothers in Toni
Morrison’s Beloved. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2012.

This thesis discusses Toni Morrison’s novel entitled Beloved. This novel
tells about the Afro-American women who experienced mothering during the
period of slavery in 1850s. The main character, Sethe Suggs, is a mother who kills
her child in order to protect the child from slavery. Therefore, through this story
about mother who kills her child, the writer wants to identify the qualities of a
mother, especially Afro-American mother, and how it is reflected in this novel.
There are two problems in the form of questions concerning the topic of
the thesis. The first is to describe the character of Afro-American mothers in the
novel: Sethe Suggs and Baby Suggs. The second is to identify the motherhood of
Afro-American women in 1850s reflected through those mothers.
The method of this study is library research, using a novel entitled Beloved
by Toni Morrison as the primary source of the analysis. The secondary sources
used to find the theories and the references are feminism theories and literature
theories. Since the thesis deals with culture, society, and history, the writer uses
socio-cultural-historical approach to analyze the motherhood of Afro-American
women in 1850s.
From the analysis, the writer finds two points of answer. The first point is
about the Afro-American mother’s characteristics. Sethe Suggs, a woman who
faced the racist culture and harsh reality of slavery, has some characteristics:
brave, loving, strong, tough, and protective. Besides, Baby Suggs the elder
woman is characterized as a religious, wise, kind-hearted, powerful, brave, loving,
skillful, protective and a good mother. On the second point, the writer identifies
the motherhood of Afro-American women reflected by those mothers as in
traditional motherhood. It elaborates into five tasks: other-mothering or
community-mothering, matrifocality, cultural bearing, social activism and
providing a home place. Through mothering culture that gives power for mothers
to protect their children and resist racist culture that harm them, therefore, the
mother’s acts in 1850s are described as in runaway, infanticide, participation in
revolt (movement), and teaching the offspring. It can be seen as acts of resistance
toward slavery, and also as an act of mother’s love toward their children.

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ABSTRAK
HINDRA SETYA RINI. The Motherhood of Afro-American Women in 1850s
as Seen Through the Character of Afro-American Mothers in Toni
Morrison’s Beloved. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012.
Skripsi ini mendiskusikan mengenai sebuah novel oleh Toni Morrison
berjudul Beloved. Novel ini bercerita tentang pengalaman para perempuan suku
Afro-Amerika di masa perbudakan pada tahun 1850an. Si tokoh utama, Sethe
Suggs, ia adalah seorang ibu yang membunuh anaknya sendiri dalam tujuan untuk
melindungi si anak dari perbudakan. Oleh karena itu, melalui cerita tentang ibu
yang membunuh anaknya ini, penulis ingin mengidentifikasi kualitas yang ada
pada sosok ibu, terutama ibu suku Afro-Amerika, dan bagaimana ia direfleksikan
di dalam novel.
Dalam skripsi ini ada dua masalah dalam bentuk pertanyaan menyangkut
tentang topik yang diambil. Pertanyaan pertama untuk mendeskripsikan karakter
para ibu suku Afro-Amerika di dalam novel: Sethe Suggs dan Baby Suggs.
Pertanyaan kedua adalah untuk mengidentifikasi nilai-nilai keibuan dari para
perempuan suku Afro-Amerika pada tahun 1850an yang direfleksikan melalui
para ibu tersebut.
Metode dalam skripsi ini adalah penelitian pustaka menggunakan novel
berjudul Beloved karangan Toni Morrison sebagai sumber utama dari analisis.
Buku-buku pendukung yang digunakan untuk mencari teori-teori dan referensireferensi adalah buku teori feminisme dan teori sastra. Dikarenakan skripsi ini
berhubungan dengan kebudayaan, masyarakat dan sejarah, penulis menggunakan
pendekatan sejarah kultur-budaya untuk menganalisis pengalaman para
perempuan Afro-Amerika sebagai ibu pada tahun 1850an.
Penulis menemukan dua poin jawaban. Poin pertama mengenai
karakteristik-karakteristik dari ibu suku Afro-Amerika. Sethe Suggs, perempuan
yang menghadapi budaya rasis dan kerasnya realita hidup perbudakan memiliki
beberapa karakteristik: berani, cinta-kasih, kuat, tangguh, dan melindungi.
Sementara itu, Baby Suggs sebagai ibu yang lebih tua dideskripsikan sebagai
orang saleh, bijak, baik hati, penuh daya, berani, cinta-kasih, sangat terampil,
melindungi dan ibu yang baik. Poin kedua, penulis mengidentifikasi nilai-nilai
keibuan suku Afro-Amerika yang direfleksikan oleh dua ibu tersebut seperti pada
nilai keibuan yang tradisional. Nilai-nilai keibuan traditional ini dielaborasi
kedalam lima hal: ibu asuh atau ibu komunitas, matrifokal, tradisi mendidik
keturunan, aktivisme sosial, dan menyediakan rumah tinggal. Melalui budaya ibu
yang memberi kekuasaan bagi para ibu untuk melindungi anak-anak dan melawan
budaya rasis yang menyakiti mereka, oleh karena itu, aksi-aksi ibu pada tahun
1850an dideskripsikan pada pelarian, pembunuhan anak, partisipasi pergerakan,
dan mendidik keturunan. Hal-hal ini dapat dilihat sebagai perlawanan terhadap
perbudakan dan juga sebagai aksi dari kecintaan ibu terhadap anak-anaknya.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study
During 1955-1968, the Civil Rights Movement emerged in the United
States, especially in Southern US. It was when people strived for reformation
which aimed to abolish public and private acts of racial discrimination and racism
against Afro-Americans. This reform movement influenced Afro-American
writers to express their opinions. Most Afro-American writers of the time
discussed racism and social injustice in America. Some authors sought to reveal
how the institution of slavery affected those Afro-Americans who were living at
that time.
One of the Afro-American authors who have a great passion to write
about the life in slavery is Toni Morrison. She is an Afro-American woman writer
who has transformed the American literary landscape with her presence in the
Afro-American literary tradition. Through her own use of the spoken and written
word, “She has created new spaces for readers to bring both their imaginations
and their intellects to the complex cultural, political, social and historical issues of
our time” (Andrews, 2001: 295).
One of Morrison’s interesting novels to be analyzed is Beloved. This novel
is set during the slavery period. Andrea O’Reilly in Toni Morrison and
Motherhood: A Politic of The Heart states that

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Beloved, a novel of slavery and its aftermath, shows that slavery, more
than any other cultural institution, severed the African-American
motherline by separating families through sale and by commodifying
African-Americans as property, robbing them of their subjectivity and
history (2004: 85).

Based an online source, in a 1994 interview with Time magazine,
Morrison stated that she was trying to make it a personal experience:
The book was not about the institution —Slavery with a capital S. It was
about these anonymous people called slaves. What they do to keep on,
how they make a life, what they’re willing to risk, however long it lasts,
in order to relate to one another— that was incredible to me (Jones,
findarticles.com, 1997).
In Morrison’s Beloved (1987), the main character, Sethe, is depicted as a
mother who kills her child in order to protect her from slavery. Moreover, Beloved
is one examples of Morrison’s novels depicting theme of maternal bond or
motherhood. Liz Lewis in her essay The Monstrous Potential of Love: Moral
Ambiguity in Morrison’s Beloved and Jazz stated that “Morrison, however, takes a
step further by dealing with another kind of violence— a violence that is
paradoxically an act of love. …she breaks down the polarities of right and wrong
and explores the “grey” areas of human love” (Lewis, literature-study-online.com,
2001).
Lewis’s statement above stimulates the writer to find out the deep analysis
on the reason Sethe kills her child. This idea motivates the writer to identify the
qualities of a mother and how is motherhood reflected in Morrison’s Beloved.
Based on the motherhood analysis in Sara Ruddick’s book: Maternal Thinking:

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Toward a Politic of Peace, it is stated that the first demand of mother is to protect
and preserve their children: “to keep safe whatever is vulnerable and valuable in a
child” (1989: 80). It elaborates as follows,
Preserving the lives of children is the central constitutive, invariant aim of
maternal practice: the commitment achieving that aim is the constitutive
maternal act. To be committed to meeting children’s demand for
preservation, it does not require enthusiasm or even love; it simply means
to see vulnerability and to respond to it with care rather than abuse,
indifferent, or flight (1989: 19).
According to Ruddick, it is known that to be a mother, is to be committed
to meeting three demands or duties of a mother by works of preservative love,
nurturance, and training (1989: 17). Another analysis on motherhood comes from
Vollet and Phoenix in an article Issues related to Motherhood. It is stated that,
“Women’s experiences as mothers, their insider perspectives, are rarely examined.
As a result little is known about how women experience motherhood, how their
experiences differ and the factors that account for differences in experience”
(1993:217).
From Vollet and Phoenix’s quotation, it is known that the study
concerning motherhood based on the women experiences are rarely analyzed
through their own perspective as the doers—as the women or mothers who
experience mothering. So that the analysis of women experience on motherhood is
little to be known.
In Time’s interview (1994), Morrison said that “I felt I represented a whole
world of women who either were silenced or who had never received the
imprimatur of the established literary world....seeing me up there might encourage

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them to write one of those books I’m desperate to read” (Marren,
encyclopedia.com, 1997). Actually, Morrison understands the significance of her
work for female authors. Her purposes to speak “unspoken-able” thoughts and
encourage women not to be silent by telling the stories she felt were never told,
stories about Afro-American girls and women, the racial and social pressures they
faced.
From the other observers, the writer found reference which analyzed
Morrison’s view on Afro-American motherhood. In term of Afro-American
maternal identity and role, Morrison points that Afro-American motherhood is
radically different from the motherhood in dominant culture. Thus, the women’s
experiences as mothers on Afro-American motherhood perspectives are also told
in Morrison’s novel. It is stated by Andrea O’Reilly in Toni Morrison and
Motherhood: A Politic of the Heart as in the following quotation.
Building upon black women’s experiences of, and perspectives on
motherhood, Morrison develops a view of black motherhood that is, in
terms of both maternal identity and role, radically different than the
motherhood practiced and prescribed in the dominant culture (2004: 1)
According to O’Reilly, there are two interrelated themes or perspectives
which distinguish the Afro-American tradition of motherhood: first, mothers and
motherhood are valued by, and central to Afro-American culture. Second, it is
recognized that mothers and mothering are what make possible the physical and
psychological well-being and empowerment of Afro-American people and the
larger Afro-American culture.
Based on all of the description and references are stated above, the writer
intends to conduct a study on Morrison’s Beloved, because the novel tells not only

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about the Afro-American people who lived under the institution of slavery, but
also the motherhood of Afro-American women in 1850s. In this study, the writer
focuses on the motherhood of Afro-American women in 1850s as seen through
the mothers in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background above, the problems are formulated into these
two following questions:
1. How are the Afro-American mothers in Morrison’s Beloved characterized?
2. How is the motherhood of Afro-American women on 1850s reflected through
the mothers in the novel?

C. Objectives of the Study
This study attempts to achieve two main objectives. First, it aims to
describe how the Afro-American mothers in Morrison’s Beloved are
characterized. Second, it identifies the motherhood of Afro-American women in
1850s as reflected through the Afro-American mothers in the novel.

D. Definition of Terms
In analyzing the novel, it is necessary for the writer to highlight certain
terms to provide comprehensive analysis and a clearer explanation in answering
the problem formulation. There are some terms to define:

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1. Motherhood
Andrea O’Reilly in Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A politics of Heart
defines the Afro-American motherhood that refers to “experiences of mothering,
which are female defined and centered” (2004: 80). Referring to the study that
analyzes the motherhood of Afro-American women, motherhood here means the
Afro-American women experiencing mothering who have power to control the
children, and it relates to their role and identity.
2. Afro-American
The definition of Afro-American refers to Black or Negro in America
whose ancestors were primarily from West Africa; “Negro” in 1972 changed to
“Afro-American” (1978: 95). Sterling Stuckey in Slave Culture: Nationalist
theory and the foundations of Black America stated that “Afro-American referred
people of African ancestry in the Americas to the land, history, and culture of
their forebears, while their recognizing their presence as unassimilated people in
America” (1987: 243).

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies
Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a novel that mostly tells about the life
experience of Afro-American slaves. It tells about the struggle of Afro-American
people during the slavery times and its aftermath, its impacts towards them and
how those people survive in their life. Sethe, the main character in the novel, is a
mother who kills her daughter and tries to kill her other three children when her
posse arrives in Ohio to return them to Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky
(Muckley, luminarium.com, 2002).
Beloved is based on the story of the Afro-American slave, Margaret
Garner, who has escaped from slavery in 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a
free state. A posse or slave owner arrived to retrieve her and her children under
the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right to pursue
slaves across state borders. Garner killed her two-year-old daughter rather than
allowed her to be recaptured. Dr. Peter A. Muckley in his essay To Garner
Stories: A Note on Margaret and Sethe in and out of History, and Toni Morrison's
Beloved states,
Levi Coffin, life-long Underground Railroad Man and sometime President
thereof, in his Reminiscences (1876), detailed the case of Margaret
Garner. He there referred to it as the case of slavery which had "aroused
deeper interest and sympathy," than any other. It was the case of Margaret

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Garner, the slave mother who killed her child rather than see it taken back
to slavery (Muckley, luminarium.com, 2002).
From Muckley’s statement above, it is obviously clear that Sethe, a slave
mother, in Morrison’s Beloved is a portrait of Margaret Garner. The fact of
Margaret Garner’s life can be seen through Sethe’s role as a mother in the novel
who kills her child rather than allowing her to be recaptured back to the Sweet
Home plantation by her master or posse.
The next review comes from Laurie Vickroy in her essay The Force
Outside/The Force: Mother-Love and Regenerative Spaces in Sula and Beloved.
She writes that in Morrison’s fiction the intimate love between Black mothers and
their children is infiltrated by oppressive forces (2000: 297). She puts these two
novels as examples of mothers’s passionate love for children that has channeled
into murderous acts as she states, “the conflicted interests of the motherly role are
evident in the many parallels between Eva and Sethe: each is absorbed by forces
beyond her control and each ends up harming her children in trying to protect
them” (2000: 298).
According to Vickroy, Eva Peace’s Sula and Sethe’s Beloved, the mothers
mentioned above, have similar acts toward their children. They killed their
children even they loved them most. In this case, Sethe’s Beloved chooses to kill
her children because she wants to keep her children safe from slavery. The
oppressive force in Beloved refers to slavery system. Thus, Eva’s Sula kills her
son because she wants to end the suffering in her son (drug-addicted Plum) and as
a mother, she has explained to her daughter Hannah that she wants his son die like
a man. These mothers have killed their child because they love them so much, and

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9

they want to keep and protect the child from harm or pain. On the other hands, the
mother’s passionate love in Morrison’s Beloved and Sula has caused their child
died.
Barbara Schapiro in The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni
Morrison’s Beloved states that
For Morrison’s characters, African-Americans in a racist, slave society,
there is no reliable other to recognize and affirm their existence. The
mother child’s first vital other, is made unreliable and available by a slave
system which either separates her from her child or so enervates and
depletes her that she has no self from which to confer recognition. (2000:
155).
From Schapiro’s statement above, it is known that, in Morrison’s Beloved,
Afro-American mothers are separated from her child by slave system. According
to Schapiro, a slave system caused slave mother and children could not recognize
the other, and because of that they could not recognize the self. The children must
be able to recognize her mother as a person in her right in order to recognize
her/his own self. Thus, the mothers also could not recognize their ‘self’, because
they were denied as subject to recognize her child as her own right. Slavery
viewed them as an object and a breeder. So that the mother cannot recognize her
‘self’ from which she is called as 'mother’.
From those related studies above, it is found that they generally discuss the
issues on how slavery affects the relationship between Afro-American mothers
with their children. However, in this study the writer focuses on Afro-American
motherhood in 1850s as seen through the mothers in the novel. This study
analyzes two mothers in Morrison’s Beloved, Sethe Suggs and Baby Suggs.
Unlike the other studies, this study is different because it studies not only about

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Sethe, who is the central character but also Baby Suggs as the elder AfroAmerican mother in the novel.

B. Review of Related Theories
There are two theories employed in this study. The writer uses the theory
of character and characterization and theory of motherhood.
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
This study is carried out under the discipline of English literature.
Therefore, to achieve the objective of the study, the theories of literature are
applied. Abrams’s theory of character and characterization in A Glossary of
Literary Terms is the most relevant theory to the study. Character is defined by
Abrams as follows,
Characters are the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who
are interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral, dispositional,
and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say—the dialog
and what they do—the action (1993: 23).
This theory explains about the definition of character and its meaning in
narrative works. The characterization of the person who is presented in the
narrative works can be seen through his/her dialogues and attitudes.

2. Theory of Motherhood
This study concerns about the Afro-American motherhood and it is aimed
to analyze and to identify the motherhood of Afro-American women in 1850s
reflected through Afro-American mothers. To achieve the aim of the study, the
theories of motherhood by feminist theorist are applied. There are some

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appropriate theories of motherhood written by theorists who concern, observe, and
study motherhood in Afro-American tradition and culture. It is elaborated as
follows:

a. Andrea O’Reilly’s Afro-American Tradition on Motherhood
Drawing upon contemporary womanist thoughts on Afro-American
motherhood, in Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of Heart, Andrea
O’Reilly argues that there are two interrelated themes or perspectives which
distinguish the Afro-American tradition of motherhood: First, mothers and
motherhood are valued by, and central to Afro-American culture. Second, it is
recognized that mothers and mothering are what make possible the physical and
psychological well-being and empowerment of Afro-American people and the
larger Afro-American culture, and she states that,
The focus of black motherhood, in both practice and thought, is how to
preserve, protect, and more generally empower black children so that they
may resist racist practices that seek to harm them and grow into adulthood
whole and complete (2004: 4).
According to O’Reilly, ‘empowerment’ in this text is borrowed from
African Canadian theorists, Wanda Thomas Bernard and Candace. They define
empowerment as “naming, analyzing, and challenging oppression on an
individual, collective, and/or structural level is gaining control, exercising choices,
and engaging in collective social action” (2004: 4).
From O’Reilly’s explanations, it is known that Afro-American culture
gives power to mother. That is why Afro-American mothers use their culture to

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empower their children, which is to preserve and protect them from the harm of
racism.
There are five tasks of the Afro-American tradition of motherhood as
states as follows.
…other-mothering, matrifocality, social activism, providing a home-place,
and cultural bearing, which give mothers, motherhood, and the motherline
power and prominence in Afro-American culture. Mothers from this site of
authority empower their children through the above tasks of AfroAmerican mothering. The children, in turn, secure this empowerment
through connection with their mothers and motherline (2004: 18).
The following is the elaboration of the five tasks above:
i.

Other-Mothering
O’Reilly defines other mothering as “acceptance of responsibility for a
child not one’s own, in arrangement that may or may not be formal” (2000: 5).
The other-mothering is not necessarily based on biological ties. In Afro-American
culture, other-mothers usually care for children and central to Afro-American
community-mothering. Children orphaned by sale or death of their parent under
slavery, children conceived through rape, children born into extreme poverty, or
children who for other reasons cannot remain with their biological mother have all
been supported by other-mothers. Moreover, it is emphasized that other-mothers
or community-mothers are not only in supporting children but also in helping
young mothers who, for whatever reason, lack the preparation or desire for
motherhood. In addition, in confronting racial oppression, maintaining

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community-based child care and respecting other-mothers can serve a critical
function in Afro-American community (Collins, 2000: 180).

ii.

Matrifocality
According to O’Reilly, matrifocal cultures are cultures that emphasize on
women’s mothering and characterized by greater gender equality. It means that
women and men are equal in the family. Matrifocality does not refer to domestic
maternal dominance. It does to the relative prestige of the image of mother, a role
that is culturally valued. Mothers are also structurally central in that mother as a
status “has some degree of control over the kin unit’s economic resources and is
critically involved in kin-related decision making processes” (2000: 9-10). It is
not the absence of males (males may be quite present) but the centrality of women
as mothers and sisters that makes a society matrifocal. This matrifocal emphasis is
accompanied by minimum of differentiation between men and women. It is
because that Afro-American women also as an economic provider and experience
gender equality in the family (2000: 9-10).

iii.

Social Activism
The next task on mothering is social activism. According to O’Reilly,
motherhood as social activism is Afro-American women’s experience as othermothers have provided a foundation for Afro-American women’s social activism.
The purpose of this social activism is to bring people—children and other
vulnerable community members—along to “uplift the race” so that vulnerable

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members of the community will be able to attain the self reliance and
independence essential for resistance (2000: 8).

iv.

Cultural Bearing
According to O’Reilly, Afro-American mothers pass on the teachings of
the motherline to their generation through the maternal function of cultural
bearing. Cultural bearing means socializing children in the values of the AfroAmerican motherline so that a child will develop self-esteem as an Afro-American
person that will enable them to survive and challenge the racism of the dominant
culture (2000: 37). In this cultural bearing function, mothers, by way of
storytelling, song, or soliloquies, impart important life lessons about strength,
courage, and pride in Afro-American heritage that enable children to refuse the
controlling image of “blackness” put forward by the dominant culture. It is
believed if black children want to be able to survive, they must know the stories,
legends, and myths of their ancestors.
From this cultural bearing, the mother-daughter relationship of AfroAmerican is one fundamental relationship among Afro-American mothering.
Afro-American mothers pass on the torch to their daughters, who are expected to
become the next generation of mothers, grandmothers, or other-mothers, to guard
future generation. These daughters, who are connected with their mothers and
motherline (awareness of heritage), develop a strong and proud identity as AfroAmerican women and secure empowerment (2000: 11-12).

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v.

Providing a Home-Place
Later on, the other task on mothering is providing a home-place. O’Reilly
defines the Afro-American family’s home-place operates a site of resistance. She
explains that
Historically, Afro-American people believed that the construction of a
home place, however fragile and tenuous (the slave hut, the wooden
shack), had a radical political dimension. Despite the brutal reality of
racial apartheid, of domination, one’s home place was one site where one
could freely confront the issue of humanization, where one could resist
(2000: 10).
Based on the quotation above, the political dimension of Afro-American
home-place emphasizes on home place that refers to a safe place where AfroAmerican people can affirm one another and by so healing many of the wounds
that are inflicted by racist domination; that is, a place where they have the
opportunity to grow and develop, to nurture their spirit. It is at home that children
learn how to identify and challenge racist practices, and it is at home that children
learn of their heritage and community (2000: 10-11).

b. Morrison’s Conception of Afro-American Womanhood and Motherwork
Morrison takes the traditional conception of Afro-American womanhood
and calls it as “ancient properties”. It is the way of traditional Afro-American
womanhood. She points out that “it is that freedom is choosing your
responsibility,” (2004: 20). She elaborates that one of the characteristics of AfroAmerican women’s experiences is that they do not have to choose between a
career and a home. They do both.

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In an Essence interview with Judith Wilson (1981), Morrison explains
Afro-American women as “the ancient properties” which, for her, means the
ability to be “the ship” and the “safe harbor” as she states in the following
quotation,
Our history as Afro-American women is the history of women who could
build a house and have some children and there was no problem. What we
have known is how to be complete human beings…to lose that is to
diminish ourselves unnecessarily. It is not a question, it’s not a conflict.
You don’t have to give up anything. You choose your responsibilities
(O’Reilly, 2004: 20).
Further, Morrison points that an Afro-American woman who understands
her past is a woman in her words who is a healer and understands plants and
stones and yet they live in the world. It is a quality that normally one associates
with an Afro-American mammy: “a mother who could nurse; she could heal; she
could chop wood; she could do all those things; everything that were wonderful
about them” (2004: 21).
Regarding the significance of the ancestral for Afro-American people,
Morrison states that “[Grandparent and ancestors are] DNA, it’s where you get
information, your cultural information. Also it’s your protection, it’s your
education. They were responsible for us, and we have to be responsible to them”
(2004: 36). She points that if Afro-American people ignore their ancestors, they
put themselves in a spiritually dangerous position of being self-sufficient, having
no group that they are dependent on.

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c. Marci Bounds Littlefield’s Afro-American Motherhood
In The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.2, no.01, November 2007, Marci
Bounds Littlefield in her essay Black Women, Mothering, and Protest in Ninetieth

Century American Society stated that in the antebellum era, motherhood for AfroAmerican women was survival. Afro-American women had children, set up
households, nursed and cared for their children, and formed communities. As
mothers, Afro-American women loved their children and cared for them in spite of
the multiple tasks they performed. The bond between mother and child was strong,
and slave women often took extreme measures to care for their children. Slave
women were very protective of their children despite the harsh reality of slavery
(Littlefield, www.jpanafrican.com, 2007: 57).
According to Marci Bound Littlefield, Afro-American women displayed an
amazing amount of courage when they initiated resistance to slave society. Resistance
took many forms, ranging from covert to overt acts, the latter of which included
learning to read and teaching their offspring to have dignity and pride. AfroAmerican women often responded to slavery by engaging in various forms of protest:
participating in revolts, committing arson, running away, poisoning owners, and
refusing to accept sexual exploitation, abortion and infanticide. Even infanticide,
which is represented as one of the most extreme forms of resistance, is a prime
example of Afro-American women’s unwillingness to participate in increasing the
slave work force (Littlefield, www.jpanafrican.com, 2007: 58).
Further, Littlefield explains that “these acts of protest represent another aspect
of motherhood that cannot be ignored: Afro-American women loved their children,

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which helps to explain why abortion or infanticide was even considered in the context
of motherhood” (2007: 58). She points that the extreme system of exploitation has
shaped how Afro-American women experiencing motherhood. While Afro-American
women were courageous in resisting slavery, these acts (abortion or infanticide) could
not supplant the impact of being born into bondage and forced to reproduce and
supply the slave work force. Nevertheless, Afro-American women also chose to resist
oppression by teaching their children values and promoting education in the hope that
one day, their children would live in a slave-free society.
Motherhood is the most consistent part of the life of a slave child, though it
may have been temporary. The values, lessons, and tradition passed on by mothers
shaped Afro-American family life. Since the condition of Afro-American people’s
lives in America did not allow them to be passive or submissive, Afro-American
women had to develop strength rather than glory and fragility, and had to be active
and assertive rather than passive and submissive (Littlefield, www.jpanafrican.com,
2007: 59).

C. Theoretical Framework
Theoretically, the reviews of related theories are applied to solve the
problem of the study. First, the theory of character and characterization are used to
find the characteristic descriptions and the physical and mental traits that AfroAmerican mothers have. Second, theory of motherhood is used to identify the
motherhood of Afro-American women in 1850s as seen through the character of
Afro-American mothers in the novel. Third, the reviews of related studies are
applied in this study as other references done by other researcher and writers.

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These selected reviews which are related in this study are used to find out other
references on understanding the topic in this study. Thus, the socio-culturalhistorical approach is used to help the writer to analyze the subject matter or topic
in this study.

D. Review on Afro-American Women under Slavery in 1850s
In enslavement, keeping marriage and family together was a great
struggle for many slaves. The system of slavery had no respect for African family.
Slave owners could sell a child or parent or spouse whenever the price was right.
Even slavery was abolished in 1830s, but prior World War I the chattel practice
and racist culture still existed at that time. This system made vulnerability to
women and children as Howard Doodson stated in Jubilee: The Emergence of
African-American Culture that, “Women and teenage girls were especially
vulnerable. Threats to sell mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters
or other family members and friends made enslaved women prone to untoward
sexual pressures to influence or stop the sale of a family member” (2002: 119).
The majority of the Afro-American were caught in harsh and destructive
systems. In many southern states, it was against the law to teach slaves to read and
write. Slaves could not own property or marry one whom they chose. They live in
a constant knowledge that members of their families might be sold (Evans, 1984:
428-429). To make it worst, since breeding and raping became the two principal
forms of sexual abuse and brutality that all of slaves suffered, especially the
women. The practice of discrimination for slave women not only were

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discriminated caused by her race but also in their sex (Harley and Terborn-Penn,
1978: 30).
Moreover, it was such a breeder pattern in enslavement that forced AfroAmerican women had to give birth the children with many men: Afro-American
or Whites. For the young Afro-American women, many of them became mothers
before entering into long-term relationship or marriages with men who were not
always the fathers. Moreover, a number of women were imported to increase the
slave population. Hine and Thompson in A Shining Thread of Hope: A History of
lack Women in America stated that “A slave girl was expected to have children as
soon as she became a woman. Some of them had children at the age of twelve and
thirteen-years-old,” (1998: 80).

Jones, Jr. in her essay In Search of Freedom: Slave Live and Culture in the
Anthebellum South edited by William R. Scott and William G. Shade stated that,
According to the 1850 census, almost half of all slaves during the final
decade before Emancipation, were 14 years old or younger. They—like
the slave youth before them—learned their most lasting and important
lesson from a network of blood-related and fictive kin. They were taught
wherever these Afro-American elders could eke out some autonomy.
That place usually was in the slave quarters after they had completed the
work of others (2005: 84).
From the quotation above, it is known that the woman slaves performed
multiple roles. They worked as both field hands and domestic servants; they
required to have children, and they attempted to care for their families and
children in the slave quarter after all their other works were finished.
It was found that racism was crucial to the cultural process of AfroAmericans especially Afro-American women because continuing racist social

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structure had served to fix rather than to erase the distinctive experience of the
past. The direct and indirect struggled against racism were the cores of the history
of Afro-Americans. Afro-Americans adapted to racial bias by developing and
controlling their own social institutions: churches, schools, and family networks
(Szwed, 1973: 49).
In 1850s, it was widespread Black churches in Northern cities such as
African Methodist churches, AME congregation, Baptist churches (Scott, 2005:
93). Those churches were held as protest toward slavery and race discriminations
by Whites churches. It was found that the Afro-American spirituals were the
invisible church. The preachers were informal preacher. The invisible church
among the slaves set a pattern of worship to provide maximum opportunities for
the generation of race pride, protest, leadership, and creativity among its
members. Slave preacher created and developed such sermons were often
delivered great power. The Afro-American spiritual functioned to satisfy several
needs: protest and faith in God, a protest to against the oppressions AfroAmerican experienced (Thompson, 1974: 135).
Beloved took the setting in the mid ninetieth century, around 1830s - 1875.
Thus, in 1850s there was a passage the Fugitive Slave Act 1850 that Southern
slave owner from the North protect their “peculiar institutions” that called
slavery. It was a new law provided that escaped slaves had to be returned to the
South with a minimum of legal processing, and with stiff penalties for
Northerners who had aided them. In African-American: Voices of Triumph,
edited by Time Life Books observed that under this law many slaves recaptured

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and sent into slavery, and freed Afro-Americans, too, were captured and sent to
the South with no legal right to plead their cases, they were completely
defenseless (2000: 40).
In Slave Narratives, edited by William L. Andrews and Henry Louis
Gates, the