African-American Authors Phillis Wheatley, Harriet E. Wilson and Octavia E. Butler Explore Sentimentality and Womanhood in the Pursuit of Freedom

Phillis Wheatley, Harriet E. Wilson and Octavia E. Butler each demonstrate issues of sentimentality and womanhood that separate the literary traditions of black women from their male counterparts. These themes discussed in Wheatley's collection of poems, Wilson's Our Nig and Butler's Kindred highlight the social injustice and oppression that their African-American protagonists endure. These issues are important to consider because all three authors use sentimentality and womanhood to convey the human desire for freedom.

In each of their literary accounts, Wheatley, Wilson, and Butler provide a strong sense of sentimentality to illuminate the injustice of slavery and ultimately reveal the struggle to attain freedom in the United States. Mary Helen Washington explains in her essay "The Darkened Eye Restored" that African-American women authors were often criticized for their sentimental depiction of racial intolerance.

In particular, black literary critics claimed that the works of Linda Brent, Harriet Jacobs, and Zora Neale Hurston were not representative of the slave experience. Rather, many believed that these female authors crafted slave narratives that exaggerated the hardships of African Americans, focusing on the emotions that stemmed from miscegenation, rape, and violence.

Washington characterizes the literature produced by these African-American women: "Their literature is about black women; it takes the trouble to record the thoughts, words, feelings, and deeds of black women, experiences that make the realities of being black in American look very different from what men have written."

Along with these attributes, the emphasis on close friendships among African-American women further suggests this notion of sentimentality. These interactions showed African-American women sharing their intimacies with each other. Thus, the focus on human emotion and female friendships contribute to the sentimental depiction of slave life that epitomizes the work of Wheatley, Wilson, and Butler.

Coming to the United States as an African slave, Phillis Wheatley presents emotional scenes of social injustice in her poetry to express her own desire for emancipation and American freedom. Her address "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Darmouth…" reveals this longing for racial liberation.

She reflects on the pain and anguish from her early days in captivity: "I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate/ Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:/ What pangs excruciating must molest,/ What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?"

By using the words "cruel" and "sorrows," Wheatley indicates a sentimental attitude in describing her trip to America as a young black slave. These particular words present a morose and dismal tone to her reader about the harsh and cruel realities of slave life.

Furthermore, she continues her emotional explanation against tyranny in America: "Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd/ That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:/ Such, such my case. And can I then but pray/ Others may never feel tyrannic sway?"

Wheatley ironically empathizes with those seeking freedom even though she is still a slave. Her work conveys not only the physical pain that she has to endure, but also the loss of her homeland and family-how slavery has jeopardized the heritage and identity of African Americans. The poetry of Phillis Wheatley delineates this emotional impact that slavery had on African Americans as she struggled to enjoy the same freedoms that whites held.

In Our Nig, Harriet E. Wilson illustrates the antagonism and alienation African Americans experience in acquiring freedom as a method for constructing her sentimental novel. Although the protagonist, Frado, is a free slave, Wilson portrays her living under the strict rule of Mrs. Bellmont and her daughter Mary.

The author evokes such sentiment when Aunt Abby overhears Frado crying in the barn about her life as an African American: "'Why was I made? Why can't I die? Oh, what have I to live for? No one cares for me only to get my work. And I feel sick; who cares for that? Work as long as I can stand, and then fall down and lay there till I can get up. No mother, father, brother or sister to care for me, and then it is, You lazy nigger, lazy nigger-all because I am black! Oh, if I could die!'"

Frado can no longer sustain the punishment and brutality from her white family as she begins to question her faith in God. The reader sympathizes with Frado for the abuse that she receives and her inability to achieve freedom from Mrs. Bellmont. Continuous beatings of Frado further develop this emotional impulse within the novel.

For example, Frado's weeping for the death of James causes her mistress to whip her: "Her mistress grasping her raw-hide, caused a longer flow of tears, and wounded a spirit that was craving healing mercies."

Again, the author offers this scene to show the feelings and thoughts of African-American women as a result of such maltreatment. Along with this violence, the relationship that Frado establishes with Aunt Abby provides another aspect of sentimentality to Wilson's novel. Aunt Abby becomes a mentor and shield for Frado as she tries to assimilate into white society. Thus, bloodshed and female friendships become Wilson's source of sentimentality for Our Nig to demonstrate the dejection that African Americans had for their lack of free will.

Octavia E. Butler's novel Kindred adopts the genre of science fiction to depict the struggles of slave life in the 1800s. Like Wilson's novel, Butler incorporates sentimentality through her illustrations of racial oppression and inequality to show Blacks aspiring for freedom.

Early in the novel, this emotion becomes evident when Mr. Weylin beats Dana after catching her reading to Nigel: "I never saw where the whip came from, never even saw the first blow coming. But it came-like a hot iron across my back, burning into me through my light shirts, searing my skin...I screamed, convulsed."

This torture that Dana must bear promotes a sense of despair and incompetence that slaves felt during this period in history; racial prejudice and affliction generate Dana's longing for personal freedom.

Later, when Dana is caught after attempting to escape from the plantation, Mr. Weylin whips her profusely: "He beat me until I tried to make myself believe he was going to kill me. I said it aloud, screamed it, and the blows seemed to emphasize my words. He would kill me. Surely, he would kill me if I didn't get away, save myself, go home!"

Butler's realistic description of slavery provokes the reader to have compassion for Dana, who is unable to resist the violence from her white master.

Womanhood is another element implemented by Wheatley, Wilson, and Butler to convey the African-American hope of escaping racial intolerance and persecution. Washington clarifies in her other essay "The Slave Women's Voice" that African-American women use their literature to show the transformation from slavehood to womanhood. Rather than simply victims of white supremacy, these slave women overcome their petty state in society through both acts of motherhood and resistance.

Similarly, Wheatley reveals her womanhood in her statement "To the University of Cambridge in New-England," offering advice to an assemblage of white students from the North.

She explains to them: "Improve your privileges while they stay,/ Ye pupils, and each hour redeem, that bears/ Or good or bad report of you to heav'n."

Wheatley envies the freedom that her audience possesses, directing them to take advantage of their privileged position in American society. She represents her state as a woman by teaching these young citizens that they must cherish their human rights and liberties-she hopes that this motherly guidance will later help her attain her own freedom in the United States.

Moreover, "To Maecenas" features the concept of womanhood as Wheatley initially doubts her ability to find the inspiration to write poetry. However, she realizes in the end that her poetry is worthy of praise from the Greek goddesses of literature and art. Wheatley indicates her maturity as a woman in overcoming her doubt to produce poetry of such virtue.

In Wilson's autobiographical depiction of slave life, Frado gradually displays her new sense of womanhood by resisting the violence and maltreatment from her white overseer. Although Frado is constantly subject to verbal and physical abuse from Mrs. Bellmont and Mary, Wilson demonstrates an emergence of womanhood in her protagonist toward the end of the novel.

Specifically, the author conveys Frado's new identity as an African-American woman after refusing to accept another beating from her mistress: "She remembered her victory at the wood-pile. She decided to remain to do as well as she could; to assert her rights when they were trampled on; to return once more to her meeting in the evening, which had been prohibited. She had learned how to conquer…"

Frado exposes her bravery and confidence in resisting another attack from Mrs. Bellmont and threatening to never work for her again.

Soon after, Wilson states the progression that Frado undergoes from a young girl to a grown woman: "Frado had merged into womanhood, and, retaining what she and learned, in spite of the few privileges enjoyed formerly, was striving to enrich her mind."

Consequently, Frado's evolution as an African-American woman signifies her desire for freedom after being unjustifiably punished throughout her childhood.

Like Frado, Dana in Butler's Kindred takes strides into womanhood that represent her resistance to racial injustice and her pursuit of American freedom. When Dana is sent back in time to the 1800s, she develops a close friendship with her distant ancestor, Rufus. After saving his life on multiple occasions, the young boy soon becomes her trusted, protective friend on the plantation. Dana becomes Rufus' source of motherhood as she continues to provide him with comfort and education on a daily basis-this new sense of affection had not been a part of her life in 1976.

Toward the end of the novel, Butler describes this relationship between Dana and Rufus: "He loved me...He didn't seem to want to sleep with me. But he wanted me around-someone to talk to, someone who would listen to him and care what he said, care about him. And I did."

Butler reveals the obsession that Rufus has for Dana as he can no longer let go of her when Kevin returns. Moreover, Dana's attempt to escape from the plantation demonstrates her courage to escape slavery and her ultimate desire to attain freedom from Mr. Weylin. This act of resistance portrays Dana as a strong, active African-American woman no longer willing to suffer the pain and sorrow of slavery.

Phillis Wheatley, Harriet E. Wilson, and Octavia E. Butler incorporate themes of sentimentality and womanhood on several occasions that distinguish them from African-American male authors. This focus on human emotions and acts of resistance emphasizes the psychological and physical effects that slavery had on African-American women.

More importantly, sentimentality and womanhood proved to be a primary instrument for these female authors in illustrating the human desire for freedom.