One moment is the play Black Mother Lost Daughter that made me think of something that happened in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is when the mother thought that Queen ran away from the house but at that time she was hiding in the roof. This made me think of Linda in the “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” when people thought that she ran away to the North but she was hiding in the garret above her grandmother’s house. Queen and Linda both have something they wanted to escape from life. It was the only option they had to get a sense of freedom.
When they ran away, it affected the lives of their family and the loved once. Something I find interesting is how the family members reacted when they came back. When Linda was in the Garret she had her children who missed her deeply. In the “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” Linda came to see her daughter Ellen. Linda says, “She drew back a little, and looked at me; then, with sweet confidence, she laid her cheek against mine, and I folded her to the heart that had been so long desolated. She was the first to speak. Raising her head, she said, inquiringly, “You really are my mother?”…………With a sob in her voice, she said, “I’m glad you’ve come to see me,” (XXVII. New destination for the children, Harriet Jacobs). From the reaction of Linda’s daughter Ellen, we see the love she has for her mother. She is so happy to see her mother. During the time when her mother was away from her, she wanted so much to see her. Now she is here with her and she is really happy. This moment that mother and daughter shared together was so precious.
In the play Black Mother Lost daughter when Queen left, her mother was sad. She was going insane when she couldn’t find Queen anywhere. She was filled with guilt for not stopping her daughter from leaving. Why didn’t she hold her and stop her? When Queen came back to her with a sob in her voice “you don’t even care about me,” she didn’t say anything or do anything. She didn’t run to her, show any happiness that she came back, or say sorry. Instead she just asked her “you want some pancakes?” Later in the story we learned that the mother mistook Princess with Queen. Princess told her that it was she who was there that day and not Queen. At the very end of the play Princess was having a conversation with her mother from the rooftop. Instead of being there for her daughter and giving support to her she just asked the same thing once again if she wanted any pancakes.
The mother’s reaction to Queen coming back was different from how Ellen reacted when Linda came back. In conclusion, we can see different types of relationships between Mother and Daughter in Black mother Lost daughter and the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Jacobs, Harriet. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” The Project Gutenberg eBook of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861, gutenberg.org/files/11030/11030-h/11030-h.htm#link2H_4_0005.
