Filling In Blanks - A Response and Reflection by Madison Schmidt

From a young age, I have been aware of the terrible mark slavery has made on American history. In school, I was taught about the terrible divide that was present between races and learned about disturbing way African American people were belittled entirely as human beings. However I was not taught exactly to what extent this was true. Through learning about Sethe's experience as a slave, and a female in the 19th century via her horrifying memories from Sweet Home, I have taken away a lot about what it meant to be a women during the era of slavery in our country.

The traumatic experiences described by Sethe in terms of her physical, sexual, and emotional treatment while living on the plantation are uncomfortable, to say the least. While reading the first hundred pages of Beloved, many moments have made me cringe. The most terrifying part of this, is that these are things that real people endured for generations and generations. The treatment of slaves during this era extended far beyond disrespect, and lingered in an intense zone of dehumanization. For women, this was often sexual. They were used as objects, and expected to submit to a man's sexual fantasies and desires, as Sethe describes in her traumatizing flashbacks. They were put in situations where saying "no" would mean digging themselves into a deeper hole, and possibly risking their life altogether. This is what teachers previously failed to disclose about the era, likely because of just how uncomfortable to truth really is. 

In a time where women were women are perceived as inferior to males to begin with, the role women in a state of servitude is just that much more pathetically insignificant.

It is hard to compare the treatment of women during the era of servitude to today's society, however there are some things that I am able to draw parallels between. Today, as a female, I feel the pressures to be a certain way - dainty, sensitive, compliant. I am aware of the inequality that still prevails. The thought of having to endure this, in addition to living in a state of servitude under a group of people who do not even acknowledge my humanity is what is horrifyingly unimaginable. As women now, we are fighting for equality. Women then were fighting to simply survive.