Linda, the protagonist of Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Sethe the protagonist of Morrisons Beloved both experienced the intersecting cultural myths of motherhood and blackness that shaped them into who they are. Black women were ultimately viewed as inferior and unfit to be mothers by society at the time, which led to their end of the social hierarchy. However, despite the chains society has placed on them, Linda and Sethe were able to break off the chains of slavery and the ideologies of motherhood that plagues the stigma of how women and mothers are treated through maternal acts.
Linda had a problematic experience as at the time she was a slave. She was forced to have children by her slave master, Dr.Flint, who wanted to control every aspect of a slave's life. Linda was not unaware that her children were like her, a slave, and since they were born into this oppressive system, she knew she had to do whatever it took to protect them from a dehumanizing future as a slave. The way Linda resisted the cultural
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Although they both fought against these ideologies, their resistance took different forms as both sought freedom, and each used their own strengths to their advantage. Despite the lasting trauma they endured from the complexities of slavery, they refused to accept limited notions of motherhood and womanhood for black women during their time. Linda refused to be controlled by her master and the patriarchal reigns he had on her but also broke the definition she was defined as an immoral cattle made to breed more children. Sethe as well as the love of her children used that power to break down walls with the strength she gathered to challenge the myths she was against. Both women suffered to reveal the hardships black female slaves