Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Lesson Plan

Consider the passage on page 107 that begins “I feared the sight of my children would be” and ends “and turned away.” What distinctions does Linda draw between the sexes in their roles as parents? How do these gender roles relate to her understanding of slavery?

Linda argues that although Mr. Sands may well feel some tenderness for his children, they will never mean as much to him as they do to their mother. When she makes this distinction, she refers to her “womanly” heart, thus encouraging a more broad generalization on the subject. Her sense that her motherly affection is more all-encompassing coheres with her fears about the way white men are prone to neglect the...