Latrice Thomas
Dr. Regina Jennings
Women Writers in Black Literature
Fall 2014
December 2, 2014
Love, Loss and Sacrifice During the 1800’s, Dessa was a Black, enslaved, pregnant woman who lived on the plantation, and she experienced love, loss and sacrifice, which I will discuss in this paper. At this time, enslavement was a part of her everyday life. Her life of being bought and sold to a slave master was dehumanizing as a woman. She had struggles on this planation that came in many different forms dealing with Miz Rufel. She found love in her child that she gave birth to, she lost her since of womanhood as a mother, and she sacrificed her feelings to keep herself alive. This fictional tale of Dessa’s life brought out many struggles that women had to deal with on the plantation in history. Dessa’s struggles on the plantation were harsh, but she was able to find love. A mother giving birth to her child is an experience of love that only she shares with her child. During slavery women were expected to have children at the age of twelve and thirteen when they started their menstrual cycles. Since the rapid death of slaves, women were to have children to make up for the lost. Some women were advertised as “good breeding stock” meaning that they were good for having many children. This was a business that kept the masters pockets fat. This child would then grow up to take on the labor and have their lives subjected to slavery. Some children were kidnapped and some were
