Negotiating Black Motherhood in Toni Morrison's Beloved and a Mercy: Reading the Slave / Neo- Slave Narratives

An attempt to explore the negative aspect of black motherhood in slave and neo- slave narratives, the book concentrates on Toni Morrison?s Beloved (1987) and A Mercy (2008). In order to free their children from the clutches of the ?demon? slavery slave mothers showed a negative attitude towards motherhood; some of them even killed their own children. This indicates a duality of selves in them resulting in ambiguity regarding their motherhood. Sethe in Beloved and Florens? mother in A Mercy are such slave mothers projecting this ambivalent nature. They act as protectors and at the same time as destroyers. In both ways, we see resistance on the part of the mothers towards their masters. They act against the institution through their denial of black lives although standing on an ambiguous position as mothers. However, this aspect is to be observed in the context of the ante- bellum era, dominated by the inhuman system of slavery which indeed is to be blamed for such a negative turn in the black mothers.