This quote illustrates mother Africa being rapped of her children (Africans). This can be looked at Africa losing her motherhood.
Motherhood is mal shaped by the horrors of slavery bestowed upon people. Sethe's mother was "taken up many times by the crew. She threw all away but. . Without names, she threw them'- (59?). How can a mother think a lot of children whose faces resemble those who rape and enslave her? How can agreement exist in a world where "men and women were moved around like checkers-? (22). This distortion is expressed by what Baby Suggs calls the "nastiness of life."" This nastiness was the discovery that, "nobody stopped playing checkers just because the pieces included her children- (22).
By disrupting ideals of a family, and denying independence, slavery invoked a loss of self within blacks both slave and free. therefore, this loss of identity ruined the experience of motherhood as an natural and expression of love. One cannot love their children when they cannot love themselves, and, one cannot love themselves when they cannot know themselves. The Loss of identity resulting in motherhood-corruption is expressed by Baby Suggs, Sethe, and Denver. .
Baby Suggs said that by the time Halle was born, she barely even looked at him because, "it wasn't worth the trouble to try to learn features you would never see change into adulthood anyway- (131?). additional she said that regardless of how little she knew about her children, she knew even less about her self. These are the ramifications of slavery that has deprived Baby Suggs of her motherhood and her identity. .
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Furthermore, Sethe's loss of self fostered Denver's inability to acquire autonomy. Denver cried when Beloved disappeared in the cold house. However, Denver was not crying because Beloved disappeared, per se. Denver stated that, "she is crying because she has no self- (116).
