Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 3, 2023 May 27, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
“A man ain’t nothing but a man,” said Baby Suggs. “But a son? Well now, that’s
somebody .”
With these words, Baby Suggs underscores the importance of family relationships among slaves. Because slaves are moved around like checkers, most families are broken up. Having a son implies that mother and child are able to spend enough time together to form a bond. Baby Suggs had eight children but only Halle was allowed to stay with her, so raising him and spending time with him provided her only true maternal experience.
She wished for Baby Suggs’ fingers molding her nape, reshaping it, saying, “Lay em down, Sethe. Sword and shield. Down. Down. Both of em down. Down by the riverside. Sword and shield. Don’t study war no more. Lay all that mess down. Sword and shield.”
Sethe recalls how Baby Suggs, singing a Negro spiritual, took care of her when she arrived at 124. This memory leads the reader to more fully understand what a compassionate and wise person Baby Suggs is. Baby Suggs possesses the ability to physically care for others, healing their bodies, and at the same tend to their mental and emotional needs.
Who decided that, because slave life had “busted her legs, back, head, eyes, hands, kidneys, womb, and tongue,” she had nothing left to make a living with but her heart—which she put to work at once. Accepting no title of honor before her name, but allowing a small caress after it, she became an unchurched preacher, one who visited pulpits and opened her great heart to those who could use it.
The narrator describes how and why Baby Suggs becomes a preacher after she reaches freedom in Ohio. Her body has been worn out by slavery but her heart, despite losing all eight of her children, still has a seemingly limitless capacity for love. Her holy doctrine is teaching others to love themselves and cherish their bodies. While this message seems simple, it resonates for a group of people who have been used for their bodies.
“Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,” she said, “and broke my heartstrings too. There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks.”
On the day schoolteacher comes to 124, Baby Suggs expresses the damage white people caused in her and her people’s lives. His return marks the beginning of Baby Suggs’ surrender to the heartache of her life. Baby Suggs had left slavery behind but white people still came after her to take her family and whatever peace of mind she had. Schoolteacher’s return also destroys faith in her community because her neighbors fail to warn her.
The heart that pumped out love, the mouth that spoke the Word, didn’t count. They came in her yard anyway and she could not approve or condemn Sethe’s rough choice. One or the other might have saved her, but beaten up by the claims of both, she went to bed.
Here, the narrator explains that, after Sethe attacks her own children, Baby Suggs can find no peace. She is torn between supporting Sethe’s actions in keeping her children from becoming slaves and chastising Sethe for killing the baby. Baby Suggs is torn apart by her conflicting impulses and loyalties. As Baby Suggs’ heart is big enough to see both sides, she fails to resolve her conflict. She decides to give up trying instead.
Please wait while we process your payment