Gold Chain

In chapter fourteen, we learn that Linda has had yet another baby. Linda’s grandmother wants Linda’s children to be baptized, but Linda knows that Dr. Flint would not like that idea. One Sunday, when Linda learns that Dr. Flint has to go out of town to visit a patient, Linda’s grandmother realizes that it is the perfect time to have the children baptized. When Linda was leaving the church, her father’s old mistress came up to her and placed a gold chain around her baby’s neck. Although it seems like a nice gift, Linda did not like it. To Linda, the gold chain resembled slavery, and Linda did not ever want her child to “feel the weight of slavery’s chain, whose iron entereth into the soul!” This sounds like an unusual statement because the gold chain seems like a genuine gift. However, Linda has been in slavery her whole life, and she does not want her child to endure slavery as well.