Another Link to Life
- Things haven't really improved. Linda is still living with her grandmother, since Mrs. Flint threatened to kill her if she came back to the main house, and Dr. Flint is still harassing Linda and threatening to sell her child.
- This chapter is full of fun little incidents, like one day Dr. Flint throws Linda down the stairs.
- And then he cuts off all her hair when she gets pregnant again at the ripe old age of nineteen.
- Linda's new baby is a girl. This is a huge bummer for Linda, since slavery is bad but being an enslaved woman is even worse.
- One day when Dr. Flint is out of town visiting a patient, Aunt Martha and Linda take her two children to get baptized.
- During the baptism, Linda’s father’s old mistress steps up and says that she can give the new baby, the little girl, her Christian name.
- Linda accepts (we get the impression that this is more of an order than an offer), and adds her father’s last name.
- Of course, that name wasn’t really his, since his paternal grandfather was white.
- Linda isn't thrilled about giving a white man's name to her children, but she has to name them something.
- After the baptism, Linda’s father’s old mistress puts a gold chain around the newborn’s neck.
- Great! A teeny, tiny symbol of slavery.