Defining the black mother in Maya Angelou's autobiographical works i know why the caged bird sings and the heart of a woman?

Black Women Autobiographies were expanded in the early 1960?s as a subgenre of Black Autobiography. The Civil Rights Movement and Woman?s Movement emerged in 1960?s also accelerated the black woman?s activism. The black women having the opportunity to dispose of their prejudiced image could express themselves by the help of autobiography.Maya Angelou is a significant writer who has given works in Black American Women Autobiography. Angelou mirrors the lives of black women taking into consideration of her own life. Black mother plays an integrating role in her serious of autobiography. This study attempts to examine the black motherhood concept and explicate the black mother figures in her autobiographies I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman. The historical evolution of black mothers from slavery to freedom, and the definitions of black motherhood by African American writers will be also examined in order to understand Angelou?s attitude toward motherhood. Angelou presents the dominant mother figures around and then she shares her personal experiences of motherhood after the birth of her son.In this study, women-men relationships, the changing balances in marriage, alternative mother figures, and mother-child relationship will be covered to help to define the black motherhood. The voices, the slave songs and stories Angelou used in her autobiographies also reflect her African American point of view. The fact that she includes some political events from history and famous people from real life contribute her autobiographies to be very much like real life.