In Alice Walkers essay, "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens", the question of what it is meant to be a black women and an artist is discussed. Walker defends past generations of black women by saying that many of them had great talent that went unnoticed due to their rank in society. These women were abused, forced to bear dozens of children and work from dawn until dusk on the fields. In the first paragraph of the essay she quotes Jean Toomers poem about how spiritual and creative these "crazy, loony, pitiful women" truly were. She builds her argument by bringing up examples of talented black women that were not identified until they passed away. "Our mothers and Grandmothers, some of them: moving to music not yet written. And they waited. They waited for the day when the unknown that was in them would be made known: but guessed, somehow in their darkness, that on day of their revelation they would be long dead." This quote from the essay expresses how these women knew they were gifted but were forbidden to prove themselves to the world. They knew their gift would eventually be exposed, weather by hidden poetry, drawings on the walls or even the stories they told to their daughters. Walker talks about Phillis Wheatley who " had she been white, would have been easily considered the intellectual superior of all the women and most of the men in society of her day." Another example Walker uses is the "anonymous black women in Alabama" whose quilt portraying the story of the Crucifixion is hanging in the Smithsonian. This women was obviously extremely talented and eager to express herself through any material she could find. She also uses examples of famous talented black women who succeeded in getting their abilities known, artists such as Lucy Terry, Francis Harper, Zora Hurtston and Bessie Smith. The author is appealing to all audiences, she is representing all past generations of black women, black women whose talent had gon...