How is freedom defined in the novel by men? How is it defined by women?

Ben Daisy tells Libertie that his girlfriend "said if she were ever free, she'd spend all day covered in silk and she'd paint her face pretty ... She knew what she would do with freedom. It wasn't man's work she'd do with freedom. Not like your mama. She knew better than that." And Emmanuel Chase also has a specific definition of freedom in relation to women. How is freedom defined in the novel by men? How is it defined by women?

In the beginning, Emmanuel told Libertie all about his plan for a new better world back in Haiti. This new free world would be for both of them and they would build it together. In reality,he went on with his life as before and was FREE to do almost anything he chose. After his father’s passing, perhaps he truly could be free. Libertie, as many women of that time, were as free as their male counterparts would allow. Whether it’s a father, husband, or brother, women were expected to take care of them, children, or any family members in need. They could go to the market, cook clean also. They were free to dream. Even Libertie’s mother wasn’t truly free because she still was a Black woman who had restrictions in her job.

Emmanuel Chase said, “None of us will ever triumph until we are completely free.” “It (freedom) means that we are wholly in charge of our own destiny.”

Libertie naively believed that Freedom was a place. “I imagined that when I died and made it to Freedom, whenever that would be, I would have to spend eternity very politely pretending to like these lectures as much as Mama and Father did.”

Cathy views freedom not only free from the physical effects of slavery but freedom from the psychological effects. She remarked “We have in our midst, a group of men, and a few women, who, upon discovering our community and life here in freedom, find their souls oppressed. Their bodies are here with us in emancipation, but their minds are not free. Their spirits have not recovered from the degradation of enslavement, despite the many hardships and privations they have suffered to come here.”

I completely agree with Rosemarys! Very well stated!!

I completely agree with Cassandraw and Rosemarys statements.
Freedom was envisioned differently for all the characters and was varied by location, skin color, race and gender. For example Liberties mother had race and gender barriers but her skin color allowed more freedom and she took advantage of this to exercise the freedom to help her community in the medical field. While Emmanuel had the the concept of chiding one’s own destiny as freedom in truth he did not practice it in his own family.
I believe Ti Me used subversive resistance to control things in the household as her personal freedom of independence.