In Chapter III, Why does Jacobs take special care to emphasize the “mother’s instincts” and “mother’s agonies” (p. 17) of the slave women to her white audience?

Depending upon the owner, slaves were sometimes seen as less than human. When mothers were sold, their children were often left behind. Motherless children and mothers with no one to love. Jacob's hoped to spark an emotion..... the "mother" in all women and wake them to the atrocity of being torn away from a child.