Quote 1
In Lillian Garner's house, exempted from the field work that broke her hip and the exhaustion that drugged her mind; in Lillian Garner's house where nobody knocked her down (or up), she listened to the white woman humming at her work; watched her face light up when Mr. Garner came in and thought, It's better here, but I'm not. (15.22)
How about that repetition? Reading the words "Lillian Garner's house" multiple times pretty forcefully reminds us that Sweet Home is, well, Lillian Garner's house. Does that means it could never truly be home for Baby Suggs?
Quote 2
But he too, as it turned out, was nothing but a man.
"A man ain't nothing but a man," said Baby Suggs. "But a son? Well now, that's somebody." (2.8-9)
Hmmm, this one's tricky. How can Baby Suggs be both completely disgusted by and proud of Halle? That's motherhood, we guess. He might be a great son and ensure his mother's freedom, but that doesn't mean he isn't completely forgetful of her once she's out of the picture. (How bad would Baby Suggs have felt if she found out the real reason why Halle couldn't escape Sweet Home?)
Quote 3
The Garners, it seemed to her, ran a special kind of slavery, treating them like paid labor, listening to what they said, teaching what they wanted known. And he didn't stud his boys. Never brought them to her cabin with directions to "lay down with her," like they did in Carolina, or rented their sex out on other farms. It surprised her and pleased her, but worried her too. Would he pick women for them or what did he think was going to happen when those boys ran smack into their nature? Some danger he was courting and he surely knew it. In fact, his order for them not to leave Sweet Home except in his company, was not so much because of the law, but the danger of men-bred slaves on the loose. (15.22)
Baby Suggs doesn't hold back as she describes the Garners' form of slavery. The "danger" she's referring to? Probably the possibility (in the eyes of the Garners) that "men-bred slaves" without any women to bed might be prone to rape. Whether or not she's right, Baby Suggs leads us to think about the stereotype of black men as sexual animals, open to preying on innocent, frail white women.