Black Women Prisoners Enacted : Self Assertion, Resistance, And Survival Essay

This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era.

Harriet Ann Jacobs helped start a movement of anti-slavery writing that, through literature, would eventually help change society’s view of slavery. Jacobs’ “Incidents” was written for an audience of free white women and its purpose was to involve these women in political action against the institution of chattel slavery and the ideology of white racism” confirming herself as an anti-slavery writer using a fictional character and different voice to tell truth (Yellin

Harriet Jacobs wrote, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” using the pseudonym Linda Brent, and is among the most well-read female slave narratives in American history. Jacobs faces challenges as both a slave and as a mother. She was exposed to discrimination in numerous fronts including race, gender, and intelligence. Jacobs also appeals to the audience about the sexual harassment and abuse she encountered as well as her escape. Her story also presents the effectiveness of her spirit through fighting racism and showing the importance of women in the community.

Through the use of literature to inspire social change, Michelle Alexander is able to bring attention to an extremely important social issue that is very prevalent throughout our country. The issue that Alexander is writing about is the mass incarceration of black males in the United States. She describes this increase of mass incarceration in depth, and relates this modern form of social control back to an old practice of the Jim Crow laws and separate but equal segregation.

“We ain’t thugs for the sake of just bein’ thugs. Nobody do that where we grew at N___, duh! The poverty line we not above. So I come in the mask and gloves ‘cause we ain’t feelin’ the love. We ain’t doin’ crime for the sake of doin’ crimes. We movin’ dimes ‘cause we ain’t doin’ fine. One out of three of us is locked up doin’ time. You know what this could do to a N___ mind? My mind on my money, money on my mind. If you owe me ten dollars you ain’t givin’ me nine! Ya’ll ain’t give me 40 acres and a mule. So I got my glock 40 now I’m cool.” –Jay-Z

Slavery by Another Name gives readers an interesting and eye opening look into the past of the re-enslavement of Black Americans. The author, Douglas Blackmon, presents a compelling and effective presentation and argument; which adds on to my previous knowledge of this familiar and personal topic, that slavery did not necessarily end with the Emancipation Proclamation. He argues that from the Civil War to World War II Black Americans were re-enslaved through hard labor. He uses various examples of real life experiences from descendants of the re-enslaved Black Americans and documents to support his presentation which gives the reader a better view as to what those times were like. Blackmon researched all the facts and information for this book himself being certain not to alter any quotations from individuals to keep everything true. Although Blackmon uses many stories in his book he chose to focus this narrative on one forgotten black man and his family, Green Cottenham. Blackmon states in his introduction, “The absence of his voice rest at the center of this book” (pg 10).

The United States has the biggest prison and jail population in the world not only by population, but also by sheer numbers. Many of these offenders are behind bars for nonviolent drug crimes and statistically more of those non-violent offenders are African American. African Americans are 13% of the United States Population but make up over 40% of the current jail and prison population. A black man is five times more likely to be convicted of a crime than a white man in the United States. How far have we really come sinse the Jim Crow laws? During the Jim Crow Era African-Americans in some states were treated as second-class citizens in every aspect of life from how they interact with White Americans to not having the right to vote. Many

Michelle Alexander’s New York Times Bestseller book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book of many controversies. Alexander forms a complex argument of she considers mass incarceration to be the new Jim Crow. She makes interesting arguments on how and why mass incarceration of African Americans is like, the laws and policies dating back to slavery as well as the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of the Jim Crow eras. She explores the ways in which the government continue to keep African Americans at the bottom of a racial caste.

Douglass’s description of the system of slavery speaks largely to how Blacks were conditioned for the prison system during the Reconstruction period. During this time, the state of Mississippi established the Parchman Farm. It was predominantly a labor camp for prisoners (Alexander 32). Slavery had been abolished just a decade earlier. The new source of cheap labor was the prison system. Alexander observes that this era, convict labor had just marked another phase in the long continuum of Black subjugation. She argues that when the appetite for labor was shifted to convict labor, prisoners suddenly became “younger and blacker” (Alexander 32). Therefore,

"We ain’t thugs for the sake of just bein’ thugs. Nobody do that where we grew at N___, duh! The poverty line we not above. So I come in the mask and gloves ‘cause we ain’t feelin’ the love. We ain’t doin’ crime for the sake of doin’ crimes. We movin’ dimes ‘cause we ain’t doin’ fine. One out of three of us is locked up doin’ time. You know what this could do to a N___ mind? My mind on my money, money on my mind. If you owe me ten dollars you ain’t givin’ me nine! Ya’ll ain’t give me 40 acres and a mule. So I got my glock 40 now I’m cool." Jay-Z

Smuggling slaves out of bondage and onto freedom up north, was not limited to only African Americans, but also many other helpful people of a variety of races, ethnicities, and genders (Cecelski, 176). The people of differing race were typically lower class, some were Quakers, and the majority did not have much of a hand in the wealthier planters and landowners whose slaves were being led to freedom (Cecelski, 176). What this demonstrates for

Once a prisoner is released they do have a hard time on the outside, because the world on the outside might have changed, well depending how long they were in prison. Many offenders find it hard to adjust to the outside world because of new technology, sometimes jobs require someone to know how to use a tablet or computer, but if they have been locked up they wouldn’t know how to use it. African Americans who are uneducated and poor are unable to follow gender roles, economic activity, and have good public behavior (Alexander, 213).

“Prison is not an isolated institution, it is part of a continuum in the control of women, whether by our lack of access to economic independence, violence, racism or specific laws that target women such as prostitution and social security. The society that condemns the behavior of women it imprisons, yet accepts the treatment prisoners are given inside is at best hypocritical, but perhaps more correctly, sadistic” (Amanda George). The prison system takes people away from their families and communities, for petty crimes and then give harsh sentences that doesn’t match the crime that was committed. Women are placed in an oppressive and controlling environment which subjects them to be treated in a manner which society looks down on but accept and sadly, does nothing about. Correspondingly, Piper Kerman wrote a memoir “Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison”

The dichotomy of freedom and slavery in rhetoric and rise of the United States of America has long been an enigma, a source of endless debate for scholars and citizens alike who wonder how a nation steeped in the ideals of republicanism could so easily subjugate and enslave an entire group of people. The Chesapeake region was home to America’s great statesmen, men who espoused ideals of freedom and liberty from tyranny. Yet at the same time, these men held hundreds of men, women, and children in conditions of lifelong bondage. How then did this dichotomy arise? The dangers posed by indentured servants that became freemen resulted in the development of a system of African-descended chattel slavery in the Chesapeake, a system whose creation and continuance was aided by a continuum of racial thinking and racial prejudice aimed at Africans in Virginia.

Traditions are a serious issue in every African society even till this modern day and age. From marriage ceremonies up till the way we greet and interact with people in our society. Every society has different traditions in which they believe in, some most times similar with those of the other community or society. Tradition is something that has existed for quite a while now and I believe even with the help of a higher authority, some traditions can never be abolished or go unrecognized.