Dehumanization Of Slavery

In "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", Harriet Jacobs writes, "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women" (64). Jacobs' work shows the evils of slavery as being worse in a woman's case by the gender. Jacobs elucidates the disparity between societal dictates of what the proper roles were for Nineteenth century women and the manner that slavery prevented a woman from fulfilling these roles. The book illustrates the double standard of for white women versus black women. Harriet Jacobs serves as an example of the female slave's desire to maintain the prescribed virtues but how her circumstances often prevented her from practicing.

The slave owner’s exploitation of the black woman’s sexuality was one of the most significant factors differentiating the experience of slavery for males and females. The white man’s claim to the slave body, male as well as female, was inherent in the concept of the Slave Trade and was tangibly realized perhaps no where more than the auction block. Captive Africans were stripped of their clothing, oiled down, and poked and prodded by potential buyers. The erotic undertones of such scenes were particularly pronounced in the case of black women. Throughout the period of slavery in America, white society believed black women to be innately lustful beings. The perception of the African woman as hyper-sexual made her both the object of white man’s abhorrence and his fantasy. Within the bonds of slavery, masters often felt it was their right to engage in sexual activity with black women. Sometimes, female slaves made advances hoping that such relationships would increase the chances that they or their children would be liberated by the master. Most of the time, slave owners took slaves by force.

In the Narrative of the Life and the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs both use detailed descriptions to convey the harsh brutalities of slavery and cause a sense of urgency to the problem. In Harriet’s narrative she describes her love for a young, free, black man. She is worried to tell Dr. Flint, her owner, because she knows that he is too wilful and arbitrary to consent to the marriage. Even so, she speaks with Dr. Flint about her proposal and he strongly disapproves. Harriet describes that for the rest of the night Dr. Flint ignored her. He was angry that she thought of marrying a black man instead of being with him. However, “his lips disdained to address me (her), his eyes were very loquacious.

Jacobs bravely tells her story about escaping slavery with her children. She was the first writer to show the grisly details of slavery and discuss sexual abuse. Jacobs criticizes herself for getting pregnant to get out of the sexual abusive relationship of her slave owner by saying “I felt as if I was forsaken by God and man; as if all my efforts must be frustrated; and I became reckless in my despair” (Jacobs 2194). Jacobs had to hide for almost seven years in her grandmother’s attic in attempt to gain her and her children’s freedom from their former slave-owners (Yellin 2185). In 1852, Mrs. Willis, a family friend, bought Jacobs freedom, for which Jacobs felt “I was robbed of my victory” because she considered herself a person, unable to be bought or sold (Yellin 2185). Harriet Ann Jacobs publishes her story to open people’s eyes to what slavery really was.

Slavery was common in the eighteenth century. Slaves were seen as property, as they were taken from their native land and forced into long hours of labor. The experience was traumatic for both black men and black women. They were physically and mentally abused by slave owners, dehumanized by the system, and ultimately denied their fundamental rights to a favorable American life. Although African men and women were both subjected to the same enslavement, men and women had different experiences in slavery based on their gender. A male perspective can be seen in, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. A female perspective is shared in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Upon reading both of the viewpoints provided, along with outside research, one can infer that women had it worse.

The document, “Harriet Jacobs Deplores Her Risks in Being a Female Slave, 1861,” describes how female slaves during her time period felt towards slavery and how it was like to grow up as a slave. According to Harriet Jacobs’ document, she started off as an innocent child, unaware of what happens around her and how harsh slavery actually can be. This changes as she grows up and her life becomes more and more miserable due to her status as a slave. By the time Jacobs reaches fifteen and starts to enter adulthood, her master would continuously harass her in numerous ways treating her as property. Being a slave, she had no way of defending herself from how she was treated and no means of running away from her master. Even when she feels hatred

White explores the master’s sexual exploitation of their female slaves, and proves this method of oppression to be the defining factor of what sets the female slaves apart from their male counterparts. Citing former slaves White writes, “Christopher Nichols, an escaped slave living in Canada, remembered how his master laid a woman on a bench, threw her clothes over her head, and whipped her. The whipping of a thirteen-year-old Georgia slave girl also had sexual overtones. The girl was put on all fours ‘sometimes her head down, and sometimes up’ and beaten until froth ran from her mouth (33).” The girl’s forced bodily position as well as her total helplessness to stop her master’s torture blatantly reveals the forced sexual trauma many African females endured.

Women were perhaps naïve in the sense that they accepted that men were head of the universe. Instead Jacobs refuses to accept Dr. Flint, escapes and not with her benefit in mind but with the hope of freedom for her children. She knows that Dr. Flint would not sell her children if she were there for fear of her escape in search of them, but she figured that if she were no longer around her children would instead be a burden to the doctor and he would eventually consent to selling them. When her children are finally safely in the North and Jacobs is able to flee the south in search of them, her main concern was to find employment and being able to provide for them, she told her daughter Ellis “I had laid up a hundred dollars and before long I hoped to be able to give her and Benjamin a home, and send them to school.” A woman supporting her children, with no man as head of the household was not viewed as domestic; she was degraded for not marrying and having children out of wedlock. Jacobs gives a new definition of domestic, it may have been too futuristic to people of her era, but today a domestic person is devoted to home life or household affairs. Jacobs did not need to accept Dr. Flint’s attempt to domesticate her or need to conform to the domesticity expectations of needing to be married, she provided for her children even when she had the bare minimal for herself, she always thought of their welfare first even if it meant an anguished

Born as a slave in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813, Harriet Ann Jacobs was raised by her slave mother and father. Since Harriet’s father was very skillful in his trade of carpentry, he was allowed to pay his mistress 200 dollars a year to work at his trade and manage his own affairs. As a result, his family was able to live comfortably in their home, and Harriet was “fondly shielded that [she] never dreamed [she] was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment,” unlike most other slave children (pp. 11-12). At age six, however, her mother died and she was sent to her mistress. Because her mother was such a faithful servant to her mistress and whiter foster sister, the mistress promised that Harriet and her younger brother William should never suffer for anything during her lifetime (pp. 14). Unfortunately, when Harriet was nearly twelve, her mistress had died, and so did her shielding from the harsh reality slaves had to face at that time. Rather than being granted her freedom, Harriet was willed to the daughter of Dr. James Norcom, who was portrayed as Dr. Flint in Harriet’s autobiography. As a result of his abusive and threatening treatment towards her, Harriet planned an elaborate escape from both him and slavery with the help of people such as her grandmother and the Sands family. Only in 1861, when Harriet was free, did she decide to write one of the most popular female antebellum slave narratives, Incidents

During the antebellum South, many Africans, who were forced migrants brought to America, were there to work for white-owners of tobacco and cotton plantations, manual labor as America expanded west, and as supplemental support of their owner’s families. Harriet Jacobs’s slave narrative supports the definition of slavery (in the South), discrimination (in the North), sexual gender as being influential to a slave’s role, the significant role of family support, and how the gender differences viewed and responded to life circumstances.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the

Slavery was a horrible institution that dehumanized a race of people. Female slave bondage was different from that of men. It wasn't less severe, but it was different. The sexual abuse, child bearing, and child care responsibilities affected the females's pattern of resistance and how they conducted their lives. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, demonstrates the different role that women slaves had and the struggles that were caused from having to cope with sexual abuse.

The notion of slavery, as unpleasant as it is, must nonetheless be examined to understand the hardships that were caused in the lives of enslaved African-Americans. Without a doubt, conditions that the slaves lived under could be easily described as intolerable and inhumane. As painful as the slave's treatment by the masters was, it proved to be more unbearable for the women who were enslaved. Why did the women suffer a grimmer fate as slaves? The answer lies in the readings, Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl and Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative which both imply that sexual abuse, jealous mistresses', and loss of children caused the female slaves to endure a more dreadful and hard life in captivity.

Jacobs autobiography which is known by the name of ‘Incidents in a Life of a Slave Girl’ gave a true account of the treatment that black women faced during that time and also throwing some light on a perception which has been kept in shadows from the society. While writing the story of her life, Jacobs though focused on her defeat due to obstacles like race and gender, gave voice to something which was hidden from society regardless of the presence of patriarchal society of the nineteenth century.

Shielded from the atrocities of slavery during her childhood, Jacobs depicts family life among slaves as one that remains intact in a “comfortable home” (29) through the example of her own family. Each member held limited rights along with the ability to work and the privilege to use their earnings as they pleased. It is not until the death of her mistress where she finally begins to feel the effects of slavery in the sudden separation of her family who are “all distributed among her [mistress’s] relatives” (Jacobs 33). The separation of family is one of the most integral subjects of her narrative since “motherhood [plays a great role] in her life” (Wolfe 518). Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her female audiences by contrasting a slave mother’s agonies in her separation from her children with the “happy free women” (40) whose children remain with her since “no hand” (40) has the right to take them away. The separation of families in Douglass’s narrative does call for some pity but the event is not as tragic in comparison to