Harriet Jacobs Essay

From learning this we know Harriet is not in for a good future with this family. The way Jacobs describes the importance of the women in her life is inspiring, given that, at the time they had such little power and such few rights. “Mrs. Flint, like many southern women, was totally deficient in energy. She had not the strength to superintend her household affairs; but her nerves were so strong, that she could sit in her easy chair and see a woman whipped, till the blood trickled from every stroke of the lash” (Jacobs 360). The way she describes Mrs. Flint perfectly captures what all women in the south were like. This portrays an excellent example to Northern women how serious slavery can affect a person.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is a personal story that highlights the injustice of slavery. This book was based on the author’s

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.

The narratives of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas were nothing short of powerful as their unique resilience reflected a gruesome upbringing that would then influence audiences everywhere. Immediately the reader is introduced to the gendered distinctions in narratives as Douglas has letters and statements of prominent men reinforce the validity of his work while Jacobs is forced to create a pleading tone for acknowledgement of her experience as a female slave. Although slavery was an excruciating experience that unjustly plagued millions of African Americans, gender roles and constructs allowed for distinct offenses that forced women to experience unique abuse relative to their male counterparts. The narratives of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas reinforced the trials of slavery with examples of educational hardship, physical trauma and differing aspirations of freedom. These factors and a few others such as motherhood and masculinity influenced their legacy in context of slavery as a gendered experience.

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

At the age of 13, Harriet became more rebellious; she disobeyed her masters as people watched. One day, another male slave was getting beat; the overseer wanted to punish him and he wanted Harriet to help but she refused to. Harriet was hit with a weight, which put a hole in her skull and pushed her skull against her brain. She described it as it “broke my skull and cut a piece of that shawl clean off and drove it into my head”. After the accident she didn’t get medical treatment and soon had to return to the fields. The experience of going back to the field was noted as “with blood and

Harriet was born into slavery around 1820 in Dorchester, Maryland to Benjamin Ross and Harriet Green. Her master, Edwards Brodas, gave her the name Araminta but she eventually took on her mother’s name. At the age of five when most children would be starting off into school, Harriet began working as a house maid. Many times she would be “rented” out to different plantation homes for several months at a time. During this time she received multiple routine beatings, whippings, and verbal assaults. But these times of house work wouldn’t last long.

Around 1820, Arminta Minty Ross was born into a slave family and was one of 8 children. When she was around five or six, she was put to work as a house servant. As she grew to be 12-13, she started working in the field with everyone else. At this point, she had become very independent. She would suffer the rest of her life due to an event that happened soon after she started working in the fields. A slave owner was very angry at a slave and was going to hurt him. Instead of being a bystander, Arminta (Harriet) blocked the doorway to protect her fellow field worker. This caused the overseer to be even more furious. The overseer then threw a two-pound weight, and it ended up hitting Arminta in the head. She never recovered from

Harriet’s first work as a slave began when she was six when a man named Mr. Brodas hired her out to a woman named Mrs. Cook who was a weaver. Harriet helped her wind the yarn because the air had fuzz and lint. Harriet couldn’t concentrate and Mrs. Cook got mad. The next woman Harriet worked for when she was seven was named Miss Susan. Harriet Tubman had to watch Miss Susan’s baby. If there were the slightest cry from the baby Miss Susan would whip Harriet. Harriet had trouble staying awake and if she fell asleep the baby would begin to cry. After this, she was hired back to Mr.

Harriet’s grandmother was a well-respected older slave woman who gained her freedom in the last will and testament of her mistress.

Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl allows Harriet Jacobs, speaking through the narrator, Linda Brent, to reveal her reasons for making public her personal story of enslavement, degradation, and sexual exploitation. Although originally ignored by critics, who often dismissed Jacobs ' story as a fictional account of slavery, today it is reported as the first novel narrative by an ex-slave that reveals the unique brutalities inflicted on enslaved women. Gabby Reyes

Harriet Jacobs, in her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was born into slavery in the south. While her youth contained “six years of happy childhood,” a few tragedies and mistresses later, Jacobs spent many years in pain under the possession of her cruel five-year-old mistress, Emily Flint, and Emily’s father, Dr. Flint. Once able to obtain freedom, Jacobs spent most of her life working for the Anti-Slavery office in New York, in hope that one day she could make a difference in the world. “She sought to win the respect and admiration of her readers for the courage with which she forestalled abuse and for the independence with which she chose a lover rather than having one forced on her” (Jacobs 921). Linda Brett, the pseudonym that Jacobs uses to narrate her life story, endures the harsh behavior women slaves were treated with in the south during the nineteenth century. The dominant theme of the corruptive power and psychological abuse of slavery, along with symbolism of good and evil, is demonstrated throughout her narrative to create a story that exposes the terrible captivity woman slaves suffered. The reality of slavery in the past, versus slavery today is used to reveal how the world has changed and grown in the idea of racism and neglect.

Harriet Jacob was the first African American women to have authored a slave narrative in the United States and was instinctive into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina. Living a good life with her skilled carpentered father and her mother, Jacob didn’t much of being a slave. However, when her mother had passed away, Jacob and her father were reassigned to a different slave owner were her life as a women slave began. Because of this change, she fled to New York where she started working in the Anti-Slavery movement. During this period, she focused more on her family then she did the issue of slavery. Family is an emotional anchor in the Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl because Linda was devoted to her children. She uses symbolism, imagery, and allegory because she wants to demonstrate what families should be like.

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.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl opens with an introduction in which the writer, Harriet Jacobs, expresses her purposes behind composing her life account. Her story is difficult, and she would rather have kept it private, however she feels that making it open may help the