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Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

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Black woman throughout U.S. history have attributed so much to the society as a whole. They have formed movements, created new musical sounds and genres, and of course mothered the future generations of strong, Black individuals. Yet, despite having a monumental influence in American society, they are often ignored in their efforts. African-American females were some of the biggest fighters for the feminist movement, but rarely will one hear about their involvement. Sojourner Truth is about the only Black feminist that will be mentioned in a history class, but the roots of Black female liberation run deep and is rich with strong Black woman who fought for their rights. One of those woman is Harriet Jacobs, who wrote about her life as a female slave in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. As Jacobs tells her story, she tells of both the mistreatment of Black …show more content…

Harriet Jacobs, who uses the pseudonym Linda Brent in her novel, gives the readers of that time all the details of not only the physical pain she experienced, but also the antagonizing sexual exploitation she faced as well. Through Jacobs’ explicit details, the ideas of feminism for and equality for all woman were expressed. When Dr. Flint was whispering vulgar comments and expressing his sexual urges in the cruelest of ways to Linda, Jacobs’ writes that no matter if a woman was Black or White, “there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death” (Jacobs 436). She is informing the readers that mistreatment like what she experienced happens to all women. By doing so, she is evoking empathy in the male readers and urging them to protect all women, because they could see that all women of every color were being treated harshly by men and that the abuse should be

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