Harriet Jacobs

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.

Based on the writing of Harriet and John Jacobs, compare and contrast the experiences of male and female slaves.

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass were both slaves that wrote about their struggles and pain during their years of slavery. Both stories were the same but also very different. Both Jacobs and Douglass were born into slavery. The stories were written by authors that finally gained their freedom from slavery. Jacob’s wrote “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and Frederick Douglass wrote, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”. Jacob’s wrote it in a woman point of view and gave us a look at how the women that were slaves experienced life; whereas Douglass wrote as a male slave and the brutality.

In these two tales of brutal bondage, Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the modern reader can decipher two vastly different experiences from circumstances that were not altogether that dissimilar. Both narratives tell the story of a slave gaining his or her freedom from cruel masters, yes, but that is where the most prominent similarities end. Not only are they factually different, these stories are entirely distinct in their themes.

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.

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.

Harriet meets a young attorney who was a born free man named Samuel Treadwell Sawyer and this causes confrontation between her and her jealous lover, Dr. Norcom. It isn’t until then that her master lays a hand on her and abuses her. She is shamed and is given strict orders not to come within contact of this man or she will suffer the consequences. She presents victimization of female slaves at the hands of their masters. Dr. Norcom exposes Jacobs to sexual harassment and mental abuse while his wife also directs frustration and anger towards Jacobs. In fact, Norcoms wife should have assisted the people but Jacobs’ states that Mrs. Norcom was even worse. Jacobs has had enough and looked to find a way out. This then drives Jacobs to encounter Sawyer again and she becomes pregnant in hopes of her freedom being bought, due to carrying another man’s child that isn’t Norcom’s. Rewriting the American Self states, Jacobs takes the “masculine” prerogative in choosing her lover as a way to prevent sexual oppression (11). Jacobs’ grandmother wanted to buy her freedom but Dr. Norcom refuses. Dr. Norcom continuously torments Jacobs and follows her even after she gave birth to Sawyers children.

Harriet A. Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Jacobs’s construction of black female empowerment despite the limitations of slavery

Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: A Harrowing Escape from Abuse

The nineteenth century was an age of male dominance as well as slavery; even white women were viewed more as property or a burden to men instead of an equal. In concur with male supremacy the cult of true womanhood was practiced, an ideology which was brought forth in the eighteen century stating four virtues which women should abide by, piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity, in turn they would be grant happiness and power; hardly being the case of either, women were subjected to the control and dependency of their male counterparts. These virtues were taken mostly in attention of the elite white woman, not considering poor white women as well as slaves, who were thought to be less than women; African American women were excluded

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.

The character that believed that was the most compelling from Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is Linda. I felt that I could relate to Linda in multiple ways. For instance, she was a mother that would do anything and everything for her children. My mother and my foster mother Mary love me unconditionally and they would do anything in their power for me. One of the many moments I believed was compelling was when Linda escaped from her master and lived in her grandmother’s attic just so that she will be kept safe from her evil master Dr. Flint. Just like Linda, I suffered from emotional and sexual abuse. I would whatsoever to get out of a horrific situation What made this situation worse, she had to watch her children grow

In “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, Harriet Jacobs shares her experience as a slave, from sexual advances from her master to being safe by being trapped in a crawling space intending to evoke an emotional response from Northern free women. Jacobs writes specifically to this group in order to enlighten them on the specific suffering of female slaves, mainly abuse from masters, and gain their sympathy, so they will move to abolish slavery. In order to complete this, Jacobs is compelled to break the conventions of proper female behavior at the time. Harriet Jacobs demonstrates the suffering of female slaves by creating a feminine connection to her female audience with the intention of earning their sympathy, defying the cult of