Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Summary

During the mid-1800s, it was challenging being a slave. Belonging to another human being instead of being free brought numerous hardships African Americans had to endure. It brought about unimaginable pain, frustration, disruption, and stress. In America, slavery was glorified, even though, families were separated and destroyed. Slavery made it tedious to have stability in families because of the effects it had on the African American people. After reading “How Affected African American Families” and “Narrative of Jenny Proctor,” slavery caused African American families to cope with separation, unfair marriage stipulations, horrible living condition, mistreatment and labor, and also the ending of slavery.

Mr. Douglass had many experiences during his time enslaved that would have been typical for a Southern slave. His early childhood was like most Southern slaves in multiple ways. The master and slave relationship was designed to make slaves feel “… broken in body, mind and spirit” (Douglass, 74). Like all slaves, Mr. Douglass and his fellow slaves “were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and woman, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination” (Douglass, 58). Furthermore, in order to perpetuate a system of inequality slave families would be treated differently than white families. For example, to “hinder development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection” (Douglass, 20). Slave masters

The life of a slave woman is far more complex than that of a slave man, although understandably equal in hardships, the experience for a woman is incredibly different. The oppression that women have faced throughout their lives in the struggle to even be considered equal to men is more than evident in slavery, not only because they were thought of as lesser but in some ways many women actually believed it to be true. The experiences that Linda Brent, pseudonym for the author Harriet A. Jacobs, went through in her life story in Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl prove that the difficulties for slave women were more than significant in many different cases. For Linda Brent, her life had been a constant fight since she was six years old

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.

Autobiographical narrative that has been written by african-american female from North Carolina by the name Harriet A Jacob, who depicts horrors of normal life of a slave, beginning her story with description of her childhood memories of her family and people who were their owners. Harriet adopts a pseudonym of Linda Brent, and assigns different from reality names to anyone important in her narrative, in order to be able to share the story of her life and probably save important to the author people since the time of publication meant, certain investigations or unwanted interest from the opposing side of the civil war. In the preface of the narrative, the author, importantly explains significance of her ability to share her story to the people of free states, in order for them to decide their future, but more interestingly she was able to set up a tone with a beginning quote, a tone of understanding the reality of the situation as a whole, a certain type of disrespect to the authorities who execute what is needed in order for the system of slavery to function. Since she begins with description of her family starting with her father who seems to be caring and responsible person, even trying to buy freedom for his children. The story of her grandmother is tragic as well, but through it we can judge the importance of family ties that Harriet was able to absorb from her relatives, especially her opportunity to live among her grandmother and

Starting from a slave’s birth, this cruel process leads to a continuous cycle of abuse, neglect, and inhumane treatment. To some extent, slave holders succeed because they keep most slaves so concerned with survival that they have no time or energy to consider freedom. This is particularly true for plantation slaves where the conditions of slave life are the most difficult and challenging. However, slave holders fail to realize the damage they inadvertently inflict on themselves by upholding slavery and enforcing these austere laws and attitudes.

In discussing the various differences between Biblical slavery and Southern slavery, Grimke points out about treatment of slave families in comparison to non-slave families, asking, “But do the fathers of the South ever sell their daughters?” (Grimke, 1836, p5). This somewhat rhetorical question induces an instinctive condemnation of Southern authority figures in the readers. She actually uses this question to build up to a more pointed question for the readers, personally, asking , “…but then you may try this question in another form—Am I willing to reduce my little child to slavery?” (Grimke, 1836, p13). These questions involving family members as examples act yield intuitive answers that work quickly to dismantle pro-slavery arguments in the minds of

Despite its inception some 400 odd years ago, slavery continues to impact families of African descent. Al though forcibly taken to American shores with shack les and chains draped around them like garments, Africans retained some sense of family both mentally and spiritually. The familial bond which was present those 400 years ago still exists today. It is the tradi tional African family structure that is the baseline for the past, present and future black American family. It is therefore imperative that we examine this tradi tional structure.

Harriet Jacobs, a black woman who escapes slavery, illustrates in her biography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) that death is preferable to life as a slave due to the unbearable degradation of being regarded as property, the inevitable destruction of slave children’s innocence, and the emotional and physical pain inflicted by slave masters. Through numerous rhetorical strategies such as allusion, comparison, tone, irony, and paradoxical expression, she recounts her personal tragedies with brutal honesty. Jacobs’s purpose is to combat the deceptive positive portrayals of slavery spread by southern slave holders through revealing the true magnitude of its horrors. Her intended audience is uninvolved northerners, especially women, and she develops a personal and emotionally charged relationship with them.

However, fictive kin and these new established relationships on shared experiences did not completely extinguish the feelings of longing for loved ones or diminish the oppression faced by these people. Reunion with family members was one of the major motives for interstate migrants to escape but sometimes it proved to be more difficult than expected because migrants came from longer distances. Therefore, when attempts to escape were made they were more permanent and “...fugitives were not intending to ‘visit’ loved ones but rather escape their new destinations for good…” (Pargas 243). These feelings of depression and isolation, removal from loved ones, and demeaning treatment incited many slaves to escape. Escaping was never easy and there were laws set in place to punish those who tried to do so. These laws, specifically the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and their effects are closely examined in Horton’s article, “A Federal Assault.”

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.

So many things are over looked or not spoken of when you are treated as probity and owned by a master. Its people like Harriet Jacobs that comes forward and tell us all the gruesome details of her first hands experience. In “Incidents in the life of a slave girl”, Harriet Jacobs tells a very intriguing story as Linda Brent who is the protagonist, about her struggle being born into a slave family not just as a slave but also as a women. This autobiography is a very excellent representation of all the obstacles African Americans during that time had to overcome. Even though this book had some flaws like any other book. It was more of a success in my eyes.

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

‘Incidents in the life of a slave girl’ written by Harriet Jacobs and published by L.Maria Child (in 1831), is an autobiography by the author herself which documents Jacobs life as a slave and therefore