Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Book Report

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.

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.

For instance, In Harriet Jacobs ' memoir, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs was a slave female that was born into slavery, based on the fact that her family was already enslaved when she was born. As an African American she was automatically labeled as inferior to white individuals. Throughout her early years she was sold, bought, and put to work, like any other African American slave. Jacobs, in order to get her master to stop offering romantic gestures

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

Harriet Jacobs' words in Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl clearly suggests that the life as a slave girl is harsh and unsatisfactory. In this Composition, Jacobs is born a slave, never to be freed. She struggles through life in many instances making life seem impossible. The author's purpose is to state to the people what happened during slavery times in the point of view of a slave. Her life is so harsh that she even hides from her master for 7 years in a cramped space in the top of a shed without any room to walk. The theme of the story is a statement on how slavery was a much harder way of life than many people may have thought. Many people during these times thought that slaves were happy where they were and that their lives

Jacobs, Harriet A., Lydia Maria Child, and Jean Fagan. Yellin. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1987. Print.

One writer that has discussed some of the problems, challenges, and injustices black females have faced in America is Harriet Jacobs. In her writing From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, she narrates as Linda Brown, the problems that black females experienced during slavery. She talks about how she was sexually harassed and abused by her slave master and how she struggled to escape from him in order to achieve freedom; for her and for her child. Jacobs addressed this memoir to white women from the North, in order to shed light into the problems of sexual abuse that many female slaves faced on plantations. This experiences made her realize that even though slavery was “terrible for men”, it was “far more terrible for women”, due to the fact that many female slaves were constantly harassed and abused by their masters and could not do anything about it. Jacobs states, “I was compelled to live under the same roof with him-- where I saw a man forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature. He told me I was his property; that I must subject to his will in all things” (231). This demonstrates that black female slaves were put in a situation that, because of slavery, could not escape. Jacobs, like many female slaves, was trapped in a house where she was constantly seeing her abuser and was compelled to stay there. Not only that, but, she had no protection as a female since society is ruled by white men, as well as the fact that she was constantly

Looking back and seeing how bad slavery was not so long ago makes you think you have it so good now. Unfortunately for many African Americans that’s not the way they can tell their story. For many their story begins with being owned by someone and having absolutely no say for what they did with their own life, and had to follow somebody’s orders all the time. In the novel “Incidents a Salve Girl”, Harriet Jacobs demonstrates her story of being a slave which began when she was only six years old soon after her mother passed away then immediately being sold to her owners, the Flints, while her attempt to leave the cruel situation to gain her freedom. Jacobs demonstrates how she suffered both the physical and psychological abuse she suffered while she was a slave.

Harriet Jacob has escaped from slavery and later tried as a house servant in the South and later in the North. Her slave story gave a true testament of the evils slavery for women, which have been kept secretly in public. Her narrative a strong feminist text. This context is not only exacted by men but also accepted by women. In this revelation, Jacob shows the drawbacks of such self-condemnation of women in favor of men in decision-making.

It is well known that slavery was a horrible event in the history of the United States. However, what isn't as well known is the actual severity of slavery. The experiences of slave women presented by Angela Davis and the theories of black women presented by Patricia Hill Collins are evident in the life of Harriet Jacobs and show the severity of slavery for black women.

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.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl The book is comparatively an autobiography of Harriet Jacobs’s alias Linda. Her early life is characterized by happiness, love and a promising future. She discovers that she was born into slavery after her mother dies when she is six. Her mistress takes her and extends the love and freedom she had.

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” is a slave narrative written from a woman’s perspective by Harriet Jacobs. She provides a rare glimpse into the life of women enslaved during the nineteenth century. While Jacobs’s experiences are atypical of most enslaved persons, she provides an insightful perspective of slavery, motherhood, women’s duties and expectations. Jacobs’s tale debuted under the pen name of Linda Brent but later was attributed to her. The narrative portrays the injustice of slavery but also highlights the predicament of all women.

Harriet Jacob is one of the most famous African American women slave to escape and tell her story. She tells her story with brutal details about what actually happened to her. She talks about her sexual history while being a slave and how she used it to escape. She used her sexuality as a way to avoid exploitation by her master. She goes into details about her having to hide for seven years and not being able to see her grandmother and two children. Harriet’s story is similar to other slave narratives when talking about the struggle and becoming free, but her story tells a different side when she talks about sexuality and motherhood. Her story tells a different side to how things happened because women and men did not have to endure the same struggle when talking about sex. After escaping she becomes an abolitionist speaker and reforms. If her story was written by someone who could not have used their sexuality to escape or avoid exploitation by their master, the story would be a lot more brutal and disturbing. A woman who had to stay in endure that would have had a lot more to say. The ending would not have been so delightful.