Is Shyima Hall's Rhetorical Techniques Used In Hidden Girl

In chapter ten, Douglass uses pathos with his imagery and figurative language that provokes an emotional response. Pathos is also seen in his powerful words, phrases and mental images that stir up emotion. Frederick Douglass went from being a slave into being a free man

Footnote: Jesse Sage and Liora Kasten, eds, Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006), 68.

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.

This was extremely sad and portrayed a painful picture of how slaves were treated and the emotional turmoil they endured while living as slaves. The protagonist discusses how she was a victim of sexual violence, be treated by her master and her mistress, how slavery made her lose her innocence and they ability to feel safe.The protagonist discusses how she was a victim of sexual violence,betrayed by her master and her mistress, how slavery made her lose her innocence ad the ability to feel safe.She described how she lived in fear of reprimands from her master should she reveal his sexual request to her. Slavery affected southern society because the white women born to the slave owner had to watch their husbands do as they wish with

Incidents in the life of a slave girl, is the authors autobiography of slavery. This book by Harriett Jacobs tells her story through her eyes from the suffering of enslavement by a territorial master, failed attempts to escape, and preservation of her family. These events took place between 1813-1897 in North Carolina, where slaves were property and slave owners did what they wanted; when they wanted with their property. She explains her cruel treatment as an African American slave and how she used her sexuality to her advantage against her master. In reviewing this book, Jacobs failed to go into great detail about her intimate slave-master relationship. She pacified her enslavement, by presenting little to no information about the slaves’ hardships in depth. She was not as descriptive nor did the book highlight the main parts of slavery.

Educating the North of the horrors of slavery through the use of literature was one strategy that led to the questioning, and ultimately, the abolition of slavery. Therefore, Harriet Jacobs’s narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is very effective in using various tactics in order to get women in the North to pay attention and question the horrifying conditions in the South. By acknowledging that not all slaveholders were inhumane, explaining the horrific abuse and punishments slaves endured, and comparing the manner in which whites and slaves spent their holidays, Jacobs’s narrative serves its purpose of arousing Northern women to take notice of the appalling conditions two million Southern slaves continued to endure.

While her themes never change much (purification through fire, self-knowledge gained via self-destruction, and the immolations brought on by racism and doubt), her telling of them is so fine and so stark, the details themselves are what really showcase her writing's true brilliance and beauty.

In 1865, the 13th amendment outlawed slavery in America, setting free thousands of African Americas confined by the vigorous hands of enslavement; however, many people are unaware that there are more slaves in the world today than ever before in history. In fact, slavery still exists in not only America but in 136 other countries, as well. Over 15 thousand women and children in the United States, alone, are currently being held as slaves to physical exploitation. Albeit, many people, including myself, are determined to end the repugnant pain and suffering many women and children are being forced into just miles from our homes and work places.

When someone mentions slavery in American history, one may imagine hard working African Americans planting cotton or plowing fields in the scorching heat. Others may recall learning about the Underground Railroad or how slaves would escape their cruel masters and flee to the North. While both ideas were true, not many people think of the harsh lives of African American women who were often treated worse than their male counterparts, both physically and mentally. Harriet Ann Jacobs, an American author and former slave, challenges the normal stereotypes we often encounter when discussing American slavery in her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Furthermore, she gives a critical voice for slave women and writes to encourage the abolishment of slavery with true accounts from her life.

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.

To begin with, in Girl, Stolen there are many universal conflicts. The most important one is being kidnapped. Kidnapped isn't just a one time thing that happens, but something that happens 24/7 all around the world. In the beginning of the story Henry wrote, ”Police say sixteen year old Cheyenne Wilder, Daughter of Nikes president, Nick Wilder, was kidnapped shortly after ten this morning at the Woodlands Experience shopping center… who is blind and sick” (Henry 45). This shows that just because someone is sick and blind doesn't mean that people will look the other way. To add on, just because this is just a story that an author made up, this doesn't mean that it couldn't be someone's else's story and pain.

In the novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacob’s writes an autobiography about the personal struggles her family, as well as women in bondage, commonly face while maturing in the Southern part of America. While young and enslaved, Harriet had learned how to read, write, sew, and taught how to perform other tasks associated with a ladies work from her first mistress. With the advantage of having a background in literacy, Harriet Jacobs later came to the realization that she would one day be able to tell her story about the tormented lives women endured while being white folk’s property. A repeating theme in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is of her own reflections on how slavery is dehumanizing. Jacobs, referring to her slave-owner at the time, states “when he told me that I was made for his use; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will, must and should surrender to his, never before had my puny arm felt half so strong” (Jacobs pg. 29). Jacob’s continuously expresses her deep-rooted hatred of slavery, much like an immoral institution, so much that she frequently imagined that death would be a better alternative than living a life as a slave. It is almost as if slavery was a cancer, affecting black individuals and their families as they continuously suffered tragedies, yet there seemed to be no provided cure for any given freedom. It is impossible to exaggerate the depths of how extreme slavery actually was. It is much like an institution that

No one in today’s society can even come close to the heartache, torment, anguish, and complete misery suffered by women in slavery. Many women endured this agony their entire lives, there only joy being there children and families, who were torn away from them and sold, never to be seen or heard from again.

“He told me that I was made for his use, made to obey his command in every thing; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his…” The treatment of slaves varied in their personal experiences as well as in the experiences of others they knew, but Harriet Jacobs phenomenally described the dynamics of the relationship between many female slaves and their superiors with these words from her personal narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Before slavery was outlawed it was not uncommon for young female slaves to be sexually abused and exploited by their masters. Although many people know about the cruelty of the sexual assaults that made too many young girls victims of rape in the Antebellum South, most people are unaware of the complexity of the issue and how many different ways these women were abused.

This uncompromising narrative documents the horrors faced by female slaves, particularly sexual abuse and the heartache felt by slave mothers whose children were taken from them. Often slave narratives were deemed fictional by the white American public. These autobiographies were constantly under scrutiny for their veracity, even though many narratives were published with endorsements from famous abolitionists confirming the story’s authenticity. Some slave narratives were penned by authors referring to themselves as “Himself” or “Herself.” Jacobs was forced to write under the pseudonym Linda Brent to publish her own narrative. Jacob’s autobiography showed how female slaves struggled with sexual harassment and their efforts to protect their identities as women and mothers. With a mounting national debate over slavery, these ever growing narratives provided a unique manuscript documenting glimpses into the inner thoughts of slaves.