Selfdom in Slavedom: Gustavus Vassa

At the age of sixteen Jacobs afraid that her mistresses father would eventually end up raping her she started up a relationship with a white neighbor Mr. Sands and ended up having two children with him. The affair that Jacobs had with this man only made her mistresses father even more upset and he sent her away to live on a plantation and endure hard labor and threatened to have her children brought to the plantation and have to work and endure hard labor with her. Jacobs struggled on the plantation and eventually ended up running away. According to Voices of Freedom, “No one knows how many slaves succeeded in escaping from bondage before the civil war. Some who managed to do so settled in Northern cities like Boston, Cincinnati, and New York. But because federal law required that fugitives be returned to slavery, many continued northward until they reached Canada.” (pg.220). When fleeing Jacobs tried to stay away from her mistress and her father and for 7 years she was successful. She lived in a tiny crawl space in her grandmother’s house. She was unable to sit or stand so life for her was very harsh and painful. She was cold in the winters and very hot in the summers and her only means of anything good was a little peep hole

In every chapter of her life Jacobs constantly makes a point about the connection between the slave women and their

Imagine sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to a new world, a place that a person has only ever heard about and all of it’s great opportunities. Now imagine sailing the same ocean, only to be unsure if your life will be worsened or not. Bradford’s detailed narrative of “Of Plymouth Plantation” and Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography of his experiences as a slave in “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” are both oddly similar, but extremely different. In this essay, I will be viewing the similarities and differences between these two narratives with the topics of their coming to America story and their writing style and purpose.

The distinct introduction to each of their lives not only set an impression for the reader but also serves as a precursor to the different aspirations and dreams of escape that Jacobs and Douglas distinctly had. Beginning with Jacobs her narrative was written around her scarce time when she was not tending to “household duties” and avoiding the “unclean images” her master regularly imposed on her. Jacobs did not have informal education as frequent as Douglass and

Olaudah Equiano’s “From the Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano” is written with the intent of ending the slave trade and aiding the abolitionists’ movement. His narrative tells his personal story of kidnapping, being sold into slavery and his experience in the middle passage. According to this account Olaudah Equiano grew up in Africa with a large family. He was captured and sold into slavery at age eleven. As an adult he became an opposing voice to slavery. This autobiography was published in Britain, with the help of abolitionists. This gives a purpose to Equiano’s writing and the purpose is shown throughout the text as Equiano tries to expose the evil of the slave trade.

February 11, 1813 in Edenton, North Carolina Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery. Harriet Jacobs’s parents were Elijah and Delilah Jacobs mother and father of Harriet and her older brother John Jacob’s. Elijah Jacob’s was a skilled carpenter, who made enough money so that his family could all live together. Harriet Jacob’s grandmother Molly Horniblow played a major role in the Jacob’s family life. At the age six Harriet Jacob’s mother passed away Harriet was sent away to live with her mother’s owner and his mistress. “I was born a slave; but I never knew till six years of happy childhood had passed away.” Harriet felt as if she was living a good life until her mother passed away. Even though she was born a slave she did not feel

Her master at the time hid from her the fact that she was a slave and treated her well. When her master passed away is when her real mental and physical abuse occurs. She was denied her freedom and was freely sold and traded amongst other slave owners. She then goes on to explain how she went into hiding and the mental and sexual abuse she went through as a women, something Douglass can not really touch up on as he is a male. Jacobs narrative is meant to touch the female audience as even in her title, she uses the word "girl" in order to depict a young innocent girl, which may or may not captivate

The autobiography , Incidents in the Life of a Slave girl, was written by Harriet Ann Jacobs under the pseudonym name Linda Brendt. This book details the life of slavery and how Jacobs’ achieved freedom for her children and for herself. Jacobs’ detailed these painful, and intricate accounts through forty-one chapters. Harriet Jacobs unfortunate experiences as a slave were significantly shaped because of her gender. Jacobs did indeed endure struggles through her race, but her gender is of great significance during her time as a slave. Jacobs used herself as an example to show how enslaved women were manipulated by their masters, the difficulties of being a mother during slavery mother, and how the fight for freedom were all impacted by her gender.

A woman could not be virtuous while enslaved, as they were victims of slavery and men. This impeded women to possess the virtues of true womanhood. Jacobs in her narrative also gave examples of how these virtues were broken and she is not allowed to be a lady. Both Douglass and Jacobs assert and identify themselves through the notions of manhood and womanhood. They believed and tried to make us see how womanhood and manhood based on freedom cannot be achieved while slavery and all its infamy was still in effect.

Jacobs is born to her mother in the southern states of America. She is born without freedom and rights as she is black, property to her master as a slave. Her mother is a slave to a man name Dr. Flint and so therefor she too is a slave of his property. On page 26, the first sentence of chapter 5, Jacobs states "During the first years of my service in Dr. Flint's family I was accustomed to share some indulgences with the children of my mistress. Thought this seemed to me no more than right, I was grateful for it, and tried to merit the kindness by the faithful discharge of my duties." Harriet shows gratefulness for a period of time that she is a slave. The next line says "But I now entered on my fifteenth year -- a sad epoch in the life of a slave." Harriet starts to show hatred for her slavery and sadness. As a fifteenth year slave she is getting tired of how she is being treated, many girls that are her age at this time would be very frustrated with this too.

Slavery was a challenging and uncomfortable life for the slaves such as Jacobs. Her mistress watched over her when she was sleeping trying to provoke Jacobs into accuse herself of attempting to seduce the mistress’s husband. Slave narratives have gothic elements to it because Jacobs was fearful of her life and her mistress watched over her when Jacobs was variable from being asleep. Jacobs describes how she was in her grandmother’s attic for seven years and

I agree that Jacobs was writing to the free white men and women in the north. I also think that Jacobs told the story she did to really grab the attention of the women of all races and north and south. I feel Jacobs did this because if she could get the women to pay attention to the abuses and sexual content going on with the women of slavery they too could get behind the anti-slavery movement. Instead of having no opinion at all Jacobs gives them a reason and a way to have a voice to speak up and speak out against slavery.

Growing up as a slave Jacobs was constantly exposed to sexual abuse from her master. She was forced to learn what it meant to be a slave that was

To begin, Harriett Jacobs carefully formulates a narrative that depicts the lives of slave girls and women as it truly was lived. Rather than conform to the readers' tastes and avoid the horrible gruesome details of the lives of female slaves, Jacobs grasps these events and passionately depicts them to her readers in hopes of some form of compassion. She knows her readers are never going to completely understand what women in slavery went through (it would take living it to comprehend) but she feels to protect them from these truths is only greater blurring the understanding of these issues. Jacobs details her life in hopes that her audience will begin to understand the hardships undertaken by innocent black women in the south and no longer sit quietly by and watch. Jacobs states that slavery is far more appalling for women; "they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own" (825). In order to truly touch her intended audience, she brings up topics that all women, free or enslaved, can understand - adultery, family, love. She hopes that by creating a piece that touches the personal lives of women, she will make it difficult for them not to stand in her shoes, even if just for a moment.

Shielded from the atrocities of slavery during her childhood, Jacobs depicts family life among slaves as one that remains intact in a “comfortable home” (29) through the example of her own family. Each member held limited rights along with the ability to work and the privilege to use their earnings as they pleased. It is not until the death of her mistress where she finally begins to feel the effects of slavery in the sudden separation of her family who are “all distributed among her [mistress’s] relatives” (Jacobs 33). The separation of family is one of the most integral subjects of her narrative since “motherhood [plays a great role] in her life” (Wolfe 518). Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her female audiences by contrasting a slave mother’s agonies in her separation from her children with the “happy free women” (40) whose children remain with her since “no hand” (40) has the right to take them away. The separation of families in Douglass’s narrative does call for some pity but the event is not as tragic in comparison to