Slavery and Christianity in Harriet A. Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself

Stephanie J. Turner Ms. J. Reed EN 320 5 December 2011 Harriet A. Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Jacobs’s construction of black female empowerment despite the limitations

Harriet Jacobs was born a slave herself in Edenton, North Carolina and was one of the first women to write a slave narrative in the United States of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). It was to address the white women of the North and thousands of “Slave mothers that are still in bondage in the South” (Jacobs 126). Jacobs tells her life of twenty-seven years in slavery in-depth life as a slave, and the choices she made to gain freedom for herself and her children. She writes a story about her families ' and masks them as well as her name as “Linda Brent” in her novel to protect herself in a sense as well as some of the important places in town. Harriet shows in her story the fights and sexual abuse that she faced as a slave on

“Not only did slaves believe that they would be chosen by the Lord, there is evidence that many of them felt their owners would be denied salvation” (34). Levine claimed that the slaves uses their beliefs and religion as a “means of escape and opposition” because it gave them a “serious alternative to the societal system created by southern slaveholders” (54.)

The way that slavery is spoken about in the bible makes it seem that the bible approves of slavery, when read in the literal meaning. Slavery was practiced all throughout the world, Noah cursed Canaan the son of Ham “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth” (Genesis 9:25-27). The Africans were thought to be descendants of Canaan and were supposed to be “servants of servants” (Morrison, 1980). In Larry R. Morrison’s article it stated “Jews would be exterminated as a nation and dispersed over the earth, but would be restored. However, nowhere in the Bible was there a prophecy which removed the curse of slavery from the descendants of Ham and Canaan” (Morrison, 1980). Evangelical scholars from the slave holding southern United Stated who were against the release of slaves came up with a comprehensive and well-known “biblical theology”

In The Ideology of Slavery by Drew Gilpin Faust, in Chapter 4 which is James Henry Hammond that writes a letter to an English Abolitionist, in a section he describes how he believes that Slavery is not a sin and is approved by Christ. It would seem that while God commanded Moses to free his people that were slaves to the Pharaoh, “man” is overlooking these in the Bible and that they are creating their own law and how their religion differs totally by what they do. “I think, then, I may safely conclude, and I firmly believe, that American Slavery is not only not a sin, but especially commanded by God through Moses, and approved by Christ through his apostles” (Faust 175). When reasoning between what is right and wrong, Americans only found that what they were doing was not necessarily evil or wrong just that God permitted it, and also white Americans found slavery to be very significant for their own lives, due to the fact that their way of making money and making a living involved the owning of humans to make themselves the most profitable.

They claimed that slavery was “supported by the authority of the Bible and the wisdom of Aristotle” (p 353). Setting aside the cruelty and the doubts of the morality of slavery, the southern Christians believed they had blessed the Africans, “who were lifted from the barbarism of the jungle and clothed with the blessings of the Christian civilization” (p 353). Evidently, Christian slaveholders believed they were “saviors” in a sense, because they had given these people “luxuries” that they would not have received in Africa. Looking at this standpoint today, one can argue that these slave owners were not entirely incorrect: Do African Americans have more today than many people who live in Africa? Yes. But was what the slaveholders provided for their slaves better than what they could have had back in Africa? Most likely not. Regardless of the morality of the situation, in their eyes, some slaveowners were truly convinced that God wanted them to “do this” for the African people, and their “graciousness” was given to the African people by God’s will. With this set mentality of slavery being what God would want and the slaveholders being providers for their slaves, if slavery were to be taken away, it would be like going against God. Taking away slavery would take away the “support” given by the slaves’

Chattel slavery is probably the worst large-scale event which happened in America and has left deep scars still visible today. In the early 1800s those for or against slavery expressed their reason and opinion through various texts, which could be mass printed and affect a wide area. The book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” by Frederick Douglass, discusses the impact of Christianity, through the bible. However, Douglass claims there to be two types of Christianity; the one interpreted directly and morally, and the ones white slaveholders used to justify their actions.

In Shaping of the Modern World, we are learning about political and cultural changes around the world. Slavery is a significant topic in Shaping of the Modern World, how our world change throughout slavery and how slavery changes over time. In the narrative writing, Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, she talks about how her life changed while serving different and new masters and mistresses. I think that this narrative writing is an important text to help us understand the different perspectives of slavery in America. There are some slave owners that are kind and humane, and some slave owners that are cruel and abusive. Additionally, reading from a female slave’s perspectives teaches us that life on the plantations and life in the house is different. Especially as a female, they would get different treatment from their masters and mistresses. The text has changed my understanding of slavery that not all slave owners are harsh, and not all slaves are not intellectual.

Chidiebube Opara History 1301 Prof Mark 01 November 2016 Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl In her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs is a slave that was born into slavery in 1813 that has decided to share her amazing story of slavery and her struggles to become free. When she was young her parents were “property” of a really nice lady that allowed her family to have a very comfortable life for a slave family. They were allowed to work for their own money and Harriet did not know that she was a slave for until she was twelve. When she was seven her master died and left her to her sister’s daughter who was five years old. She believed that it was not right to treat blacks in the way that whites did and that someone should not have to purchase themselves or their children. She believed that the whites were way too cruel. She eventually escaped to the north and eventually had someone purchase her freedom for her and her children. Reaching north, Harriet was relief and breath of freedom when she get out from the boat, not long after her arrival to the north she was reunited with her daughter and was ensured of her safety and good treatment she received. She found work in one house and find a friendship in the house she got work with a woman named Mr. Bruce who she was working for, her struggle in those days was been reduce, coming to the north would end all her painful sorrow and struggle. However, there is still another thing she

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.

Introduction Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs accentuates that the slavery system is evil and no good can be associated with it. Jacobs shows that slavery by its very nature extinguishes the morality and ethical values of slaveholders. Likewise, she highlights on the physical, psychological, health, social, and mental adverse implications of the slavery systems to the victims. Contrary, the seventh Vice-President of the United States of America and longtime Senator John C. Calhoun propagates on the significance of the slavery institution citing the benefits to the slaveholders and the slaves. This paper will provide a critical evaluation of Harriet Jacob’s condemnation of slavery in the context of the address by

Supporters of slavery often pointed to the bible as an advocate for slavery. Nowhere did Jesus say that slavery was inhumane, cruel, or otherwise immoral. In fact the bible even mentions that it is a slave’s duty to serve their master. Those in favor of slavery interpreted this as favoring their cause. For those who were religious, Christianity gave strong reasoning for why

Give her Liberty or give her Death Slavery has always been a highly debated topic throughout the years, often associated with the terms brutal, discriminating, and unjust. In her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, former slave Harriet Jacobs asserts that death is better than slavery narrowing in on the harsh, day-to-day realities she faces as a female slave. Through the effective use of a variety of rhetorical strategies, Jacobs conveys her intense disgust on how the slave owners enforce the maltreatment of their slaves, resulting in the slaves’ will to live to disappear.

Slave Women in Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Toni Morrison's Beloved

These illustrations, along with many others, are the types of images Harriet Jacobs 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.