The Controversy Of Jacob's Convoluted European Culture

The second time Jacob visits the children’s home, he encounters a group of small children that he recognizes from the pictures his grandfather used to show him. One child asks if he is Abraham, but when they see his face, they are disappointed that he is not, and run away. Jacob runs after them and follows them into a tunnel, but gives up and decides to go home. As he walks through the town

As human beings, we strive for freedom, and as we see in both our world and the one in the story, no one is truly free. “They know that they, like the child, are not free,” writes the narrator, showing the reader that although the citizens apparently live “free” in a perfect society, inside their souls, they are not free. There are no slaves in this utopia, as described by the narrator, but in actuality, the child’s freedom is taken from it, similar to slavery.

“Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom…entirely subject to the will of another.” Jacobs’ story conveyed pathos, or emotional appeal, as she spoke directly to her readers several times throughout the narrative. Her language choice affected the audience's emotional response, especially when they became aware that she was telling the truth. Jacobs was willing to share her personal, and in some ways shameful, past for the greater good. She wanted her readers to understand the perils of enslavement, and try to relate to what it feels like to be owned by another human being. Only then could they sympathize with the antislavery movement.

Douglass was young when he found his identity through his escape from Baltimore to Massachusetts. Jacobs, on the other hand, became trapped in her community, family, and domesticity. She was “domestic” where she worked, as well as a slave with children. Jacobs expressed, "Slavery is bad for men but it is far more terrible for women." Jacobs’s narrative was explicit and frightening for herself and for the woman of her time because of the involvement with her master’s forced sexual interactions. Jacobs’s narrative is the sexual exploitation that she and all other woman who were slaves at the time had to face and endure. In comparison to Douglass, Jacobs was determined to fight for her freedom. Although, Douglass showed his audience “how a slave became a man” by being in a physical fight with a superior, Jacobs’s gender demonstrated a different perspective. She was pregnant with the child of a white man when she was fifteen and believed that it would encourage her master to sell her and her child. Once she was became mother with “ties to life,” her concern for her children had taken over her own self-interest. Throughout Jacobs narrative, she is not only looking for freedom but a home to protect her children.

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

Freedom, what every (at least most if not all) slave looked forward to was pushed farther away from them. Hence every slave’s attempt to escape from slavery would always have a tragic end. Jacobs’ perception of freedom was different from what other slaves saw as freedom. The common practice was to work hard and buy your freedom from your master but because she was enlightened, she did not accept that as a good way to gain freedom. From my own point of view, Jacobs did not just want to gain her freedom for just her sake but she tried to abolish some of the practices that misinterpret man’s status. Jacobs’ love for humanity was what she was fighting for. No wonder she had mixed feelings of happiness and unhappiness when her freedom was bought, happiness in the sense that she was free at last but she was unhappy because at the end, she was still treated as a property and not as a human, as it ought to be. Jacobs’ main inspiration for such actions she took might have come from the fact that she did not want her children to continue living as slaves, and for this I think she fought so hard.

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.

This lack of faith in humanity is a symptom of a corrupted society and displays for the white northerners the effects of their non-actions. The fear Jacobs expresses at the thought of giving her son his father’s name illustrates another aspect of black society that the “serpent of slavery” stole from Jacobs’s life . Her children do not have a legal right to a father and therefore grow up without a father in their lives. By not only showing her audience the terrors of slavery but also the effects that they have on Jacobs, Jacobs is appealing to the sympathies of the white northerner to fight for abolition.

Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl had a different explanation narrative story than any other slavery stories we had read, especially with male-authored narrative because Jacob was engaging the readers with the issue she had challenged in her time period. Jacob mentions that her family was the most important people in her life because she gave us an idea that her family were depended to her emotional support (153-155). In fact, family was the most important mechanism for many slaves because they were dependent on each other for friendship, especially to maintain their confidence no matter what the situation they are going through.

This little boy’s major issue might have not been in his actions, but in what his real motives were. Jacob Blivens idolized the innocent young boys that he read about in his Sunday-school

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

Jacobs creates a connection by demonstrating her horrible experience as a slave and her humiliation in her choices to escape it: “Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another” (919). This shows that Jacobs attempts a draw an emotional response from free women so they will her understand of not only her experience as a female slave, but of many enslaved women that were subject to the same abuse as she. Nudelman states that on the title page of the first edition “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” there is the Scripture Isaiah 32:9: “Rise up, ye women that are at ease! Hear my voice, ye care less daughters! Give ear unto my speech.” This illustrates Jacobs’ motive of mobilizing free women to look upon enslaved women, pity them, and strive to free them. Continuing, Jacobs also uses her time in her grandmother’s crawl space to establish a connection with her female audience with a motherly dilemma. She is able to see her children, but she is unable to speak to them, nor give them the knowledge that she is directly above them (923). Mothers could sympathize with Jacobs wondering how they would respond if they were separated from their kids.

Jacob presents a more “freedom” lifestyle but still uniformed at the same time. Even with this modern style of living though, there were rules that may seem unusual to someone living in this time period.

As God molds and guides Jacob over the course of the Jacob Cycle, God interacts with Jacob in increasingly personal ways.

The narrative begins with the tale of Jacob’s childhood. She tells tales of a childhood oblivious to slavery being allowed to enjoy the pleasures of child’s play. Her mother died when she was six years old and was left under the mastership of her white foster sister. On her deathbed, her mother’s white sister promised to protect her slave sister’s children. While, this was true during her lifetime, upon her death, Jacob’s expected that she would be freed. Jacob’s first painful realization that despite what appeared to be a good relationship, her mistress viewed her as a slave and did not free but bequeathed her to her five year old niece. From this point Jacob’s has a new master and mistress .