Women 's Rights Of Women

The life of a slave woman is far more complex than that of a slave man, although understandably equal in hardships, the experience for a woman is incredibly different. The oppression that women have faced throughout their lives in the struggle to even be considered equal to men is more than evident in slavery, not only because they were thought of as lesser but in some ways many women actually believed it to be true. The experiences that Linda Brent, pseudonym for the author Harriet A. Jacobs, went through in her life story in Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl prove that the difficulties for slave women were more than significant in many different cases. For Linda Brent, her life had been a constant fight since she was six years old

Slavery was common in the eighteenth century. Slaves were seen as property, as they were taken from their native land and forced into long hours of labor. The experience was traumatic for both black men and black women. They were physically and mentally abused by slave owners, dehumanized by the system, and ultimately denied their fundamental rights to a favorable American life. Although African men and women were both subjected to the same enslavement, men and women had different experiences in slavery based on their gender. A male perspective can be seen in, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. A female perspective is shared in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Upon reading both of the viewpoints provided, along with outside research, one can infer that women had it worse.

Often times when talking about the institution of slavery in the United States of America, men are at the center of the discussion; whether they were owners or slaves, men are presented first. Black women are pushed in the background except for the most famous like Harriet Tubman and Sally Hemings. In North America, specifically the United States, more than six hundred thousand slaves were brought in from Africa and the Caribbean between 1620 and 1865, the laws regarding slaves were condensed into slave codes that varied from state to state. Female slaves usually received the worst of it. Abusing them was legal, since the were considered property and as long as the owner wanted, he could have his way with any women he chooses on the plantation. Female slave were subject to harsh punishment for refusing the advances of the master. As one of, if not, the most vulnerable group in America at the time, female slaves had more threats to their existence than black men.

Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” emphasizes less of the abuses of female slaves and more of the abuses of slavery in general unlike Jacobs where she mostly focuses on struggles from female slaves. Although Douglass doesn’t talk as much about women as Jacobs, he does mention female slaves usually associated with them suffering physically by the hands of white men. Douglass only explains the physical abuses on these female slaves while Jacobs emphasizes the mental abuses and tortures to where she explains to be much worse than any physical

Women’s rights in America in late 1800’s women’s right to vote women in medicine and the equal rights for women are the 3 main points that were big in the 1800’s.

White women back then were raised by the “Cult of Domesticity”, but black women were taken away from their families to move into other plantations and were stripped away from their moral values which destroyed them. In (Doc 7), Harriet Jacobs, a former slave girl, was abused by her owners and was

First of all, women don’t have important rights in slavery society. Patriarchal system is operated under the absolute dominance of men, and women have responsibility to fully obey husbands. Women have to serve men and accept their inferiority to men. Husbands possess absolute control over wives and children just as they do over their slaves. White women share common characteristics of patriarchal system. They are not allowed to freely move and always have to ask their husbands’ permissions. White female gentries have so many responsibilities for the family. They were expected to take care of her children, support husbands unconditionally, do the household

Life as a female slave was particularly difficult and full of many hardships. Black female slaves would face discrimination through both racism and sexism. Female slaves were used mainly to perform basic housekeeping chores as well as a reproductive role in the plantation, having children that would grow to be laborers in the plantation. Many enslaved mothers would have to watch as their children were abused in the fields by cruel masters or sold away to slave traders to work in some field never to be seen again. Another hardship faced by female slaves was the sexual abuse many would face by their masters. Many female slaves were either sexually harassed or sexually assaulted. Some female slaves would be forced into having affairs with their masters to have opportunity for their children to not endure abuse in the fields. Harriet Jacobs was no exception, she was sexually harassed by her master, Dr. James Norcom (Dr. Flint in Incidents). Jacobs even went so far as to commit to an affair with a

The narratives written by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs show the lives of slaves in great detail. They describe the ways in which they were abused and dehumanized both physically and mentally. Jacobs once said “Slavery is bad for men, but is far more terrible for women,” and when you sit down and think about it, she’s right. Women in slavery suffered much more than the men for a few reasons.

Did Gender Make a Difference within Slavery? Within slavery there were harsh conditions which Frederick Douglass tries to convey in his biography "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." Within this narrative he dezribes how men and women slaves were treated differently by their masters. Women were abused by their master, physically, sexually, and mentally, while men were mostly abused physically and mentally. Many slave women suffered regular beatings.

Women who were African American were emotionally and mentally dehumanized. Therefore, it's very insulting to see what women had to go through (especially for a mother having to endure the lost of a child). Black women had to live day to day knowing that their children would be "taken from them",which is difficult to see. Jacobs, who experienced slavery firsthand, talks about how she wishes she could tell people how painful slavery was to her as she signifies it in this specific quote "I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it". Slavery to her was different it was more challenging than men only because it makes people think they can only have one person in their life's and they would call them "master" as she says: " But he was my master. He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things", which to her was

Now, to explain why I said, “Slavery was hard for all, but women experienced the Hell of it!.” Here is an example in a reading from Sara Evans, “At the same time, young slave women, especially household servants and mulattos, were always vulnerable to sexual abuse by whites, something from which no family could protect them.” (Evans, 109) Women who

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.

Slavery was brutal for both men and women, both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs narratives characterize ways that men and women experienced slavery. The two authors highlight ways slavery was oppressive from two different point of views, one from a woman on a plantation and the other, a man who was mostly a slave in the city. Douglass portrayed how slave women were treated poorly even by his

The notion of slavery, as unpleasant as it is, must nonetheless be examined to understand the hardships that were caused in the lives of enslaved African-Americans. Without a doubt, conditions that the slaves lived under could be easily described as intolerable and inhumane. As painful as the slave's treatment by the masters was, it proved to be more unbearable for the women who were enslaved. Why did the women suffer a grimmer fate as slaves? The answer lies in the readings, Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl and Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative which both imply that sexual abuse, jealous mistresses', and loss of children caused the female slaves to endure a more dreadful and hard life in captivity.