ipl-logo

Andrew Jackson's Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

1357 Words6 Pages

Jacobs decided to write her autobiography “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” in order to share the true life of enslaved women, since men wrote most autobiographies. She wanted a woman’s perspective and she thought she was obliged to write it because she was well educated for a black woman during the times of slavery. Her life and other people alike her had their lives greatly affected by Andrew Jackson and his political roles during the late 1920’s to early 1950’s. Jackson’s policies, politics, and societal roles during and after his presidency affected the lives of enslaved women in the United States between 1828 and 1850. “That, considering the progress of State authorities in this country, the distribution and settlement of the lands, the organization of counties the erection of county seats and court-houses, and other indications of a determined course on the part of the surrounding …show more content…

He writes, “Compare your own language above, extracted from the Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us…,” (Walker, 3). Walker’s main focus was toward the white men who had created an active political and economical American society, but failed to go through with what they wrote on official documents such as the Declaration of Independence. Jackson, again, failed to accommodate the Black population with “equal rights” even though they were living in the United States. This not only goes against Black men but Black women as well, such as Harriet Jacobs. If Jackson and other predominately powerful white men during the era had truly followed the historical documents written by our founding fathers, then Jacobs and her family along with all other enslaved Blacks working on southern plantations would have the right as any white American – and be

Show More
Related
585 Words | 3 Pages

When The Second Continental Congress approved of the Declaration of Independence, it purposefully avoided the complicated situation that was slavery. African Americans, both freed and enslaved, were outraged. How could the Founding Fathers write such a riveting and long document for themselves, while completely ignoring the African American struggle for freedom on the basis of skin tone? The hypocrisy was too much for Benjamin Banneker, who took it upon himself to write a letter to Thomas Jefferson about the atrocities of slavery, and persuade him to abolish the practice. In it, Banneker used allusions, a melancholy diction, and deductive reasoning to state his argument against the enslavement of his color.

Read More
127 Words | 1 Pages

Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine. With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave

Read More
579 Words | 3 Pages

As a woman, Harriet Jacobs faced unique challenges in the slave society. She was forced to endure sexual abuse from her owner and struggled to protect her children from the same abuse. This experience is clear in her narrative, which focuses mainly on the sexual misuse of female slaves. She writes with passion, using her own experiences to gain the attention of free women in the North (Jacobs).

Read More
1239 Words | 5 Pages

Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs narratives Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs narration of their hard experience during captivity and slavery played a very significant role in revealing much about the conditions of women during that time. As most of the critics believe that telling a story from the point view of an oppressed group as women in a male dominant society, will guarantee a new framework of resistance and will break the typical image of women as being submissive and Marginalized. Moreover, these two writers, through their narration were able to endure all the difficulties and the hardships as loosing freedom and the sexual abuse, to seek the rights of all other women, and to fight for the elimination of both slavery and captivity. Harriet Jacobs in her narration of “Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself” decided to take the risk and to narrate her own experience as being slave and oppressed by the white system abuse. Although she is not the only one who wrote about slavery and its condition, but as William Andrews said “"Many of the ugly truths of the black woman's condition in slavery had been widely publicized

Read More
525 Words | 3 Pages

At the age of five, she witnessed the atrocity of a male slave being whipped to death. This monstrosity can be seen in the picture of a slave’s scarred back; seeing this, one can only imagine how it affected Sarah. Only three years later, the slave girl her father had assigned “constant companion,” suddenly died. Sarah was compelled to lobby for equal rights for women because of her lack of education as a young woman. She dreamed of continuing her education, but this was denied to her by her father because she was a woman.

Read More
517 Words | 3 Pages

Both Douglass and Walker maintained that the nation had failed to live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence but their reasoning was diverse. Walker believed that the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, was a racist. He encouraged blacks to violently resist their masters and he wrote that blacks when faced with possibly enslavement should “kill or be killed” (Levine B: 792). Walker despised whites, categorizing them as “unjust, jealous unmerciful, avaricious and blood thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority” Walker B:

Read More
1407 Words | 6 Pages

The book draws on a variety of scholarship across numerous fields, including African American history, women’s history, colonial American history, feminist theory, and cultural studies. As a professor of both Social and Cultural Analysis as well as History, with research interests in the history of the Black Atlantic World, comparative slavery, and gender and sexuality studies, Morgan is clearly quite adept at working with the intersection of such ideas. She also articulates the necessity of employing such a range of fields to fill the surprising gaps and omissions in the current

Read More
829 Words | 4 Pages

This exposure to oppression shaped her to be the person she is today. As her “Incidents” show, she was not afraid to use her past as a stepping stone for future success. Truth and Jacobs’ sacrifices demonstrate the evolution one might call rags to riches. In this case, however, the riches displays a sense of impact that both women achieve. They fought until their dying breaths and their legacy still holds strong

Read More
486 Words | 2 Pages

After having read both Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and Harriet Jacobs’s Incident 1. How were Douglass and Jacobs similar and different in their complaints against slavery? What accounts for these differences? In both the inspiring narratives of Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass by Frederick Douglass’s and in Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs the respective authors demonstrate the horrors and disparity of slavery in there own ways.

Read More
415 Words | 2 Pages

Slavery Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacob’s stories vary vastly from previous narratives; as former slaves rather than as white northern abolitionists. While both write on their own personal experiences, each autobiography varies deeply in how they chose to write their stories. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass has a primary focus of slavery on a larger level, while in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Jacobs focuses her individual relationships and the effects of slavery on them. Although Douglass relies on the power dynamics of slavery to promote abolition, Jacobs uses the communal relationships amongst slaves and slave owners to achieve the same purpose, therefore both use their relationships

Read More
1188 Words | 5 Pages

The life of Harriet Jacobs, as relayed in “Incidents,” reveals that there is no true freedom even upon escaping for enslaved Black people in the United States, yet unlike the typical slave’s life, she had a relatively less harsh life by being a house slave. Her life shares the fear Black slaves have to live with, particularly even after escaping. However, she does have her own experience in slavery that does not correspond with other slaves. Regardless, both her shared and personal experience illustrates the life of enslaved Black people.

Read More
680 Words | 3 Pages

Analogous in form to the spiritual autobiography, the slave narrative emphasizes the difficulty of upholding moral goodness under the weight of slavery. By revealing herself as a “fallen woman” Jacobs creates a hazardous problem, capable of eliminating the sympathies of a primarily white audience. Moreover, Jacobs risks portraying herself as an impure woman, whose virtuousness departs from the piousness and gracefulness typically exemplified by the ideal woman or “angel in the house,” according to the “Cult of True Womanhood.” Therefore, in an effort to preserve the ethos of her argument, Jacobs attributes her unchaste condition to the systemic effects of American slavery. Hoping to destroy the ideology of benign paternalism, Jacobs reveals her consequential ethical dilemma through a faint description of her master’s, Dr. Flint’s, licentious behavior.

Read More
520 Words | 3 Pages

In Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs narrative they show how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physically and emotionally. In Jacobs narrative she talks about how women had it worse than men did in slavery. While men suffered, women had it worse due to sexual abuse. The emotional, physical, and sexual abuse was dehumanizing for anyone.

Read More
738 Words | 3 Pages

The idea of republican motherhood and the cult of domesticity are two contrasting ideas of how women should be living their life around the times of the 1800s. The republican motherhood was a movement that women should be educated and are able to live individual lives without men providing for them. The cult of domesticity was a view that women should be stay-at-home wives, take care of the children, and provide comfort to the husband when he is home. The biggest difference of these two movements was the decision to educate women. Republican motherhood was all for the educating of women but the cult of domesticity wanted the opposite: no education for women.

Read More
769 Words | 4 Pages

Harriet Ann Jacobs is the first Afro-American female writer to publish the detailed autobiography about the slavery, freedom and family ties. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent to keep the identity in secret. In the narrative, Jacobs appears as a strong and independent woman, who is not afraid to fight for her rights. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was published in 1961, but was unveiled almost 10 years later due to the different slave narrative structure. Frequently, the slave narratives were written by men where they fight against the slavery through literacy by showing their education.

Read More

More about Andrew Jackson's Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Related Topics

Open Document