ipl-logo

Harriet Ann Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

923 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Harriet jacobs incidents in the life of a slave girl

Incidents
Ariel Freedman
May 25, 2023
U.S American History

Empathy can never fully be absent; although it can only be diminished, a lack of kindness can change over time, and people can develop feelings of an issue. In Harriet Ann Jacobs’ autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” she attempts to increase the empathic state of the readers of her time. She was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina, in the early 1800s. Jacobs tried to convey to her white audience racism and African American life in America by showing the audience her experiences. She wants to convince white middle-class northerners to empathize with her by giving them perspective on her experiences. She aimed to improve the conditions of the recently-freed …show more content…

Loving, protecting one’s family, and keeping family close, transcends race and culture. Although the brutal system of slavery routinely threatens enslaved people like Jacobs, their idea of a bonded family is. Jail, sales, or death constantly tore apart enslaved families. Jacobs’ experiences of being separated from her Children and forced to comply with the owner’s demands highlight the devastating impact that slavery had on family relationships. Yet, through all of Jacob’s struggles and hardships, she shows the resilience and strength of her spirit. Even amid extreme tragedy, Jacobs’ unwavering commitment to protecting her children and finding her loved ones is a testament to the power of love and the ties that bind …show more content…

Jacobs’ choice to flee her master’s plantation exemplifies her fierce desire for independence and self-determination. It exhibits her unwavering character in the face of overwhelming suffering and the lengths she will go to secure the fundamental right to freedom. Her battle for freedom becomes a guiding force in the story, highlighting the unbreakable spirit and tenacity of enslaved people who dared to resist the harsh institution of slavery. In addition, Jacobs’ efforts to free others from slavery show her purpose to stir the readers’ morals and motivate them to take a stand against the heinous institution of slavery. She wants to highlight the injustice and violence inherent in the system by discussing her experiences as an enslaved person. She also wants to make her audience think about the moral ramifications of such pervasive human misery. Jacobs urges her readers to identify freedom as a fundamental and inviolable human right that should be provided to everyone to destroy the complacency and indifference that supported the institution of slavery through the strong storytelling she employs. In this way, the book’s desire for liberation is a sad reminder of the ongoing fight for liberty and the unwavering pursuit of justice. It encourages readers to consider the

Show More
Related

Similarities Between Harriet Jacobs And Frederick Douglass

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

Summary Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

1510 Words | 7 Pages

In the autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Harriet Jacobs is able to tell her story and show the pain of bondage she endured. Jacobs lived from 1813-1897, and all she ever knew was the life of a slave. It is her story, even though she uses a pseudonym, Linda Brent, in order to protect her identity. Her real name is later discovered by scholars, and she is then given the credit for her writing. The book was published in 1861, after fleeing north to New York.

Read More

Summary Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

1056 Words | 5 Pages

Even if you happen to have master that wasn’t as cruel to you, you were still a prisoner. Running away wasn’t simply an act of rebellion of a slave who wanted to get out of a bad job, it was the act of escaping a terrible, wrongfully gained lifestyle. They were fleeing for their lives and the lives of those who were closest to them. Jacobs has a two children that she was trying to get back to and who she didn’t want to end up working out in the fields as she had to. Her children were mixed raced, or “mulatto” which was the term that was coined back then for people who were interracial, but not to digress.

Read More

Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

1360 Words | 6 Pages

In Incidents In the Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Harriet shares her experience in slavery and how she overcame trials presented in the form of her master and mistress, and how she battled constant separation from her family and children. In order to protect herself from her master, who constantly attempts to pressure Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, Harriet becomes involved in a relationship with a white man and gains two children. However, in order to escape slavery, Harriet stays for seven years in a small shed in her grandmother’s home and eventually gains her freedom. The book shows that in a system of slavery, family ties and the idea of motherhood are two things that are almost unachievable due to the uncertainty

Read More

Similarities Between Mary Rowlandson And Harriet Jacobs

420 Words | 2 Pages

Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs both penned a narrative of their time spent in captivity. Though they were born nearly two centuries apart, their imprisonment shared commonalities. The most prevalent common factor between the two narratives is that both autobiographies relate the story of an enslaved mother powerless to come to the aide of her children. Rowlandson bemoans that her “poor wounded child” died in excruciating pain, she was deprived of visiting with her eldest daughter and her son’s location was not disclosed to her (Rowlandson 176-77). Jacobs was dealt a regrettable lot, as well.

Read More

Summary Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

654 Words | 3 Pages

May the blessing of God rest on this imperfect effort in behalf of my persecuted people" (Pg. 847). She begins her testimony talking about her family. She lived with her parents, Jacobs describes her father being a highly intelligent loving man. He worked

Read More

Harriet Jacobs Research Paper

188 Words | 1 Pages

Jacobs later began “to contribute her life story to the abolitionist cause in a way that would capture the attention of Northern white women in particular, to show how slavery debased and demoralized woman” (Baym, 921). Jacobs wrote an autobiography on her life as a slave little girl. In her book she described the kind of treatment African

Read More

Analysis Of Harriet Ann Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

1046 Words | 5 Pages

This quote shows that Jacobs is willing to bear the risks of escaping, becoming a fugitive, and potentially even dying to prioritize her children's safety and security. Although Jacobs' personal desire to escape captivity is evident, Jacobs' reasons behind wanting to escape develop and change throughout the book, with her reasons becoming more for others than for herself as she matures. With freedom being such a reoccurring theme in this book, it becomes evident that Jacobs had many different reasons to strive toward becoming a free person for herself and her family. As Jacobs' experiences of both slavery and motherhood evolved, her

Read More

A Life Of Enslaved Black People In Incidents, By Harriet Jacobs

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

Analysis Of Harriot Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

1258 Words | 6 Pages

The strain on the familial bonds stemming from her former enslavement follows Jacobs even after her escape from the south and reunion with her children in Boston. This is illustrated through the narrator's sense of uneasiness while in New York, “When I took the children out to breathe the air, I closely observed the countenances of all I met. I dreaded the approach of summer when snakes and slaveholders make their appearance. I was, in fact, a slave in New York, as subject to slave laws as I had been in a Slave State.” (P.290)

Read More

Analysis Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

1187 Words | 5 Pages

While, the theme of the book can be misinterpreted because of the systemic construction of slavery, Jacobs emphasizes the challenges of her position in serval different situations. In addition, she proves that mothers will through intuition and obligation would fight for their children. However, in an era where woman of a hierarchy based on race owes others nothing, she took on the task by telling her story. Also, adding that the incidents she experienced are true. Admittedly, the simple jester of pleading to her readers, brings forth the truth of her parental obligation to children.

Read More

Dr. Jacobs Ethos Of A Fallen Woman

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

Analysis Of 'Incidents In The Life Of Frederick Douglass'

1071 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the beatings, hunger, separation, depression, and constant pain of slavery, hope and humanity are lost when slaves lack defiance. With humanity in tact, slaves desire and fight for what they deserve: a necessity to life, a universal, God-given right, freedom. The fighters, the risk-takers, and the persisters, become the survivors. Resistance is the path slaves choose in the slave narratives, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs’ and, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass’. The rebellious spirit helps slaves survive by reminding them of their humanity and rightful desire to attain their freedom.

Read More

Harriet Ann Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

769 Words | 4 Pages

At the age of six, her mother died and she was forced to live with Margaret Horniblow, the mother’s owner. The mistress took a good care of Jacobs and taught her how to read, write and sew. Her father was always telling her to feel free and do not feel someones property. While her grandmother was always teaching Jacobs respect and manners. She was always telling her about principles and ethnics.

Read More

Harriet Jacobs Life In Slavery

622 Words | 3 Pages

Jacobs' children were under the belief that their mother was in New York, when in reality she was hiding in her grandmother's shed. For the audience, this is heartbreaking, to hear that all a child wants is to see his mother, and that he is missing her dearly. Jacobs' uses this to prove to the women of the north that not only were the adults affected majorly, but the children were as well. She wants them to see this and understand how difficult slavery was and work to abolish

Read More

More about Harriet Ann Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Related Topics

Open Document