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Harriet Ann Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

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Incidents in the life of a slave girl is an autobiography by a youthful mother and criminal slave distributed in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who altered the book for its writer, Harriet Ann Jacobs. Harriet Jacobs role in regards to the African American history is to teach and inform. Jacob's book is tended to white ladies in the North who don't completely grasp the wrongs of bondage. She makes direct speaks to their mankind to extend their insight and impact their musings about slavery as a foundation. In her biography she said “I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what slavery really is. Only by experience can anyone realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations." (Edenton). …show more content…

“Born into slavery to Elijah and Delilah Jacobs in 1813, Harriet Ann Jacobs grew up in Edenton, N.C., the daughter of slaves owned by different families. Her father was a skilled carpenter, whose earnings allowed Harriet and her brother, John, to live with their parents in a comfortable home. Her grandmother, Molly Horniblow, was a beloved adult in young Harriet’s life – a confidant who doled out encouraging advice along with bits of crackers and sweets for her grandchildren.” (Edenton).
Harriet Jacobs wanted to preserve her plan to escape free. She wanted to gain her freedom and to inform Northern white women of the pain and suffering endured by African American females during slavery. With all the rape and disrespect that took place during that time, its logical that anyone would want to forget all the mental and physical abuse they received from their owners. Just like all successful abolitionist Harriet wanted to fight against slavery and all the torture it came along with. She strived to preserve the right for freedom and the rights that all female slaves were

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Secondly, Harriet wanted a social change because she had seen and went through the difficulty of it at such a young age. This caused her to notice how little freedom, if such, they had. Also, she knew that no one should have to go through such torture without any sort of protection. Moreover, they had limited supplies for the year and only had one day for themselves, which wasn’t fair considering the fact that they worked 6 days of the week all year. After all, some slaves had tried to escape, which she witnessed, but if “caught, would be whipped, and finally sold to the chain gang,” the text states.

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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

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Harriet had a tough life for the fact that she lived in fear for ten years, because she didn’t want slave owners to find her once she escaped from slavery. She expressed her slavery life through a powerful book name Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl. In this book she spoke about her white owner who harassed her and on her life as a slavery

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The book Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself, Harriet Jacobs, we follow her life as a slave in North Carolina during the Antebellum period of the United States before the Civil War. This book describes Harriet’s life as a slave in detail, something we would not usually get from a book around this time. Some important insights we get from this book are, instability of life, difficulty to escape slavery, family life, and the struggles of female slaves. Harriet Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813. The first child of Delilah Horniblow and Elijah Jacobs.

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She realized she had been labeled as an abolitionist, and her life was in danger, but she was determined to help her people. She overlooked her safety to help someone in need. “Harriet established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged on a property adjacent to her own. After undergoing brain surgery to try to alleviate the symptoms from the head injury that had plagued her since childhood, and being essentially penniless, Harriet was forced to move into the home herself in 1911. She died there on March 10, 1913, supported by family and friends”.

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Harriet Tubman worked for the Union Army during the Civil War as a nurse, cook, and spy so she knew the land of the south very well. The fact that she knew the land of the south very well was extremely helpful for the runaway slaves when escaping through the Underground Railroad (Maschi). According to the Library of Congress, if any slave decided they wanted to stop their journey and turn back to return to their masters, Harriet would hold a gun at them and say, “You’ll be free, or die a slave”. Harriet feared that if slaves returned then hers as well as the other escaping slaves lives would be in great danger by getting discovered, being captured, and lastly being killed.

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In 1849 Harriet started her first trip to Pennsylvania although knowing whoever got caught trying to run away they would be beaten shown in paragraph 6, “Because the runaway slave had been, whipped, and finally sold to the chain gang. ”(Petry,35). Harriet had learned to be a leader figure to other slaves from her father which in my opinion that is why other slaves had trusted her so much, because she was Ben’s daughter. I believe Harriet had the ambition to save the other slaves because of their harsh treatment shown in paragraph 17, “Once a year, on issue day, they received

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Harriet Jacobs was an African American woman who wrote incidents in the life of a slave girl in order to discuss her experiences in slavery as a woman. She wanted to unveil the truth about the life of a slave and share her knowledge among white southerners and northerners of slavery. As a slave woman and a runaway, Harriet Jacobs had suffered emotionally, physically, and mentally in the institution of slavery. However, she had suffered far more psychological abuse than physical abuse due to her life as a slave, sexual harassment from her slave master, and the constant fear of being found as a runaway. All these experiences led to the truth of what slavery really was.

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"I was free," she said, "but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with the old folks, and my brothers and sisters . . . I was free, and they should be free also . . . 1 would bring them all here ..." Harriet shows her confidence and determination to bring her family to freedom.

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For example, in the text it says "Somehow she would have to instill courage into those eleven people, most of them strangers, would have to feed them on the hope and bright dreams of freedom instead of the fried pork and corn bread and milk she had promised them." The eleven strangers were hungry and didn't want to go on, but Harriet kept encouraging them to never give up, she could've just gave up right there, but she didn't. Another example is when it said, "They stumbled along behind her, half dead for sleep, and she urged them on, though she was as tired and discouraged as they were. " This states that Harriet was also in pain but would never give up for the freedom the runaways deserved. The last example is when it says, "Sometimes she told them things to laugh, sometimes she even sang to them, and heard the eleven voices behind her blending softly with hers, and then she knew that for a moment all was well with them."

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If Harriet was never brave enough to do what she has done, She would not have saved 300 slaves and the Underground Railroad would not have been what it was today. Harriet did the right thing and saved all the slaves that she could have saved in her lifetime. All in all, slavery is the wrong thing to do and no person should have the right to own

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Instead of staying safe, she left to rescue family and non-family. This was a huge risk because the reward for her was a HUGE amount. She didn’t let that bother her as it did with her brothers. She believed that every slave should be free and equal so she made many more trips to rescue people. But then the law made it slightly more difficult for Harriet.

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Harriet Jacobs, referred to in the book as Linda Brent, was a strong, caring, Native American mother of two children Benny and Ellen. She wrote a book about her life as a slave and how she earned freedom for herself and her family. Throughout her book she also reveals countless examples of the limitations slavery can have on a mother. Her novel, also provides the readers a great amount of examples of how motherhood has been corrupted by slavery.

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Alizae lounnarath Prof. Troy HIST 1301 12/1/14 Harriet Jacobs Final Paper Assignment Harriet Jacobs was a very important African American women during the hard times of slavery. Harriet was an example of how African American women were treated. Although she was tough and went through a long journey she survived and accomplished her goal of gaining freedom for herself and her family. Harriet was also an author who wrote a popular book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl which told her personal story including all the barriers in her life so that people could be aware of the cruel treatments and the lifestyle some of the helpless enslaved women had to go through during the 1800-1900’s.

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My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was allowed to work at his trade, and manage his own affairs. His strongest wish was to purchase his children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded.” (page 820) Harriet Ann Jacobs was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813. Jacobs grew up in a family where her father was able to keep her and her brother together without being separated.

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