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Harriet Jacobs Life In Slavery

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Harriet Jacobs' was was born into slavery on the 11th of February in 1813 but was not aware until the age of six when her mother passed away. After escaping slavery, she went on to write a narrative of her life, changing the character's names to protect their identities. During her life in slavery, Jacobs' suffered many tragedies, such as sexual advances from Dr. James Norcom, (Dr. Flint in her narrative) her master, which she only rejected. Later, she goes on to have a sexual relationship with Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, (Mr.Sands in her narrative) and has two children as a result. Because of her rejections towards her master's sexual advances, Jacobs' is sent to a plantation. She later runs away to hide in a shed connected to her grandmother's …show more content…

At the beginning of her narrative, Jacobs' talks about how she saw a young slave girl die after childbirth “In her agony she cried out ‘O Lord, come and take me!’” while her mistress stood beside for her asking “‘You suffer do you?’...You deserve it all, and more too’” (Jacobs'). The audience is shocked and upset by the horrible treatment slaves received, when they should be treated like everyone else. Because of their upset reaction to the treatment of the slaves, Jacobs' is convincing women of the north to fight against slavery. She talks not only about how slavery affected adults, but how it affected children as well, specifically hers. She explains how Benny, her son, “was standing at the gate. He had heard [Dr.Flint] say he had gone to find [his mother] and he called out ‘Dr. Flint, did you bring my mother home? I want to see her’” (Jacobs'). 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

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