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Harriet Jacobs Research Paper

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Harriet Jacobs experienced firsthand how slavery within the white household degrades the virtue and motherly instinct of white women. Throughout the 18th century, Jacobs is passed from owner to owner relearning their rules and regulations of the house. Jacobs knew nothing different, but noticed how her owners would slowly change and their caring humanitarian actions would start to diminish. Jacobs was not the only one who noticed her owners changing, the whole world began to take note of the dwindling virtue in all women. Harriet Jacobs experienced firsthand how slavery within the white household degrades the virtue white women by ridding them of compassion and altering their perception of what is right and wrong. By the time Jacobs was twelve years old, she was on her …show more content…

Prior, her first owner, raised her along with her family, was kind and loving Jacobs did not really see herself as a salve because she was “always glad to do her [master’s] biding, and proud to labor for her” (2342). Little did she know how much her freedom will change as she moves to her late master’s sister’s daughter plantation. Jacobs’ carefree heart like “any free –born white child” would soon be torn apart. Now, serving the Flint family, Jacobs realizes how the power Mrs. Flint gains corrupts her standards of virtue as she emotionally abuses Jacobs and manipulates her to her liking. In one scene, Jacobs finds Mrs. Flint crying as she assumes her husband is no longer faithful to her in their marriage. Prior, Jacobs observes Dr. Flint and Mrs. Flint arguing constantly and believes Mrs. Flint “was never satisfied” because Dr. Flint was sexually abusing Jacobs leaving his wife alone (2344). Jacobs tries to comfort her, and can feel some sort of relatability with the sadness and pain Mrs. Flint is attempting to show. Yet, Jacobs realizes there is no morality in her physique and that Mrs. Flint is “incapable of feeling for the condition of shame and misery in which her unfortunate,

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With this idea in Jacobs’ mind, Jacobs began to find herself a good man that she could marry. The stars were in Jacobs favor when she found a man that had the same values as her and that they were both in love with each other. But when it rains it pours, Jacobs life was turned upside down when she discovered he masters plans. This pain was only made worse by discovering this the day that she asked her master for permission to be married. Being a slave she could not disobey her master orders and could not marry this man and forced to escape.

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Women often found work in private domestic settings once they were freed, where they had experience serving as mothers or housemakers during their time as slaves. This idea was explored in depth in the memoir of Harriet Jacobs, who served as a seamstress, housemaker, and mother, all during her time as a slave. As a slave, Harriet Jacobs began garnering experience in motherly roles as she “nursed two babies of [her] own…” and raised them throughout the entire beginning of her narrative (Jacobs 138). This previous experience gave Jacobs a significant advantage over other black laborers, since she could bypass the requirement of recommendations. The skill of wet-nursing was so important during Jacob’s life that any woman who could fulfill the role was accepted, despite inability to “obtain… certificates from the families…”

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In their opinion, it humiliates their higher position, as the owner seems to be more attracted by the enslaved. Jacobs found comfort from her grandma. Though she felt ashamed to tell her grandma what Dr. Flint had done to her, Jacobs is glad that she lived somewhere near her grandma, because her grandma is someone Dr. Flint fear of. In this sense, her grandma can provide her some sort of protection, and lets Dr. Flint be aware and more careful. Jacobs is also making an appeal for the women in North to help the enslaved in the South.

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However, by getting herself pregnant by a white man of her choosing, she was able to escape Dr. Flint. Jacobs refused to submit to her master’s rape, making a choice demonstrating her self-determination: Harriet writes, “It seems less degrading to give one’s self then to submit to compulsion” (X.291). Thinking of her children’s freedom, Jacobs escaped the home of Flint, hiding in a crawl space above a storeroom in her grandmother’s house for seven years. Harriet took the fate of her children in her own hands, hoping her escape would prompt Dr. Flint to sell her children to their father. Finally making it to New York, Jacobs spent 10 years as a fugitive slave on the move.

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