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Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

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In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs recounts her years as a woman in slavery. Jacobs portrays the abuse many young and old woman received from their masters. Whether it would be sexual abuse or physical abuse. For Jacobs she was harassed and abused by her master for most of her young life. There were instances in the book where she stated how and when her master struck her. Being a women slave can be seen as even more difficult then that of a mans life in slavery. The women faced a lot more emotional issues. Like the selling of her children. Which was a devastating thing to many mothers during the era of slavery. Giving birth then nourishing and raising and healthy child only to have them stripped from their hands …show more content…

In charge of cooking, cleaning, and raising the masters children. The house was a horrific place for African American woman. Behind closed doors there was often physical and sexual abuse that these women went through. In the book Jacobs witnessed saw and went through these abuses. She states “I was compelled to live under the same roof with him- where I saw a man forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature. He told me I was his property” (Jacobs 24). Jacobs was harassed and abused by her master for many years. And more than once she was struck by the doctor for stating the truth. Her master started to grow a liking to the young slave. This Jacobs knew would end very badly for her and her future family. She states “My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I could not remain ignorant of their import. I tried to treat them with indifference or contempt. The masters age, my extreme youth…” (Jacobs 24). Jacobs is a prime example of the sexual abuse that most African women slaves went through with their masters. She was unable to push the doctor away. Men were able to work outside away from most whites for a time. Mostly women were in constant contact with whites. A deadly environment for these poor …show more content…

If you are unable to love someone or something you have a feeling of loneliness and depression. Unfortunately, this was the feelings of many women trapped in slavery. Even for Harriet Jacobs young life she was unable to see the father of her children for much of the time while she was stuck on the plantation. Marriage at the time for slaves was against the law. For Jacobs she knew her, and the father of her children could not be married. She states “He proposed to marry me. I loved him with all the ardor of a young girls first love. But when I reflected that I was a slave, and that the laws gave no sanction to the marriage of such, my heart sank within me” (Jacobs 31). Her lover attempted to buy her, but the doctor refused. Love was something that was hard to come by when you were a slave. There wasn’t too much to be happy about let alone love. For women whose children were stripped from her and without her lover times were

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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).

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Although she did not receive any physical punishment by her master, she lived in a tight-knit community and was aware of the conditions of other slaves who received brutal punishments. For example, Jacobs notes that “every where men, women, and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet.” (page 56). Female slaves lived in fear that they would be raped by their masters. Jacobs’ master, Dr. Flint, often made relentless sexual advances at her, and justified his behavior by saying that she was “made for his use.”

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The slave narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs show how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physically and emotionally. Jacobs states that women in slavery were treated far more terribly than men were endured. The horrible treatments that were lashed upon women slaves, she witnessed through her own eyes, so the argument that Jacob presents, "slavery is bad for men, but far more terrible for women is agreeable. African American women who were brought as slaves or who were born slaves were emotionally and mentally dehumanized by their owners. In Jacobs' narrative the young girl was mentally harmed for the account of the the girls "young mind" would be filled with "unclean images" by the master.

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In fact, “[h]e was so effectually screened by his great wealth that he was called to no account for his crimes, not even murder” (41). Because the plantation owner possessed great wealth, society disregarded his murders, despite their horrifying number and nature, because the slaves were viewed as his property that he could treat in whatever manner he wished. Jacobs uses this example to show how inhumane acts, which would be considered unacceptable in a free world, are accepted in slave society because slaves are viewed as property and not as human beings. In addition to describing how the institution of slavery corrupts societal morals, Jacobs also describes how individual morals become corrupted when discussing how white masters treat their beautiful female slaves.

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Jacobs was able to have her family near her for much of her life in slavery, particularly her grandmother. Jacobs writes,”To this grandmother I was indebted for many comforts.” (806). Jacobs also later mentions, “I was indebted to her for all my comforts, spiritual or temporal” (2). Jacobs felt that her grandmother helped her so much through these times that she would never be able to repay the comfort she received from her grandmother and all the good deeds she did for her.

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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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At times, a burden to all, slavery was and continues to be an atrocity inflicted upon many throughout the world. Harriet Jacobs writes, “Slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible for women.” Within her book, The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs focusses on slavery in the Southern States. Under the pseudonym Linda Brent, Jacobs touches on the controversial issue of the mistreatment of women. It is obvious that women in slavery suffered atrocious conditions while under the control of their masters and their masters’ wives.

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Despite the fact that they lost their mothers and realized their status as slaves at about the same age, Douglass’s and Jacobs’s feelings are very different. For instance, looking in the beginning of Jacobs’s autobiography, it is evident that she is filled with grief and sadness about losing her mother. She wrote, “I grieved for her, and my young mind was troubled with the thought who would now take care of me and my little brother” (Baym 923). After the death of her mother, Jacobs was attached to her grandmother, Aunt Marthy. For Jacobs, the relationship with her grandmother was a gift; her grandmother took over the mother’s role in her life.

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Unfortunately, her children are being with Dr. Flint, but she cannot do anything to rescue her children. In “Drawing the Color Line” by Howard Zinn, Zinn states that “The blacks had been torn from their land and culture, forced into a situation where the heritage of language, dress, custom, family relation, was bit by bit obliterated except for remnants that blacks could hold on to by sheer, extraordinary persistence.” In this case, this scene illustrates the helplessness caused by the slavery because Jacobs is isolated away from her children. Jacobs felt upset about it when the children are being with her cruel master Dr. Flint. In the meanwhile, Jacobs got isolated from his family in the garret.

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In this memoir, the author, Harriet Jacobs, describes her life as a slave in the southern United States. She informs the reader on the hardships that not only she, but all slaves suffered during this time period. These hardships were particularly difficult for women in slavery as they bore unique burdens compared to men or children in slavery. Women were regarded as the weaker sex, so they were often given jobs such as weaving clothes or nannying the master’s children. While these jobs may appear to be easier, they could, in fact, be more taxing then physical jobs that the men performed.

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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.

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According to “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, Harriet Jacobs shares the story of her life, under the pseudonym “Linda”, to inform her audience of the many challenges she faced having been born into slavery in the 1800’s. From the challenges that she faced in childhood, which carried through into adulthood and motherhood, Linda exhibits tremendous courage as she confronts the struggles brought on by the grueling world of slavery. Although she was able to escape from it later in life, she never really knew what freedom was supposed to be. Jacobs starts her story by reminiscing on her past, of being born into slavery, telling us what growing up was like for her living under that circumstance. As the slave laws were still in effect then,

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Through Jacobs ambiguous words, colonized women were also vaguely portrayed as a form possession, in a sense they also had to answer to the man in charge. Therefore white women never really held any real power, no matter if it was as grand as political or as small as domestic. In the life of Jacobs and her nameless benefactress, white women held all the power for her freedom for … “she was unlike the majority of the slaveholders’ wives” (152). Distinguishing these social and political dynamics, as Jacob orchestrates her literary pleas to the intended audience, she insinuates that the female colonizer was more of an ally to many slaves, rather than a vicious

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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.

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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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