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Narrative Essay: The Dehumanization Of Slave Women

1446 Words6 Pages

their bodies. Property is only into consideration when to comes to a Caucasian. According to Kanzler, the narrative sets the question of slave’s possession over their dwellings along with the possession of their bodies. Slaves are already massively dehumanized, but a female slave does not have human agency. They are deprived from motherhood, by not having a relationship with their child. Due to not being “thy neighbor” (Jacobs,8), no matter their amount of loyalty they are only seen as a piece of property. Lastly when it comes to lack of human agency even as a free slave, they hold no property of their own. This is shown through their child not belonging to them as well as the example of Aunt Marthy’s house being invaded during slave hunts. According to Drake in her article, women in general are valued for their virginity and femininity and must depend on …show more content…

Linda not being a normal slave, sometimes takes away her point of being a female slave. Although she witnesses the part of being sexually objectified and denied human agency, she was not treated as roughly as the average slave woman. Some girls are put to work as soon as they can walk and understand commands. Jacobs or Linda, had a few years of a normal childhood. She is also a literate slave, knowing how to read and write. Some slaves who are found out to be educated are punished but Dr. Flint used this to his advantage to write seductive letters to her knowing she understood them even when she claimed she had no idea what it was saying. Lastly Linda was hardly harmed by Dr. Flint, while other slave women, even when confiding to their master’s will, was brutally beaten for rejecting their master’s lustful needs. Linda did contribute to being a slave girl, but she did not contribute to all the aspects of a slave. More of her slave acts were when she was going or freedom and even then slaves did not have the luxury of having a freed grandmother house to hide

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Sally Hemings was a slave on the Monticello plantation in the late 18th century, and her experience helps us to understand that her gender aided the way she was treated versus if they went by the color of her skin (Dilkes Mullins). {Woman during this era were thought of as property, they were objectified, they were treated poorly and had no choice. Their husbands were liable for anything that they did} [Being a female during this era outweighed what one 's social status was. It did not matter what race you were, but if you were a woman, you were treated as such] (Dilkes Mullins). Ms. Hemings was a beautiful sixteen-year-old enslaved girl (Gordon-Reed, 102) who was more than just a slave on the Monticello plantation.

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Or how about being forced to submit sexually to satisfy your master and his mistress knows and begins to envy you. Not to forget women were whipped when disobedient or completing a task incorrectly. Being a woman in slavery was more mentally, emotionally, and physically straining then being a man. Women were talked down upon, verbally abused as well as physically. Look to the past, to Africa, to home, she

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