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Psychological Abuse: The Case Of Harriet Jacobs

788 Words4 Pages

Psychological abuse is characterized by non-physical acts affecting inner thoughts. Harriet Jacobs didn’t understand she was a slave until she was six years old, at which point, she began to experience a great amount of pain and suffering under the ownership of Dr. Flint. From an analysis of Harriet Jacob’s experience in slavery, she suffered more from psychological than physical abuse because she was treated like property, was verbally abused, and manipulated by Dr. Flint.
As a slave, Harriet Jacobs was considered property by her masters. Upon the death of her generous mistress, Harriet Jacobs was later relocated into her mistress’ niece’s house. Since the mistress’ niece was only five years old, Jacobs became the property of the young girl’s …show more content…

Flint’s constant manipulation. Dr. Flint offered freedom to her children if she agreed to be his mistress. This is evident when she says, “Sometimes, when my master found that I still refused to accept what he called his kind offers, he would threaten to sell my child” (14). Even after she conceived two children with Mr. Sands, Dr. Flint’s threats continued. He saw Jacobs’ children as a goldmine that could later be sold. As Dr. Flint received offers to buy Jacobs and her children and rejected them because he suspected the men who were interested in buying them were sent by the father of Jacobs’ children. Jacobs explained, “I mistrust that you come from her paramour. If so, you may tell him that he cannot buy her for any money; neither can he buy her children”(15). Dr. Flint kept using the excuse that the reason he did not sell Jacobs was because she was not his property to sell and that she belonged to his daughter. However, it was clear that he wanted Jacobs all to himself. She recalled how Dr. Flint claimed her as, “… mine for life. There lives no human being that can take you out of slavery. I would have done it; but you rejected my kind offer” (15). Dr. Flint’s manipulative actions caused Jacobs much of her psychological suffering, as he continually reminded her that she could be freed from slavery by becoming his mistress. However, Jacobs had hoped that one day the price of her children and her own could be

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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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