Harriet Ann Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Gisel Mendoza March 4, 2018 Mr. Miller AP English The Outcome of Degrading a Woman Historically, women have been seen as less valuable to society. Their roles were to have children and serve their husband. Many women are often victims suffering from physical abuse and political injustices. Society portrays them as submissive and silenced. Even though now women are able to join the workforce, they are still getting paid less than men. Despite America’s status as a civilized country, the degradation persists in too

Of course, they did not know of it yet because they were just uneducated kids. For example, when Harriet Ann Jacobs was little girl she says, “I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment”.(Harriet Jacobs,565) Also, the girls were to stay inside with their mothers and help clean the house, while the boys were able to go to school and get an education. For example, Harriet Ann Jacobs states in her book, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, that she never knew she was a slave until her childhood had passed away.(Harriet Jacobs,564) As she got older she started to realize how her life was not actually hers, but instead it was her masters. Her master was a cruel man who would abuse her. He started to sexually assault her and she could not do anything about it. She says, “he peopled my young mind with unclean images, such as only a vile monster could think of. I turned from him with disgust and hatred. But he was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof as him-where I saw a man forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature.”(Harriet Jacobs,567) Many women have suffered from sexual assault and have felt like there is no law that would protect them from this horrible act. Also, women who were born into slavery had to bear children for their master, but

Many women devoted most of their time trying to show men that they too can work just as hard as them. They tried to show men that they can do all the things that men thought only they could do. For example, in Sojourner Truth speech, she says, “I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And a’n’t I a women? I could work as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get it-and bear de lash as well!”.(Sojourner Truth,440-441) In Sojourner Truth 's women 's right speech, she explains all the farm labor she was put through and how she can do as much as any man, even though she’s a woman. However, it was not just about women wanting to join the workforce, but they also wanted to be educated like the men. Most women were kept from getting involved with political system, because of their household ‘jobs’ they needed to do and because they did not understand the full concept of reading or writing. Most women had to educate themselves from hearing their masters talk. However, for the women who were educated; like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, they used it to their advantage and brought women together by hosting a women’s right convention and had The Declaration of Sentiments signed by at least a hundred people who supported women’s