Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 1.Life for a lot of slave women was that of one filled with agony and misery these women had a rough life from the moment they were, a lot of these women learned to grow up quickly and where forced to become women by their masters at an early age experiencing sexual abuse, which caused a lot of tension between them and their mistresses as well. These women were seen as a property belonging to the masters and the women where to obey any demand by their master and Women slaves were not allowed to love freely and chose their husband, they were most often punished at the mere thought out trying to marry someone who wasn’t a slave or wasn’t chosen by their masters. It was a never-ending cycle for these women …show more content…
Harriet Jacobs Grandmother had a good mistress who treated her well and promised to give her freedom upon her death, but when her mistress passed away her sister stepped in and took it upon herself to put her up for auction even though it was left in her will and was deprived of her freedom as she had been promised. Her grandmother was also owed money that was borrowed by her mistress which was never repaid to her, money that she so early saved working very hard to be able to buy her children. Slaves were not allowed to take them to court. Harriet and other slaves were not allowed to learn this was greatly frowned upon and if they were found trying to read or write most often would be punished. Although sometimes in rare occasions owners took advantage of this and saw it as a benefit for their slaves to learn. If a slave dare to escape, they were usually looked for until captured and brought back to face their punishment sometimes this meant being beaten in front of a crowd of other slave owners, put in jail or sometimes even put up for sale again. Slaves families where often separated when sold unless they were the lucky few to be bough together. Slaves were treated very unjustly and where even denied any leftovers that where cooked by them. Their masters would go out of their way to purposely sabotage perfectly good food or bread to avoid being eaten by their slaves. Often bread or certain foods where even counted to avoid being eaten by them as well. If their owners disliked a meal prepared they were forced to eat It all or it was shoved down their throat as punishment. If they were lucky they got a meal for Christmas and for New Year’s where often put up for sale to new owners. Through all of this Harriet watched her loved ones suffer a great deal. Her brother constantly trying to escape for freedom and being put in prison in horrible