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Slave Narratives Essay

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Slave Narratives The thing that comes to mind with the mention of slavery is a black person getting whipped by a white man. Violence was always the mechanism that slaveholders chose to use when wanting to show power and gain control. There were many forms of violence that a slaveholder could use; sexual, emotional, and physical violence. There were many rights and privileges not applicable to enslaved people. One of those rights was no laws protecting them from sexual violence. “There is no shadow of law to protect her from the insult, from violence, or even from death.” (Jacobs 45). Enslaved women were the most susceptible to sexual abuse and being raped because they were easy targets for their masters. These masters were able to have sexual …show more content…

If a slave worked on a plantation, then it became challenging to try and get away from their master when compared to working in a village or town. When working in a village, the slaveholders also had to consider their public image. If the slaveholder wanted to keep their clientele and job, they could not be seen as someone who says inappropriate things to young girls, even if it was his slave. “The doctor, as a professional man, deemed it prudent to keep up one outward show of decency.” (Jacobs 47). Plantations were probably the most dangerous place to be for a slave. Large fields with little to no public eye watching meant that the slaveholder could do anything they wanted to their slaves, and no one could be around to watch the cruelty. “Public opinion was indeed, a measurable restraint upon the cruelty and barbarity of masters.” (Douglass …show more content…

In the system, a child can stay with a caretaker until they are old enough to begin work. The caretaker might have been the child's mother, but soon after, they would be sold separately for better profit in favor of their master. “The mother went down to the grave without ever seeing her child again.” (Keckley 29). Additionally, many of the women who did find love in the system never really got to be with their loved ones because they typically were not on the same plantation or in the same area as one another. “The children were sold to a slave-trader, and their mother was bought by a man in her own town.” (Jacobs

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