Summary Of A Girl By Harriet Jacobs

In this memoir, the author, Harriet Jacobs, describes her life as a slave in the southern United States. She informs the reader on the hardships that not only she, but all slaves suffered during this time period. These hardships were particularly difficult for women in slavery as they bore unique burdens compared to men or children in slavery. Women were regarded as the weaker sex, so they were often given jobs such as weaving clothes or nannying the master’s children. While these jobs may appear to be easier, they could, in fact, be more taxing then physical jobs that the men performed. Women worked longer hours and faced stricter scrutiny by their masters. Mothers also were emotionally abused by losing their children to the slave trade and

In Jacobs’ case, her master, Dr. Flint, was the offender, “When he told me that I was made for his use, made to obey his command in every thing; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his, never before had my puny arm felt half so strong” (Jacobs, p.13). She describes the horrors of being raped whenever her Dr. Flint wanted to. Jacobs was never physically harmed while working because she had a special place in his heart and did not work field jobs, but even when she was threatened with death for her actions, she was not scared until she was threatened with rape. Jacobs was not the only victim of sexual assault, many other women had the same treatment, “My master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. But did the mothers dare to tell who was the father of their children…No, indeed! They knew too well the terrible consequences” (Jacobs, p.25). Enslaved women were in constant fear of being sexually assaulted by their master. This emotional abuse controlled them and allowed the slave masters freedom to not only own their bodies, but their soul as

Many women had children taken away from them to be sold in the slave trade, miscarriages due to malnutrition or abuse, and/or children who were a result of rape by their master. After the birth of her daughter, Jacobs says, “When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had even been before. Slavery was terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” (Jacobs, p.54). Her biggest fear for her daughter was that her purpose would be to provide Dr. Flint with more slaves. When Jacobs makes her decision to run away, she constantly fears for the safety of her children, hoping that they will be sold to Mr. Sands then freed from there. Other mothers suffered from similar situations as they are worked until the moment they deliver their babies and are never fed more to compensate for their pregnancy, this usually results in underweight babies if not miscarriages, “When my babe was born, they said it was premature. It weighed only four pounds…” (Jacobs, p.43). This treatment caused not only mothers to suffer, but their babies as well. Often Jacobs speaks of how she would rather see her baby die then see them go through the torture of slavery, “I could never forget that he was a slave. Sometimes I wished that he might die in infancy” (Jacobs, p.44). This emotional abuse caused enslaved women to be far more burdened then enslaved men