ipl-logo

Summary Of Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

917 Words4 Pages

Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl communicates the author’s endeavor to present to the white audience, basically the working class women, the numerous indecencies of bondage. Jacobs does this through onlooker confirmation of the repulsions that she has been a victimized person and in addition to a witness as well, and her story is presently viewed as a notable artistic accomplishment. What’s most compelling is that Jacobs presents a contention against subjection that couldn't be planned by any other individual, unless they too had encountered the same type of mistreatment. This is what divides Jacobs’ narrative from the scholarly works of white abolitionists, even the autonomous works of Lydia Marie Child, known for altering …show more content…

Jacobs thinks about Dr. Stone's endeavor at separating her imperviousness to his advances. In my own opinion this passage speaks on Jacob’s spirit rebelled against the mean oppression and she is saying there is no shadow of law to shield the female slave from affront, from roughness, or even from death. The fancy woman, who should ensure the powerless victimized person, has no different sentiments towards her yet those of desire and wrath. This was Jacobs’s observation on the strain between the female slave and the courtesan. It appears that in Child book “The Patriarchal Institution, as Described by Members of Its Own Family”, Child is uninformed of this inequality, as she endeavors to draw a parallel between the affliction of white mothers and their daughters, with that of female slaves. Jacobs highlights how the white concubine gets to be a piece of the arrangement of misuse that keeps up the expert's mastery over his female slaves. Jacobs makes it clear that womanhood does not convey the same weight for slave women and white women alike. Unfortunately enough, the weight of the slave woman is from time to time helped by that of the white women nearest to …show more content…

She is not just displaying a despairing story of her setbacks and sufferings, yet she is likewise referring to her accomplishments and little triumphs. She rejects and opposes both completely and effectively. Jacobs couldn't have done this in the event that she had been determined to holding fast to social restrictions and impediments saw by white women of the period. She needed to speak for the other so as to persist notwithstanding all misfortune and eventually appreciate the much looked for after extravagance of opportunity. Motherhood is the sentiment that Harriet Jacobs utilized, she assumes that reader and herself are essentially

Show More
Related
579 Words | 3 Pages

As a woman, Harriet Jacobs faced unique challenges in the slave society. She was forced to endure sexual abuse from her owner and struggled to protect her children from the same abuse. This experience is clear in her narrative, which focuses mainly on the sexual misuse of female slaves. She writes with passion, using her own experiences to gain the attention of free women in the North (Jacobs).

Read More
695 Words | 3 Pages

When Jacobs escapes to New York, she is employed as a nurse to a white family and often accompanies them to dinners and events. This experience teaches Jacobs that even though most people in the North considered themselves abolitionists, they were still racist toward African Americans. While at a dinner with the family she is employed by, she is asked to “seat the little girl in the chair, and stand behind it and feed her,” (page 144) when she sits the child in her lap. She emphasizes the fact that no matter where she goes, slavery and racism will always follow

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

Frederick Douglass & Harriet Jacobs Slavery has been noted as one of the biggest social issues in America. From the beginning of time, race has been seen as a barrier for some people despite their various attempts at equality none seem to yield any positive results. Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs both have tried to be seen as equal to others but come up short due to the oppression of their skin color. But as a result of their power to not conform to being enslaved and treated like objects due to dehumanization is what leads them on their journey to becoming one of the few free slaves. “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute.”

Read More
1489 Words | 6 Pages

Amid this occasion, slaves are whipped and tormented if discovered blameworthy. With respect to Jacobs, she gets out her grandma's home to get the white searchers off of her trail. Here, Jacobs discusses the shamefulness of the Christian Church and the good and qualities they live by. The Outlaw Slave Law assumed a part in Jacobs life since she herself would have been a runaway slave. She needed to get away from the detestations of being held as

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

This meant that Jacobs life as a slave was worse that style of life that anyone could have; because she was a slave the fear of being raped or abused was always in her mind. Jacobs was dealt a life with a double edge sword; meaning that she did not have to be worry about being abused because her master did not allow it but her master had plans to make her his own when she came to age. Jacobs did not know the latter of her situation, therefore she like any woman of her time began to become a good woman. This consisted of he being pure holy and domestic. Since her purity was being saved for her master, her being a house slave the same as Douglass, also the love for god came easy to her; she believed that she was a good woman.

Read More
527 Words | 3 Pages

However she would realize her husband would sleep with and impregnate his slaves. The wife’s of the slave owners would be very revengeful and jealous, due to the fact that their husbands would have kids with his slaves and see her kids as well as the slave women’s kids in the same household. . These women lived a fake, sad and miserable life due to the fact that their husband’s would be unfaithful with his slaves. In the passage Harriet states that women would be ashamed and not approve of what their husbands where doing, saying “‘He not only thinks it no disgrace to be the father of those little niggers, but he is not ashamed to call himself their master. I declare, such things ought not to be tolerated in any decent society!’”.

Read More
1301 Words | 6 Pages

In Harriet Jacobs “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Jacobs uses her personal

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

(Jacobs, Ch 1, Par 6). Jacobs and many other enslaved people were told to “treat others the way you want to be treated”. It was expected that they would treat everybody with kindness. Yet this is not how things worked the other way around, seeing the cruelty and horrors of slavery. Another point of contradiction is in Chapter 13 of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Read More
1187 Words | 5 Pages

While, the theme of the book can be misinterpreted because of the systemic construction of slavery, Jacobs emphasizes the challenges of her position in serval different situations. In addition, she proves that mothers will through intuition and obligation would fight for their children. However, in an era where woman of a hierarchy based on race owes others nothing, she took on the task by telling her story. Also, adding that the incidents she experienced are true. Admittedly, the simple jester of pleading to her readers, brings forth the truth of her parental obligation to children.

Read More
1108 Words | 5 Pages

Ever since the whole situation with Her losing her Grandma, Harriet begins showing maturity and a more decided opinion on whites. “The influences of slavery had had the same effect on me that they had on other young girls; they had made me prematurely knowing, concerning the evil ways of the world.” (Jacob, pg. 51). The influence and effects that her childhood had left on her has definitely shaped up her side on the battle of oppression between the Whites and African Americans.

Read More
1345 Words | 6 Pages

Male slaves would never have been burdened with this terrifying condition; this scenario is one unique to a woman’s story. During this era, beauty was a virtue yearned after by white women, but for a black female slave like Linda, it was a curse that often caused one to be subject to not only the unwanted advances of her master but also the intense jealousy of her mistress (Jacobs 53). Harriet Jacobs’ illustration of the jealous mistress, something male slaves did not have to experience, is one aspect of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl that establishes the narrative as a woman’s

Read More
520 Words | 3 Pages

The emotional and sexual abuse was awful for Jacobs. In her narrative she talks about how horrible it really was for women "My master began to whisper foul words in my ear." Her master told her she was property "He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things." She says how she had to give up their children "The children were sold to a slave-trader,

Read More
769 Words | 4 Pages

At the age of six, her mother died and she was forced to live with Margaret Horniblow, the mother’s owner. The mistress took a good care of Jacobs and taught her how to read, write and sew. Her father was always telling her to feel free and do not feel someones property. While her grandmother was always teaching Jacobs respect and manners. She was always telling her about principles and ethnics.

Read More
1841 Words | 8 Pages

At this point to the average American, it is rightfully believed that slavery or human trafficking is an abomination. However, most of us could never truly empathize with a slave or former slave, let alone a female slave. The short piece on page 27 of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a vastly important look into the mind of Harriet Jacobs, because not only did it give us insight on how it felt to be a young, female slave, but she also provided a voice to the voiceless. The focus of this excerpt from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an African-American woman that was born into slavery, named Harriet Jacobs.

Read More
2053 Words | 9 Pages

The beginning of the 17th Century marked the practice of slavery which continued till next 250 years by the colonies and states in America. Slaves, mostly from Africa, worked in the production of tobacco and cotton crops. Later , they were employed or ‘enslaved’ by the whites as for the job of care takers of their houses. The practice of slavery also led the beginning of racism among the people of America. The blacks were restricted for all the basic and legally privileged rights.

Read More

More about Summary Of Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Related Topics

Open Document