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

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In Harriet Jacobs' “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” there is a reoccurring theme of women in bondage. The author reflects on what slavery meant to her as well as all the women characters in bondage. Through the character Linda, the deep expression for her hatred of slavery, and all of its implications is portrayed. She dreads such an institution so much that she sometimes regards death as a better alternative than a life in bondage. Slave Women in Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl reflects a horrible institution that dehumanized the African American race as a whole. Female slaves in bondage was different from male slaves in bondage. It was not less severe, but it was simply different. The sexual abuse, child bearing, …show more content…

The majority of the story in placed during her early adolescence years into her early adult hood. Linda had many endeavors that occurred during this time. Linda says, “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.” Most men during the slave period were continuously beaten, starved, or made to work in the fields. Jacobs emphasizes that even though woman did not continuously endure what the men continuously endured, all female slaves suffered horrible mental tortures such as sexual harassment and the loss of their children. This was emotional scaring. Linda’s slave master was very lustful for her. She had to emotionally deal with his words. She also had to deal with the mistreatment of her mistress because her master lusts after her. Many slave women had to deal with this same type of situation. Even though female slaves were in bondage, some owners allowed their slaves to marry and live with one another, but some slave masters did not think slaves should or could be married. Since there was not a strong legal sanction for marriage among slaves, owners could sell spouses and separate children from their parents. Linda’s grandmother was captured by a larger hotel owner and her children were sold …show more content…

First, once you are in adult hood, some began to believe they would never be free of slavery. This brought, thoughts of suicide, murder, or escape. Celie in “The color Purple” by Alice Walker, contemplated about murdering her slave master many times. This book is based off of a true story. Many women who worked closely with their owners were fed up with abuse and dehumanization by their adult years. Many took murder or suicide as their last resort to freedom. On the other hand, some women took adulthood as a stance to remain strong for their children. Many of these women either continued to work or try to save money, or escape with hopes to return and buy their children. Incidents in the life of a slave girl, Linda decided that running away or escaping was her only way of freedom. Unlike most women, she was successful in her

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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).

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However a female slave was treated and used different type of needs. This Narrative is different because it highlights how the females were beating, mental torture, sexual aggravation and also the loss of her children. The agony of slave mothers having their children sold for profit, but were girls kept because they were sexuality victimized by the white

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Although some of the masters mistress were well taken cared of, there were times were the African American women was forced into having sexual relations with the master or his children and were still forced to work outside with the others. The role of an African American women compared to the role of a white women were very different. In antebellum because of their sex most women were assumed to be weaker, and believed to be intellectually and physically suited for only domestic work.

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Harriet Jacobs, or Linda Brent as she liked to be called, was born into slavery in North Carolina in 1813. She grew up really happy, unaware of her status of being a slave. When she was 6 years old, her mother died and since then she learnt of her status of being a slave (Jacobs, 9). She had a very hardworking father who was also a slave and a younger brother called William, whom she loved so much. Her maternal grandmother helped to raise her and William.

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In Incidents In the Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Harriet shares her experience in slavery and how she overcame trials presented in the form of her master and mistress, and how she battled constant separation from her family and children. In order to protect herself from her master, who constantly attempts to pressure Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, Harriet becomes involved in a relationship with a white man and gains two children. However, in order to escape slavery, Harriet stays for seven years in a small shed in her grandmother’s home and eventually gains her freedom. The book shows that in a system of slavery, family ties and the idea of motherhood are two things that are almost unachievable due to the uncertainty

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In this book, Jacobs’ describes the living conditions as a slave and her own personal experiences; her descriptions show how violent and poor her living conditions were. Harriet Jacobs wrote, “Various were the punishments resorted to. A favorite one was to tie a rope round a man’s body, and suspend him from the ground. A fire was kindled over him, from which was suspended a piece of fat pork,” (Jacobs 41) . This is one of the many examples of how poorly slaves were treated on plantations and by their owners.

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Since these women were never exposed to this form of cruelty before, it would have been difficult for them to comprehend the problems that Jacobs faced as a slave. Her difficulties become evident when she starts working for Dr. Norcom at a very young age. Not only did he physically abuse her on a daily basis, but he also psychologically abused her with sexual threats regarding herself and her children. She goes into detail about the horrors of slavery when she

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She depicted the violence and cruelty that went on in slave owning homes. As a slave woman, Jacobs had no legal protection and small variety of choices she could make in self-preservation. Harriet Jacobs’s narrative shows that freedom is a human right, and the

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Assignment 4 The book “Incidents in The Life of a Slave Girl “were written in the 1860’s, the year when the civil war had begun and slavery was an issue in the United States. It was written by a fugitive slave and mother, Harriet Jacob. The text talks about her life as a slave and how woman would marry slave-owners and realize that their husbands would impregnate slave women and have kids with them. Slave owners would be aggressive and sexual harass slave women such as Harriet Jacob. Harriet Jacob’s value was her first child and how life was like for women of slave owners.

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Slaves are defined by Webster’s dictionary as “one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence (www.merriam-webster.com). Slavery has been a major issue of conflict since it began in the United States in the sixteenth century. At the time leading up to the Civil War, many Southerners thought slavery to be necessary and fully supported it. Many Northerners felt they did not need slaves and were willing to fight for their freedom. Slavery was the primary cause of the American Civil War.

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Slavery has happened all over the world for hundreds of years. Bonding humans to humans is not a new concept. People sold other people into slavery as prisoners of war, to repay debts, or because of the color of their skin. In the Americas, humans were enslaved because of the color of their skin. These slaves would write narratives explaining their plight and situation in descriptive – often graphic – terms.

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Frederick wastes no time in his narrative to explain how slavery is more of a mental battle than a physical battle. He tells the reader “I was born in Tuckahoe.. I have no accurate knowledge of my age.” and “a want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness” illustrating that he was deprived of his self-worth and self-identity at an early age. In chapter 6, Douglass overhears his master say “learning would spoil the best nigger in the world” although harsh, this is my favorite part of the text because this triggers Douglass to begin his transition into a free man.

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In this incredible memoir, Harriet Jacobs, AKA Linda Brent, states in the preface that her goal of writing this memoir was not to bring attention or pity to herself, but to arouse the women of the North (mainly white people) to realize the atrocities that were still going on at the time. She wants to focus on the women of the North coming to sense with the conditions of the South, some people experiencing far worse treatment then Linda, were still in bondage. She also says her goal is to give her testimony, along with the rest, to convince people from the Free States what slavery actually is. Nobody can truly understand unless they have personally experienced it, but with god’s blessing, she will help shine light on the darkness of slavery.

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