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

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In the autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Harriet Jacobs is able to tell her story and show the pain of bondage she endured. Jacobs lived from 1813-1897, and all she ever knew was the life of a slave. It is her story, even though she uses a pseudonym, Linda Brent, in order to protect her identity. Her real name is later discovered by scholars, and she is then given the credit for her writing. The book was published in 1861, after fleeing north to New York. Knowing that in this time in history that not even white women were respected on the same level as men, how much greater then were women of color disrespected? Though she used a fake name—she still identified as an African American woman, which proves that not just any book would be published at the time if it were not of some truth. Jacobs’ life, a life of physical slavery, shows the parallels to the bondage humans have in …show more content…

She “was born a slave, but never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away,” (Jacobs 8). Her family’s past became her future. Jacob’s father was a skilled carpenter, but still under the control of his mistress; however, his greatest desire was to “purchase his children,” (8). This too would be the life she was handed, and not recognized until later on in her childhood. Likewise, humans in general are born into slavery. Because of the fall account in Genesis 3 between Adam and Eve, the rest of humanity is affected. Sin entered the world, and everyone born after that was subject to this master, sin. Humans are born into this bondage of sin over their lives, before they can even identify that they are in captivity. Jacobs had no idea until she was six years old what her life actually consisted of. Later, when she is under the control of her mistress, she desires nothing more than the home for her children. Just like her father, The Father wants to buy His children back too, and He does just

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Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine. With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave

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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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The 19th century was one of the darkest times in American history because of the prevalence of slavery that took place during that time period, especially in the South. The importation of slaves into the United States was banned in 1808, but by that year there were already approximately one million slaves in America. African American slaves worked long hours and often did not receive sufficient food and clothing from their masters. Although treatment of slaves varied by their master, there was a constant threat of physical punishment looming over slaves and they had no legal rights. The inhumane treatment of slaves, especially female slaves, is depicted in young mother and runaway slave Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography Incidents in the Life of

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In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs tells of her experiences as a slave. She had to endure the hardships that came with both being black and a woman in 1861. As a slave she was supposed to serve and obey her master. As a woman she was supposed to be submissive to men. She describes several situations in her memoir that would make me oppose slavery if I were a Northern white woman in 1861.

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In the book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs argued that slavery should be abolished. According to Jacobs, slavery should be abolished because, "slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks” (Jacobs, 462) because of the intensive abuse imposed on all those involved in slavery. Jacobs used an exhaustive list of examples of physical, sexual, emotional and mental abuse in the book. Although Harriet Jacobs had a very fortunate upbringing (Jacobs, 415), starting in her early teenage years in her life, Jacobs saw and experienced many forms of physical abuse to the slaves around her.

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1315334 Harriet Jacobs was born a slave. Until the age of six she had a "normal" childhood. In her book From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), she shares her experiences of what it was like to be a slave. Jacobs says herself she created this piece of writing because, " I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what Slavery really is. Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations.

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In today’s world, we learn about the harsh lives that slaves had to endure and how mistreated they were their entire lives. It’s often hard to imagine what it would have been like and how they coped with their terrible lives. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs discuss how they were able to find hope and comfort through the toughest of times. Through the harsh reality of slavery, slaves had the comfort of family, friends, and God to give them hope to one day have freedom.     Family was a large comfort and a little bit of an incentive for slaves who were fortunate enough to have their family near them.

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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs, gives us a close view of her and others experiences in the institution of slavery. The opening of her autobiography, “READER, be assured this narrative is no fiction…...strictly true” (5), shows that she wants people to know that is a true recount of incidents in her life. A big part of her story not only exposed the inhumane and sadistic treatment of African-American slaves, especially the females, but also the sexual encounters by slave-owners in her case Dr. Flint. This book in mostly about experiences and hardships the author had to face, and it shows how she fought for her freedom. As she states in the end of her book “my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage”

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Harriet Jacobs took a great risk writing her life as a house servant in the south and a fugitive in the north. Her story confronts the issues of female slavery, sexual abuse and rape from a woman's perspective. For example, Douglass focuses on the quest for the ability to read and free speech, while Jacobs focuses on the rights of women to protect their families and raise their children without interference from a "master". And although Douglass' narrative revolves around the fight for freedom of a sole individual, Jacobs' describes the struggle for freedom of a woman who is supported by her family and community. Without a doubt, Jacobs presents a unquestionably feminist view of

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Actually, in 1853, Jacobs has begun to write her life story in the form of letters until she has been able, with the help of her antislavery friends, to publish her Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in 1860. By this novel, Jacobs has become the first woman to write a slave narrative in which she addresses the white women of the North to sympathize with slave mothers of the South. Finally, Jacobs died in Washington on March 7, 1897. Harriet Jacobs opens her novel with an introduction in which she clarifies her aim why she has written this autobiography by stating “I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse”. Jacobs uses the pseudonym Linda Brent to narrate her story as well as giving all the characters names rather than their real names.

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In the excerpt from the Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass describes the inhuman life for the enslaved people on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. First, Douglass mentions that those enslaved are given the very minimum amount of resources. In addition, Douglass states that the enslaved were given two shirts, one pair of trousers, one jacket, one pair of stockings and one pair of shoes, these they have to wear for a year until the next allowance day. For children who can no longer wear their clothes were naked until the next allowance day. Second, the enslaved were lack of food, their monthly allowance of food contained eight pounds of pork or fish, and one bushel of corn meal.

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In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs argues that slavery is a horrific crime against humanity and slavery should be ended. Jacobs wrote that the reason for her writing down her experiences was not so the reader would pity her but to spark compassion for the people who were still enslaved (Jacobs, 54). In this moment, the reader is presented with a direction to read this book. The direction being to open one’s mind and hearts to the real life struggles that the African American people were suffering through and to inspire the reader to do something about the injustices brought down on them. Jacobs also shows humility here because she told the read not to feel bad or worry about the things that happened to her but to help

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1136 Words | 5 Pages

Equivocating the “Slave” In order to properly understand the capacity of being able to live a life of constant stress and then articulate the life’s story in a fashion that grasps more than the intended audience, when it comes stories being told regarding chattel slavery, one needs to closely read to thoroughly examine the literature of the overall experience. Harriet Jacobs, also published as Linda Brandt, was a daughter, former chattel property/slave, permanent mother/granddaughter, and abolitionist turned profound author. In her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), Jacobs pleaded with her targeted Northern colonized female audience in a chance to aide in the severe inhumane predicaments that occupied the Southern

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1341 Words | 6 Pages

Harriet Jacobs’ "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself" is a classic work of American literature due to its significance and conscious artistry. Its significance comes from its contribution of a female perspective to the slave narrative and its ability to make Americans remember their role in slavery. Harriet Jacobs then displayed conscious artistry by confronting the practice of sexual abuse by male slave owners and then directly addressing her female readers in order to gain their sympathy towards the female slave experience. This combination of significance and conscious artistry has made “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself" a continued hallmark of literature.

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Harriet Ann Jacobs is the first Afro-American female writer to publish the detailed autobiography about the slavery, freedom and family ties. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent to keep the identity in secret. In the narrative, Jacobs appears as a strong and independent woman, who is not afraid to fight for her rights. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was published in 1961, but was unveiled almost 10 years later due to the different slave narrative structure. Frequently, the slave narratives were written by men where they fight against the slavery through literacy by showing their education.

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