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

At times, a burden to all, slavery was and continues to be an atrocity inflicted upon many throughout the world. Harriet Jacobs writes, “Slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible for women.” Within her book, The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs focusses on slavery in the Southern States. Under the pseudonym Linda Brent, Jacobs touches on the controversial issue of the mistreatment of women. It is obvious that women in slavery suffered atrocious conditions while under the control of their masters and their masters’ wives. While male slaves simply received punishment from the masters, women slaves were also targeted by the masters’ wives, whose anger stemmed from their jealously and embarrassment that their husbands

During this time period, “Slavery shaped the lives of all Americans, white as well as black. It helped to determine where they lived, how they worked, and under what conditions they could exercise their freedoms of speech, assembly, and the press.(Foner 400)” As a female slave, you were not only considered inferior due to your skin color, but also looked down upon because of your gender, therefore being subjected to twice the amount of equalities that men were exposed to. Female slaves, unlike male slaves, not only endured physical hardships, but also were subjected to the emotional destruction of being raped, taunted by the masters’ wives, and separated from their

Many slave women in the South were targeted by their masters. Linda Brent once said, “If God has bestowed beauty upon her, it will prove her greatest curse. (27)” Beauty was not considered a gift amongst African slaves. It made them a target for the horrific sexual desires of many slave owners. Throughout this time period, the term “paternalism” arose. In Give Me Liberty!, it has a quote from a planter who defines paternalism by stating that “The Master as the head of the system has the right to the obedience and labor of the slave, but the slave has also his mutual rights in the master; the right of protection, the right of council and guidance, the right of subsidence, the right of care and attention in sickness and old age” (Foner 404). This concept come about after the african slave trade was prohibited in 1808. Although this concept was always present, it became even more ingrained in the American slave culture at this time because masters for economical purposes wanted the survival of their slaves to longer lasting. They now needed their slaves to reproduce, which was dependent upon a longer and healthier lifestyle (Foner 404). This conceptualization became a mask for all of the brutalities that the masters inflicted on their slaves. It gave them a disguise that allowed them to be viewed as caring, kind, and responsible people. However, in reality, these