The Narratives Of Fredrick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs

In the narratives of Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs we see a point of view of two slaves in the 1800s, one being a man and the other being a woman. In Fredrick’s narrative we see that he was a born slave. As he grew up he desired to learn how to read, believing that this was the key to him being a free man. He became a leader for many other slaves and quarreled with his masters. He bought his time and eventually fled to the north where he ended up working with wages. In Harriet’s narrative we see her a born slave as well. As a woman slave she was doing house work such as modern day chores. She was under the master named Mr. Flint that raped her when she was in her later teenage years. She had children in her young years but they were

She also disobeyed some of the masters orders but she was treated much better than Fredrick as far as physical abuse. In both narratives we see how religion was in the slave culture as well as the white southerners. Religion was somewhat a lie in some cases and was used to try and guide the slaves into being thankful for their masters and according to the two narrators, religion made their masters worse than they were. In Harriets narrative, she describes what she sees when her peer slaves start going to church. They came out of the church not wanting to escape to the north and for being thankful to their masters. Their masters in church were spoken of as to be a figure that must be respected much like you would god. “‘Hearken, ye servants! Give strict heed unto my words. You are rebellious sinners. Your hearts are filled with all manner of evil. 'Tis the devil who tempts you….’”(Jacobs, 106). Clearly, the evil is not within the slaves but rather their masters. These lies that came from the church worked on unknowledgeable people such as the people who could not read. Harriet seemed unchanged by the church about her decision to leave and coincidentally she is one of few that can read. However, god was a source of hope for Harriet. We see Harriet ask god for help many times

Slaves that showed up to the school were liable up to 39 lashes. (Douglass, 160) This school being broken up for learning to read and learn about the word of god and being punished for doing so was unfair. It is like the masters are hiding something from the slaves to break up something so innocent. This leads to the thoughts of whether they have been lied to about the word of god much like in Harriets narrative. Fredrick sarcastically and angrily calls the masters “humble followers of the Lord Jesus Christ!”. (Douglass, 159) It must have been frustrating to be as knowledgable as Fredrick because he more than other slaves knew how corrupt the masters and the whole system of slavery was. Furthermore, it is ridiculous to think that Dr. Flint was anywhere near to being correctly religious. A religious man does not rape another woman, nor does he cheat on his wife that he swore to be loyal to. Dr. Flint did treat Harriet better than most slaves, but Dr. Flint had what seemed like an obsession with Harriet. He wanted her to stay in the house and he would never sell her. Harriet was not given the same opportunity has her grandmother where she was given her own time. Her grandmother attempted to buy her time and Dr. Flint said no every time to anyone who asked to purchase Harriet. This was cruel of Dr. Flint, Harriet was not a necessity, it was a decision