Who Is Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

When speaking out against the horrors of slavery, Abraham Lincoln once proclaims, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”. Unfortunately, many people in the world, especially the United States during the 1800s, did not agree with this statement. Fitz Hugh and many others during that time period, believed that slavery is good for everyone involved, arguing that slave masters are fatherly to their slaves. Harriet Jacobs challenges the multitude of arguments that claim slavery is beneficial and moral in her auto biography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The reader follows Harriet through her journey of surviving slavery while enduring a sexually abusive master, hiding in an attic for seven years, and finally escaping

Flint completely goes against the idea of slave masters being father like because he will not acknowledge the slaves that are his own children. During slavery, one of the rules put in place was the child follows the status of the mother. This means, if there is a baby between a slave owner and a slave, the baby follows whatever the mom is. If the mom is a slave then the baby follows suit, this was put into place because slave masters often had kids with females slaves on their plantation. Harriet recalls a time when a slave woman in Dr. Flint’s household announced that Dr. Flint is the father of her children and what his reaction was: “‘You promised to treat me well.’ To which he replied, ‘You have let your tongue run too far; damn you!’ She had forgotten that it was a crime for a slave to tell who was the father of her children”(16). Dr. Flint was outraged that this girl would tell people he fathered these children. Then he sells her so she can not stay to mother her children, instead of acknowledging what she said as true. By including this account in her auto biography, Harriet strategically disputes that slave owners are like fathers. She showed how Dr. Flint could not bring himself to acknowledge he was the biological father of some of his slaves. This goes directly against what the people arguing for slavery were

When Harriet turns fourteen, she mentions how Dr. Flint acts to her: “He peopled my young mind with unclean images, such as only a vile monster could think of. I turned from him with disgust and hatred. But he was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof with him- where I saw a many forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature” (30). Harriet divulges that Dr. Flint not only has no respect for his wedding vows, but is also sexually abusing a girl forty years younger than him, who can do nothing to defend herself because she is his property. By telling this story, Harriet mocks the claim that slave owners are like fathers. She shows they do not protect their slaves, and slave masters are the problem. Harassing a girl fourteen years old to have sex, is nowhere close to father like; it is barely even