Slavery was a hugely inhumane practice that affected many people and their families. Slave women were especially subjected to even more hardships than men, such as being raped more often. Although there are many slave accounts that have been published, unless you lived through it, it is hard to imagine what life as a slave was like. No person today can come close to understanding the amount of emotional pain and suffering caused by the heartache, despair, and complete and utter misery that Harriet Jacobs, or Linda Brent as she goes by in her memoir Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, went through in her twenty years of slavery. Harriet was not the only woman to suffer; thousands of women were subjected to sexual advances and rape, all by their masters. African women lived on with the harsh treatment of the white man with the hope of freedom one day and to be with their families, but …show more content…
Harriet fell into the cruel and manipulative grasps of her new twelve-year-old master’s father, Dr. Flint. Dr. Flint began showing a great liking towards Harriet, but she did not have a say in the way that Dr. Flint treated her, and his reasoning was that she “was his property” and that “I must be subject to his will in all things” (Jacobs, 1861, p. 34). Again, the harder mistreatment towards women is apparent here. Many times, Dr. Flint threatened to kill Harriet if she went to the comfort of her free grandmother. This proves that Harriet had no say as to what happens to her. African women had no right to even say no to the master when he tells the women to do things not only in the work place, but also in their bedrooms. Women began to fear the sound of their master’s voice because they know that he is calling on them for a specific reason. Since they were slaves, and not free women, there was nothing they could do to get justice for what was happening to
She talks about how she was treated by Dr. Flint " But Dr. Flint swore he would kill me, if I was not as silent as the grave." Although in Jacobs narrative she was treated, in Douglass' his grandmother was whipped "The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped, and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped the longest." He also talks about how bad women had it "He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome, would he cease to swing the blood-clooted cowskin." Then he talks about how slavery was like hell "It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass."
Although she did not receive any physical punishment by her master, she lived in a tight-knit community and was aware of the conditions of other slaves who received brutal punishments. For example, Jacobs notes that “every where men, women, and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet.” (page 56). Female slaves lived in fear that they would be raped by their masters. Jacobs’ master, Dr. Flint, often made relentless sexual advances at her, and justified his behavior by saying that she was “made for his use.”
The extreme cruelty experienced by the victims of the South’s “peculiar institution” in Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, reflect the inhumanity of the time period’s slave owners and the impact they had on their slaves both physically and mentally. Harriet’s transfer to the Flint’s household offers several examples of the malice the owners hold in quick succession. The Flint’s have their own ways of treating the cooks, both callous. Mrs. Flint spits into the pots and pans, rendering any food left within them .
Harriet Jacobs focuses mostly on detailing the maltreatment of slaves and the impropriety of slave masters during the first part of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. By sharing facts about these incidents, she shows how slaveholding warps humanity and morality to a measure that would be considered deplorable outside of slavery. Jacobs describes the inhumane treatment of slaves when discussing a neighboring plantation. She shares how this plantation commits many cruel murders of its slaves. For example, she discusses how one slave had a “fire kindled over him, from which was suspended a piece of fat pork.
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.
Harriet Jacobs's autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), is the most generally perused female before the war slave account. In relating her background before she was free, Jacobs offered her contemporary readers a startlingly sensible depiction of her sexual history while a slave. Although a few male creators of slave accounts had alluded to the exploitation of oppressed African American ladies by white men, none had tended to the subject as specifically as Jacobs at last decided to. She archived the sexual manhandle she endured, as well as clarified how she had conceived an approach to utilize her sexuality as a methods for staying away from misuse by her lord. Taking a chance with her notoriety in the revelation of such
Slavery was maybe a standout amongst the most horrifying tragedies in the history.. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs were only two of the numerous slaves who write about their experiences as a salve. Each of the slaves had diverse encounters with slavery; however they all had one thing in like manner: they recount the abominable foundation of slavery and how enormously it influenced their lives. Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas, both of whom were naturally introduced to slavery, portrayed their encounters in energetic, convincing accounts. As this short essay will illustrate, both imparted the vulnerabilities of the slave, the mistreatment gave out to these casualties of an unethical organization, and a feeling of being seen as sub-par
Harriet Jacobs experienced firsthand how slavery within the white household degrades the virtue and motherly instinct of white women. Throughout the 18th century, Jacobs is passed from owner to owner relearning their rules and regulations of the house. Jacobs knew nothing different, but noticed how her owners would slowly change and their caring humanitarian actions would start to diminish. Jacobs was not the only one who noticed her owners changing, the whole world began to take note of the dwindling virtue in all women. Harriet Jacobs experienced firsthand how slavery within the white household degrades the virtue white women by ridding them of compassion and altering their perception of what is right and wrong.
Even though Africans had been enslaved by Europeans for centuries, elite African men also allowed domestic slavery because it meant they would gain more power as well. Moreover, some African women participated in the oppression of other enslaved African women. They knew they had less power than the elite men around them, so many were almost forced to participate in order to keep themselves safe. For example, Abina lived in Eddoo’s sister, Eccoah’s house. Although Eccoah was also an African woman, she did not treat Abina fairly, often letting Abina only eat a few scraps of food despite the fact that Abina cooked for all of them.
In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs recounts her years as a woman in slavery. Jacobs portrays the abuse many young and old woman received from their masters. Whether it would be sexual abuse or physical abuse. For Jacobs she was harassed and abused by her master for most of her young life. There were instances in the book where she stated how and when her master struck her.
Unlike many blacks Harriet master taught her how to read and write. She then became the first women to write a slave narrative. At a very young age her master was constantly after her, he would whisper fouled thing in her ears as she described, although he did not force himself into her he wanted to control her and would always remind her that she was is and one day she would submit to his demands. Harriet described a black girl beauty as a burden a curse because the masters would be after them and from that time they didn’t consider it as rape. Even in the court of the law the judges would say there is no such thing as the rape of a black woman.
Slavery in America was considered to be one of the most devastating acts in history. African American people were torn from their homelands and sold at auction to the highest bidder. Men, women, and children were forced into slavery or born into it, experiencing harsh conditions such as abuse, neglect, and even death. This experience though did not always happen, some slaves were treated fairly and were never punished by their owner’s. Events such like this were recalled by two former slaves by the names of Aunt Harriet Smith and Charlie Smith.
Unfortunately for Harriet at the same age she realized she was someones property, her mother died. According to North Carolina Historic Sites (2011), " When her mother died, she fell under Horniblow's direct charge, learning to sew well as read and write. It wasn't until the death of her mistress in 1825 that she experienced the harsher realities of slavery" (Sites, 2). The harsh realities that Harriet faced were all to common. After the death of her father she was sold to a man named Dr. James Norcom.
Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass are two prominent figures in American literature who have given voice to the horrors of slavery and the struggle for freedom. They both experienced enslavement in the United States in the 19th century and used their writing to convey their experiences to the world. While both of them share similar experiences of oppression, their narratives differ in significant ways, particularly in terms of gender. This essay will explore the different ways in which gender influenced the experiences and writing styles of Jacobs and Douglass, and whether they experienced and pictured the same kind of freedom. Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass both experienced the brutalities of slavery, but their experiences were different in many ways due to their gender.
When she was six years old her mother passed away and Jacobs discovered the tragic truth; she was a slave. After he mothers death, “she was sent to live in the home of her mother’s mistress, Margaret Horniblow” (“Harriet Jacobs”). As stated by law, slaves are property, therefore distributed as so in the estate unless granted freedom by the owner. When Horniblow passed, Jacobs was sent to her niece, daughter of Dr. James Norcom (“Harriet Jacobs”). Soon after her move to the Norcom’s estate, Dr. Norcom began pursuing her.