Harriet Jacobs Slave Woman

Harriet Tubman is a larger than life icon and an American hero. Harriet was born into a family of eleven children who were born into slavery. Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene were her parents, and lived on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harriet was put to work by the age of five, and served as a maid and children’s nurse. At the age of six Araminta was taken from her parents to live with James Cook, whose wife was a weaver, to learn the skills of weaving. James Cook would order her to guard his muskrat traps, which compelled her to walk through the water. At the age of 12 she became a field hand. Because Harriet Tubman wanted freedom, she fought constantly to achieve it. Harriet went from slave to inspiration in a matter of years.

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland in 1822. Tubman was born to slave parents, Harriet "Rit" Green and Ben Ross Tubman. Her name given at birth was Araminta "Minty" Ross. Tubman 's mother was assigned to "the big house" and had very little time for her family; unfortunately, as a child Tubman was responsible for taking care of her younger brother and baby, as was typical in large families. When she was five or six years old, Brodess hired her out as a nursemaid to a woman named "Miss Susan". Tubman was ordered to watch the baby as it slept; whenever it woke up and cried, she was beaten. Tubman recalled a particular day when she had been whipped five different times before breakfast. The scars remained with her for the rest of her life. She thought of ways to resist running away for five days. She wore several layers of clothing to protect her from hurting during beatings.

The Civil War was a horrid event that greatly affected our modern day lives. From 1861 to 1865 the Union and the Confederates fought to protect what they thought was right. Throughout the war many people turned up and encouraged change in areas they believed were lacking thought such as, abolition, women 's rights, and suffrage. One of this people was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist, which means that she was against slavery. She helped develop the underground railroad, which helped many slaves escape to freedom.

Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs narration of their hard experience during captivity and slavery played a very significant role in revealing much about the conditions of women during that time. As most of the critics believe that telling a story from the point view of an oppressed group as women in a male dominant society, will guarantee a new framework of resistance and will break the typical image of women as being submissive and Marginalized. Moreover, these two writers, through their narration were able to endure all the difficulties and the hardships as loosing freedom and the sexual abuse, to seek the rights of all other women, and to fight for the elimination of both slavery and captivity. Harriet Jacobs in her narration of “Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself” decided to take the risk and to narrate her own experience as being slave and oppressed by the white system abuse. Although she is not the only one who wrote about slavery and its condition, but as William Andrews said “"Many of the ugly truths of the black woman's condition in slavery had been widely publicized

The idea of republican motherhood and the cult of domesticity are two contrasting ideas of how women should be living their life around the times of the 1800s. The republican motherhood was a movement that women should be educated and are able to live individual lives without men providing for them. The cult of domesticity was a view that women should be stay-at-home wives, take care of the children, and provide comfort to the husband when he is home. The biggest difference of these two movements was the decision to educate women. Republican motherhood was all for the educating of women but the cult of domesticity wanted the opposite: no education for women.

"About Harriet Jacobs Biography." Harriet Jacobs. Historic Edenton State Historic Site, National Underground Railroad to Freedom, n.d. Web. <http://www.harrietjacobs.org/bio.html>.

Harriet Jacobs and Sojourner Truth are women who face adversity categorized in an invisible sub-group, making it difficult for black women to compete in the world. This sub-group is known as intersectionality. Black women struggle with the perception being inferior placing them at the bottom of the social class. Jacobs and Truth, however, share their experiences to other men and women allowing them to be aware of this invisible group. They willingly chose to speak out against this discrimination. In doing so, they deal with scolding looks of men as well as dealing with the harsh critics’ opinions of their narratives. Jacobs’ narrative and Truths speech allows other slave women to not be discouraged by the mere fact that their skin was of color. With that said, they strive to build the confidence to fight for the equality of all women. Harriet Jacobs and Sojourner Truth reflects the phenomenon of intersectionality through their confidence and willingness to fight for

Phillis Wheatley and Harriet Jacobs were both American slaves who became authors. Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved American poet who had her empowering words added to American literature during the past two decades (Adelman). Harriet Jacobs was a woman who was born into American slavery and became a famous author as well. She differs from Phillis Wheatley in the fact that she was able to escape slavery prior to becoming an author. Wheatley was recognized as a child prodigy by her owners, whereas Harriet Jacobs had to escape slavery to become a writer. Harriet Jacobs was not educated by her owners and had to work diligently to free herself to go after her destiny of becoming an author.

The book Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself, Harriet Jacobs, we follow her life as a slave in North Carolina during the Antebellum period of the United States before the Civil War. This book describes Harriet’s life as a slave in detail, something we would not usually get from a book around this time. Some important insights we get from this book are, instability of life, difficulty to escape slavery, family life, and the struggles of female slaves.

Slavery was an important time period that is still affecting American society today. For 400 years, Africans were enslaved by Americans and were forced to do hard labor in harsh conditions. They were forced to pick cotton, harvest and plant rice and build railroads. Slavery began in America in 1619 when countries in Europe would kidnap Africans and send them to America on boats. This time period is important due to the devastating actions that happened to Africans and what they did to change the course of history. There were many different approaches to slavery and some were violent. Nat Turner, among other violent African slave rebellionist, gathered weapons and men and began to start a rebellion to slavery. Although, most slaves took a violent approach others like Harriet Tubman began to free slaves through the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was a major contribution to the freeing of slaves through her background, her escape, her influence in the underground railroad and her legacy.

Harriet Tubman was an extraordinary heroine from the south during the civil war time period. Harriet Tubman was born in Maryland; which, was a slave state. Harriet Tubman grew up to be a pilot and conductor in the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman preformed many heroic and selfless acts during her lifetime. Additionally, she showed immense courage and bravery from time and time again. Furthermore, Harriet overcame many setbacks that would have prevented the average person from succeeding in their goals.

In Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs narrative they show how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physically and emotionally. In Jacobs narrative she talks about how women had it worse than men did in slavery. While men suffered, women had it worse due to sexual abuse. The emotional, physical, and sexual abuse was dehumanizing for anyone.

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.

Harriet Jacobs, referred to in the book as Linda Brent, was a strong, caring, Native American mother of two children Benny and Ellen. She wrote a book about her life as a slave and how she earned freedom for herself and her family. Throughout her book she also reveals countless examples of the limitations slavery can have on a mother. Her novel, also provides the readers a great amount of examples of how motherhood has been corrupted by slavery. A Moment is defined as “a very brief period of time” (Google.com). The specific moment that I had chose in the Incidence in The Life of a Slave Girl is “I feared that the sight of my children would be too much for my full heart; but I could not go out into the uncertain future without one last look.

Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by Harriet Jacobs and published by L.Maria Child (in 1831), is an autobiography by the author herself which documents Jacobs life as a slave .