Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a slave narrative written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1845. A few years later, in 1861, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by Harriet Jacobs, was published. Similarly, the two narratives are written in the first person, illustrating the author’s personal experience in slavery and their successful battle for freedom. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs have one very important element in common: knowledge. Their education and the awareness of their situation certainly helped them in escaping, and was a key element in successfully gaining freedom. Mrs. Auld, the wife of a slave-owner, had started teaching to Douglass the alphabet, but unfortunately, had to cease when her

But, unlike him, she had very good memories of her mistress, saying that“ she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of the slave, I bless her memory”. Jacobs’s mother and her mistress had gown up together since they were children and, when they became women, her mother was “a most faithful servant to her foster sister” (pg. 10). When Jacob’s mother died, the kind mistress had promised her that she would take care of her daughter and she would never let her suffer for anything. As a matter a fact, she kept her word, until her death, and although it was unlawful, she educated her slave. The mistress also taught her the precepts of God’s Word and treated her like she was one of her own daughters. Unfortunately Jacob’s happy childhood did not last forever, the kind mistress died and she left Jacobs in the hands of her sister’s daughter. The only problem was the kind mistress’s sister’s husband, Dr. Flint. Jacobs describes him as “ a man forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature” (pg.26). He told her that she was his property and she was “subject to his will in all things” (pg. 26), he would also follow he around everywhere, like a