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Summary Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

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We the People In the Harriet Jacobs book, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs shows the unique perspective of life through the eyes of a slave in the south. Jacobs shows the varying perspective on what having the “right” morals is during this time by highlighting severity of what would happen to slaves that tried to escape and showing how slaves lived their daily lives as compared to their white counterparts. Even without reading this book, having knowledge about how slaves were treated and the laws that surrounded the slavery era and post slavery times isn’t something that is taboo in our society today. In the book Jacobs was born into slavery and once her mom died when she was six, she was taken in by her mistress Margaret Horniblow …show more content…

Even if you happen to have master that wasn’t as cruel to you, you were still a prisoner. Running away wasn’t simply an act of rebellion of a slave who wanted to get out of a bad job, it was the act of escaping a terrible, wrongfully gained lifestyle. They were fleeing for their lives and the lives of those who were closest to them. Jacobs has a two children that she was trying to get back to and who she didn’t want to end up working out in the fields as she had to. Her children were mixed raced, or “mulatto” which was the term that was coined back then for people who were interracial, but not to digress. As a result of this, many bi-racial slaves, were the ones who worked in the house and not out in the fields. Having her children work out in the fields as opposed to working in the house, not only subjected them to the daily trials of being a slave, but also might have caused them to be ostracized by other slaves for being bi-racial, because of the stigma that followed with being mixed race. Jacobs wanted to save her family, be reunited with them. Many slaves didn’t even have the right to have a family. They couldn’t legally marry, and although slaves may have had children and families, they were often separated and sold off. Jacobs, as well as many other slaves were just trying to hold on to their little bit of

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Harriet A. Jacobs Archetypes

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Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine. With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave

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As a woman, Harriet Jacobs faced unique challenges in the slave society. She was forced to endure sexual abuse from her owner and struggled to protect her children from the same abuse. This experience is clear in her narrative, which focuses mainly on the sexual misuse of female slaves. She writes with passion, using her own experiences to gain the attention of free women in the North (Jacobs).

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When Jacobs escapes to New York, she is employed as a nurse to a white family and often accompanies them to dinners and events. This experience teaches Jacobs that even though most people in the North considered themselves abolitionists, they were still racist toward African Americans. While at a dinner with the family she is employed by, she is asked to “seat the little girl in the chair, and stand behind it and feed her,” (page 144) when she sits the child in her lap. She emphasizes the fact that no matter where she goes, slavery and racism will always follow

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In their respective narratives, both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs expose slavery as a brutal and degrading institution. Though the tone and approach they incorporate in their individual narratives differ, both seek to renounce the romanticized view of plantation culture and reveal the harsh actualities. Jacobs also seeks to debunk the stereotypical notion that house slaves lived a more privileged life than plantation slaves. Furthermore, Jacobs goes on to explain the role of the slave-mistress and how that complicates the life of a slave girl growing up in a house with a licentious master and his jealous wife.

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Comparing The Slave Narratives By Frederick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs

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The slave narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs show how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physically and emotionally. Jacobs states that women in slavery were treated far more terribly than men were endured. The horrible treatments that were lashed upon women slaves, she witnessed through her own eyes, so the argument that Jacob presents, "slavery is bad for men, but far more terrible for women is agreeable. African American women who were brought as slaves or who were born slaves were emotionally and mentally dehumanized by their owners. In Jacobs' narrative the young girl was mentally harmed for the account of the the girls "young mind" would be filled with "unclean images" by the master.

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1630 Words | 7 Pages

Jacobs was able to have her family near her for much of her life in slavery, particularly her grandmother. Jacobs writes,”To this grandmother I was indebted for many comforts.” (806). Jacobs also later mentions, “I was indebted to her for all my comforts, spiritual or temporal” (2). Jacobs felt that her grandmother helped her so much through these times that she would never be able to repay the comfort she received from her grandmother and all the good deeds she did for her.

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This meant that Jacobs life as a slave was worse that style of life that anyone could have; because she was a slave the fear of being raped or abused was always in her mind. Jacobs was dealt a life with a double edge sword; meaning that she did not have to be worry about being abused because her master did not allow it but her master had plans to make her his own when she came to age. Jacobs did not know the latter of her situation, therefore she like any woman of her time began to become a good woman. This consisted of he being pure holy and domestic. Since her purity was being saved for her master, her being a house slave the same as Douglass, also the love for god came easy to her; she believed that she was a good woman.

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Jacobs narrative can be seen in many different ways and she provides several different themes. One of those themes is Christianity; Christianity was very important in the lives of every slave because it united them with their families and God. Jacobs narrative provides one truth about Christianity and slaves; Slaves were the only real Christians during the 1800s. White men were all hypocrites because they thought that by going to church meant they were the best Christians ever.

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She depicted the violence and cruelty that went on in slave owning homes. As a slave woman, Jacobs had no legal protection and small variety of choices she could make in self-preservation. Harriet Jacobs’s narrative shows that freedom is a human right, and the

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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs, gives us a close view of her and others experiences in the institution of slavery. The opening of her autobiography, “READER, be assured this narrative is no fiction…...strictly true” (5), shows that she wants people to know that is a true recount of incidents in her life. A big part of her story not only exposed the inhumane and sadistic treatment of African-American slaves, especially the females, but also the sexual encounters by slave-owners in her case Dr. Flint. This book in mostly about experiences and hardships the author had to face, and it shows how she fought for her freedom. As she states in the end of her book “my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage”

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1355 Words | 6 Pages

American Slave Narrators: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs As former slaves living in the same generation, both Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) devoted their professional lives to telling their respective stories. As a matter of fact, Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) are considered the most important works in the slave narrative genre. Thus, their essays provide a ground for a meaningful comparison of their respective experiences of slavery in the nineteenth-century. While both writers present a significant contribution to the genre of the slave narrative, however, they differ in the way they highlight

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Ignorance is a very dangerous concept during this time, as many people were ignorant of what was going on in the country around them. Jacobs first touches on this ignorance by saying “those heathen in our Christian land” (Line 18). She is talking about the ignorance of slaves to think that they were safer being brutalized every day than they would have been if they escaped. In Jacobs’ eyes, slaves needed to risk their lives and take the chance to escape instead of be content working and being whipped. She says that this ignorance makes slaves fear “the fierce bloodhounds of the South” (line 34).

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1584 Words | 7 Pages

Gender and Race in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl In Harriet Jacobs’s story, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs was an extraordinary African American woman living in slavery. When she was six years old her mother died, and she was raised by her grandmother. While reading Jacobs autobiography I discovered that Jacob’s grandmother had a major part in her life. She embedded morals, values and principles in her life. For women in slavery it was fortunate to have had someone in whom you can trust and confide, and Harriet had that with her grandmother.

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769 Words | 4 Pages

My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was allowed to work at his trade, and manage his own affairs. His strongest wish was to purchase his children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded.” (page 820) Harriet Ann Jacobs was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813. Jacobs grew up in a family where her father was able to keep her and her brother together without being separated.

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