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The Trials Of Girlhood Harriet Jacobs Summary

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In the history of the United States, slavery was and is considered one of the most inexcusable tragedies. Fortunately many slaves wrote about their experience in slavery, some authors known more than others but the stories are still the same. This will be an analysis of the lives of Harriet Jacobs, known as “Linda Brent” and the more known Fredrick Douglass, about their work as slaves and how their gender influenced their experience .
Slavery was a terrible thing that did not give special treatment to any gender. Most slaves were overworked frequently, underfed, and all lived in fear. Fear ruled over the slaves, for if they did not do what they are told there would be great consequences enforced by the slaveholders. Both genders …show more content…

She is constantly being harassed sexually in many different forms. Dr.Flint does everything he can to have some form of contact with Jacobs in order to “propose” his intentions to her. He writes letters and also tries to have conversations with her. The best quote that described the situation is when Jacobs wrote “My master met me at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to him, and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to him.” Jacobs was not even allowed to talk to someone about the ongoing situation, most of all she was specifically not allowed to talk to her grandmother, with whom she had a very close bond. Dr.Flint threatened to kill Jacobs if she tells anybody, especially her grandmother. Jacobs did all she could to avoid Dr.Flint, because of this she also faced psychological effects from the harassment. From the very beginning it is noticed that Jacobs was raised to be a lady and to be pure and Jacobs held on to that purity, nevertheless finally she had to let that go in order to escape Dr.Flint. Jacobs got pregnant by a white man to whom she had no feelings of love for. She saw it as something that had to be done, since she knew that Dr.Flint would lose interest in her, and that he would send her away. Jacobs gave up her personal values in order to escape her

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