Harriot Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs was a beautiful slave girl who suffered great abuse as a child from her master. After loosing her mother at age six, her grandma was all she had. Although she had great admiration and respect for her grandma, she also feared her presence. Harriet lived in town with her master, Dr. Flint, instead of on a distant plantation like most slaves in that time. As she grew, she caught the attention of her master more and more. She was fifteen when the innocent attention turned in to something more dark and abusive. Growing up Harriet’s grandma taught her to respect herself and not participate in certain activities, so when her master came to her and demanded that she be involved with him she was very emotionally torn. She was not able to confide in her grandma about the abuse, thus leaving her essentially alone to deal with her pain on her own.
Dr. Flint had a huge impact on Harriet’s life by robbing her of her physical and emotional freedom. This was a very heavy weight that she carried around for a very long time. As for his wife, she caused great damage to Harriet as well. The knowledge of what her husband put this young girl through made her very jealous and spiteful. Instead of standing up for Harriet, she blamed her. Leaving Harriet to carry around a great amount of guilt and shame. Although Harriet’s grandma tried to do the best raising her, she was not there for her when she needed her most. Which leaves me asking, who hurt her more; Dr. Flint for creating this situation, his wife for leading Harriot to believe it was her fault, or her grandma for leaving her to deal with this situation all by herself?
As a child and as an author Harriet brought attention to this problem and sought out protection. Although it was to late for her, she wanted to make sure this did not happen to other little girls. Instead of going to her grandma or someone close to her, she wrote to a stranger in the north. I was not sure exactly why she chose to take