Harriet Jacobs first started her writting in 1853. She began writting to tell her story about being a slave to men, and the birth of her first child. In her story 'Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl', she uses many different stratagies to really bring her point accross, and tell the story of her life. In this piece, Jacobs uses a variety of symbols to show the validity of her own life as a slave.…
The issue of slavery in America is a vastly documented phenomenon that captivates the interest of nearly everyone with a slight interest in history. It is a dark and fascinating subject yet still an overlooked part of our young nation’s history. Though there are countless books and articles written on the topic, few provide such compelling and brutally truthful accounts of the hardships endured by slaves as Harriett Jacobs in Incidents of a Slave Girl. Within this novel, she attempts to describe her situation under the laws dictating her life as a slave. She writes as to persuade the reader not to judge her as she tells them all she has bared in her life. As a young girl when she became a slave, she was subject to harassment, particularly by sexual means, more so than her male equals. Through the course of her book, Jacobs describes her predicament and attempts to survive and surpass it.…
The second part of a slave narrative is the life as a slave (Turner). This is the majority of Harriet Ann Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, being from about Chapters II to XVI. She begins by describing how cruel her new master, Dr. Flint was: “[he] was an epicure. The cook never sent a dinner to his table without fear and trembling; for if there happened to be a dish not to his liking, he would either order her to be whipped, or compel her to eat every mouthful of it in his presence” (Jacobs, 22). By the age of fifteen, Dr. Flint would harass her more often and follow her closely; she was constantly reminded by him that she was nothing but his property. All of the doctor’s attention on Jacobs resulted in the mistress becoming…
A look at chapters V, VI, and VII of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl revolves around a teenage slave girl and the control placed over her by her slave owner. The passage goes to reflect the atrocities placed over many slaves of the south in that time. It goes to show that these poor individuals had no power over the system in place over them and that they had to submit to the rule of those masters above them regardless of how heinous the act was. These acts were not unique to just her but was known to happen to many slave girls throughout the south. Slaveries affect on the south was made very apparent in the early to mid 1800's. Slaves made up 1/3 of the southern populations and was making its way further west into eastern Texas. At the…
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl are two of the most influential autobiographies of slavery. Douglass’s experiences are similar to Harriet Jacobs’s, but they have their differences. Jacobs said “O, you happy free women, contrast your New Year’s day with that of a poor bondwoman! With you it is a pleasant season, and the light of day is blessed.” Douglass said “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.”…
Harriet Jacobs was a slave who was able to escape, and she describes her life as a slave and towards the end the start of her new life in the North in a brief narrative. In the beginning she describes her master and his vile actions, which are against her morals. She describes how sometimes he has a bad temper, but other times tries to be gentle, and states that she prefers his “stormy side.” She also describes her mistress who instead of helping her against the masters’ unruly behavior only feels jealousy and anger. In the account, she describes her master who was unrelenting in his quest to make her submit to him, and often followed her around. Harriet also scribes that she was always treated kindly until she came upon Dr. Flint. During the narrative, Harriet was locked in a shed that…
"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs is discussing an enslaved woman's voyage through the dreadful institution of slavery to her freeing. Through her portrayal of enslavement, the reader is able to comprehend what it was like for many of African Americans to be dehumanized and shrunken by slavery. Transcribed in 1861 to appeal to the emotions of the Northerners, particularly the women, about the cruelty of slavery, the life story is an interpretation of a woman's life, what the author calls her…
In history, slavery has been a large problem in The United States and has caused many issues. We know slavery as history, while people like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs knew slavery as their lives. Frederick Douglass was a man who was born and raised as a slave, he never knew his mother and watched many terrifying things as a child. Another known slave was Harriet Jacobs; she was a slave who was abused in many ways. Both of these slaves lived through hardship and turbulence growing up. Most people could not even fathom the pain and suffering these two slaves endured. They were considered to be chattel slaves.…
Slavery is among the most detrimental phenomena that have ever happened to humankind. In particular, the practice subjected the victims to unbearable living conditions, as well as physical and psychological tortures. Considering the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs is an example of the person who endured tough times in the hands of slave-owners (Garfield and Zafar 12). Jacobs’s case served as an eye-opener to the world on matters regarding the quality of life and a social status, which slaves underwent in the ancient times. Essentially, slaves assumed the lowest class that could not make its own decisions, and the analysis of Jacobs’s experiences reveals that she suffered more from psychological than physical abuse,…
Accessed 22 Mar. 2024. The. Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. docs.google.com/document/d/1x5U_lj2EUmqc98_kkbzJgbAr6VnK4jLrubWgBWAUAfY/edit?usp=classroom_web&authuser=0.…
In recounting her life experiences before she was freed, Jacobs offered her contemporary readers a startlingly realistic portrayal of her sexual history while a slave. Although several male authors of slave narratives had referred to the victimization of enslaved African American women by white men, none had addressed the subject as directly as Jacobs finally chose to. She not only documented the sexual abuse she suffered, but also explained how she had devised a way to use her sexuality as a means of avoiding exploitation by her master. Risking her reputation in the disclosure of such intimate details, Jacobs appealed to a northern female readership that might sympathize with the plight of a southern mother in bondage. Indeed, throughout her narrative, Jacobs focuses on the importance of family and motherhood. She details the strain of being separated from her grandmother and two children during her seven years in hiding, and afterwards in New York and Boston, when she lacked the means to free her daughter. As her biographer Jean Fagan Yellin has noted, Jacobs's slave narrative is similar to other narratives in its story of struggle, survival, and ultimately freedom. Yet she also reworks the male-centered slave narrative genre to accommodate issues of motherhood and sexuality. By confronting directly the cruel realities that plagued…
During the 1800s, slaves received treatment comparable to that of livestock. They were mere possessions of white men stripped of almost every last bit of humanity in them. African-Americans were constricted to this state of mind by their owners vicious treatment, but also the practice of keeping them uneducated. Keeping the slaves illiterate hindered them from understanding the world around them. Slave owners knew this. The slaves who were able to read and write always rebelled more against their masters. Frederick Douglass, author of "A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," and Harriet Jacobs, author of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," were prime examples. Both slaves had been taught how read and write at a young age, and both gained their freedom by escaping to the northern states. What they had learned also helped them stay free while in the northern states after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which left no slave truly free. The literate slaves thought with a more free mind and developed a sense of self-identity and denied the identity of a slave. Literate slaves caught on to the immorality and injustice of slavery on black people. Another problem slave owners had with literate slaves was the potential for them to educate other slaves and give them thoughts of escaping or helping other slaves escape. Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs both wrote of this in their books.…
In a time filled with torture and pain and where “whipped”, “chained” and “beaten to death” were words and phrases commonly tossed around the topic of American slaves, some individuals rose up and fought against the odds and in doing so solidified their place in history. Mostly all African Americans were subjected to slavery but it was the brave few that could only be pushed so far and decided to escape in hopes of finding a better life. Harriet Tubman is a prime example of a woman who aimed to turn her dream into a reality. Harriet possessed both outstanding courage and remarkable determination as she paved the lengthy road to freedom for hundreds of…
The slave narrative differs from earlier African-American literature because it directly highlights the pain of slavery and forces the reader to experience the truth of what it is like to be an American slave. Instead of simply expressing emotions caused by black oppression and the struggle to gain recognition and appreciation as a race, as in the works of early African-American writers, slave narratives give readers insight to the inhumanity of slavery. They illustrate the painful lives that slaves lead and ultimately what they will experience to gain freedom. Frederick Douglass wrote his testimony on the life of a slave in his work, "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass". Harriet Jacobs is another African-American writer and…
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a compelling novel written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, a former slave. Born as a slave in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813, the only life Harriet knew was that of a slave. Growing up in the south as a young African American girl caused Harriet a life of hardships that must be faced to find freedom. The time of 1836 to 1860 was often nicknamed the antebellum period. During the Antebellum period is was very much legal to hold African Americans as slaves to endlessly do work for their master with no pay. Slaves were treated like property, often only eating a piece of bread for the entire week and being whipped if they were to eat any more. Most of the young slave girls at…