Compare/Contrast Douglass and Jacobs
Compare/Contrast Essay
Gender Specific Perspectives of the African-American Slave;
A Compare and Contrast Essay of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass.
The experiences, memories and treatment in any situation are viewed upon differently between a man and a woman. Obvious in the case of slavery, the two sexes were treated differently and so therefore their recollections of such events were-different. In the following short essay, we look closely at the perspective of the female slave, Harriet Jacobs in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, and respectfully compared to that of a man slave, Frederick Douglass in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. Although both experienced their freedoms despite facing great adversity, being a slave woman offers a different perspective of a woman’s account of her disadvantages.
One way that Harriet Jacobs perceived slavery differently than Frederick Douglass is that as a child, she never even realized she was a slave. This could be a disadvantage because it could become a safety issue if she does not realize her “place” among the races as well as when she reaches an age of being able to labor and be sold; it would have a profound effect on her when she could have been more prepared. Within the first page of her autobiography, Jacobs states “I was born a slave; but I never knew it…” (281). She then goes on to state in a different line that “…I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise…” (281). Jacobs’s father was head workman. He had the liberty to manage his own affairs and work at his trade. She lived in what she describes as a “comfortable home” and had relationships with her family members such as her brother, grandmother, mother and uncle. Frederick Douglass on the other hand, had already realized slavery was amidst him in his childhood. In the first paragraph of Chapter 1, Douglass states “A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness
Gender Specific Perspectives of the African-American Slave;
A Compare and Contrast Essay of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass.
The experiences, memories and treatment in any situation are viewed upon differently between a man and a woman. Obvious in the case of slavery, the two sexes were treated differently and so therefore their recollections of such events were-different. In the following short essay, we look closely at the perspective of the female slave, Harriet Jacobs in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, and respectfully compared to that of a man slave, Frederick Douglass in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. Although both experienced their freedoms despite facing great adversity, being a slave woman offers a different perspective of a woman’s account of her disadvantages.
One way that Harriet Jacobs perceived slavery differently than Frederick Douglass is that as a child, she never even realized she was a slave. This could be a disadvantage because it could become a safety issue if she does not realize her “place” among the races as well as when she reaches an age of being able to labor and be sold; it would have a profound effect on her when she could have been more prepared. Within the first page of her autobiography, Jacobs states “I was born a slave; but I never knew it…” (281). She then goes on to state in a different line that “…I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise…” (281). Jacobs’s father was head workman. He had the liberty to manage his own affairs and work at his trade. She lived in what she describes as a “comfortable home” and had relationships with her family members such as her brother, grandmother, mother and uncle. Frederick Douglass on the other hand, had already realized slavery was amidst him in his childhood. In the first paragraph of Chapter 1, Douglass states “A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness
Cited: Douglass, Frederick. “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” The Norton Anthology Of African American Literature. Ed.Gates and McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton &Co., 1996. 385-483 Jacobs, Harriet. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed.Gates and McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton&Co., 1996. 279-314