The three quotations demonstrate how slavery has been understood differently by different people and it those who view it through the lens of white supremacy that produces the experiences like those of Mary Prince and Harriet Jacobs. Although narratives like Mary Prince’s were written as propaganda to reveal the brutal torture and inhuman conditions slaves experience under their cruel masters, slave owners like Harriet Jacob’s mother’s mistress and Mrs. Williams, Mary Prince’s owner as a child, demonstrate that some slaves were treated as mere labour workers in the household. In the first text, Jacobs is reminiscing her life under her mother’s mistress’s ownership. She recalls that upon her mother’s death, her mother’s mistress promised that …show more content…
Prince had been beaten, overworked and sexually harassed by her owners as she got older but her younger years were filled with joy. Mrs. Williams had treated her family fairly, unlike her subsequent owners. While her mother worked under Mrs. Williams, she was able to live with her mother and siblings. She does, however, explain in the quote that it was her naiveté that prevented her from acknowledging her status as a slave (Prince, 7). Lastly, the last quote taken from the slave narrative of Olaudah Equaino describes how different slaves in his tribe were treated from slaves in the West Indies, further bolstering the point that some slave owners understand slavery not as an excuse to disregard one’s right to life. Equaiano explains that in his tribe, slaves were prisoners of war who were unwanted by the enemy tribe (Equiano, 40). In their tribe, these slaves mostly had the same rights as the people in the community. The only difference evident is in the power dynamics. Instead of race legitimizing the authority of the slave owner, the head of the family possesses the authority over those in the household, including slaves (Equiano, …show more content…
They clearly reveal the authors’ intended audience and their intentions in writing their narratives. The second and third quote clearly demonstrate this point. Equiano explicitly describes the atrocity of slavery in the second passage, appealing to the sensibilities of Christians and families. He begins with citing the biblical quote “Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you” (Equiano, 61). It directly asks Christians if the trauma and horrors Africans experience through slavery is what they want to be done to them. It points out the hypocrisy of white Christians who support slavery. Moreover, he appeals to families. He calls out the greed of slave owners, who rip families apart in order to support their opulent lifestyle (Equaino, 61). Jacobs and Prince also speak of the wretchedness of slavery. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs documents the cruelties she had undergone under her cruel master Dr. Flint and her sufferings in order to protect her children from him. Jacobs elucidates to the reader the exhaustion, anguish and hopelessness that came over her upon discovering that Dr. Flint had begun building the cottage he threated to take Jacobs in as a concubine. She experienced such trauma that even the sound of his footsteps evoked fear in her and she trembled upon hearing his voice (Jacobs, 62). Dr. Flint held so much
Servitude is a usual part of African ritual. Tribes would often use trade to obtain slaves by going to the head chief and trading for livestock. Not only did various tribes trade with the people of their countries, but with the Europeans of other nationalities as well. There were times that tribes would go to war and keep chiefs and prisoners of war were kept as slaves, to trade with European countries. Many times slaves were sold due to being punished, or to rape and other various crimes. Some were also forced into life of captivity. It was common for young individuals to be kidnapped and taken to a home of a common family to work and serve them. Many owners would treat their slaves fairly. The masters would own a piece of property and have an apartment for their own personal family along with a home for the enslaved family. Equiano talks about how many slaves owned their own slaves in some cases. If a family was wealthy enough, they would accommodate their property, meaning the slaves. They were a part of the owner’s family and were as brutally treated comparing to slaves of the Colonial U.S.
The fight for racial equality is one of the most prominent issues Americans have faced throughout history and even today; as the idea that enslaving individuals is unethical emerged, many great and innovative authors began writing about the issues that enslaved people had to face. Olaudah Equiano was no exception. In his work The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he attempts to persuade his readers that the American way of slavery is brutal, inhumane, and unscrupulous. Equiano manages to do this by minimizing the apparent differences between himself and his primarily white audience, mentioning the cruelties that he and many other slaves had to face, and the advantages of treating your slaves correctly.
What is presented to the slaves as a religious tenet is merely propaganda used to quell rebellious behavior. They fear a society in which they no longer serve to benefit from slave labor, and so they fear rebellion, they fear objection, they fear events like the Nat Turner Insurrection. The system the slaveholders strive so ardently to protect begins to affect even them, those in power, negatively. They begin to cope with their fear the only way they know how, by projecting it upon the slaves.
Men and women’s treatment has been different as long as the two have been around to notice the difference. Even in the realm of slavery, women and men were not treated the same, although both were treated in horrible ways. Harriet Jacobs and Fredrick Douglass’ story is very similar: both were born into slavery and later rose above the oppression to become molders of minds. In time of subjugation to African Americans, these two writers rose up and did great things, especially with their writing. Both Douglass and Jacobs’ experienced different types of slavery, it shaped their perspective on everything and it also shows the importance of their freedom.
It is well known that slavery was a horrible event in the history of the United States. However, what isn't as well known is the actual severity of slavery. The experiences of slave women presented by Angela Davis and the theories of black women presented by Patricia Hill Collins are evident in the life of Harriet Jacobs and show the severity of slavery for black women.
Solomon had the unique experience of being a free man for decades before being captured and enslaved, and that greatly challenges proslavery claims made by the Southern whites stating that slaves could never survive on their own without them. Solomon’s first owner, William Ford, could be compared to proslavery claims of how well slaveholders treat their slaves. Ford treated his slaves well and Solomon believed if Ford had grown up under different influences, he would not be a slaveholder at all because he was such an honorable man. Solomon’s second master, John Tibeats, was the complete opposite image of what proslavery southerners were trying to prove. “He was ignorant, withal, and of a revengeful disposition…Certain it is, it was a most unlucky day, for me that brought us together”. Solomon was barely allowed to have any rest, worked long hours, and was never spoken to politely by Tibeats. Harriet Jacobs also had similar experiences as Solomon, but was even more oppressed than others because she was a woman. Jacobs was sexually exploited by her master for years and treated like she was property. There was not one recollection of Harriet Jacobs experiencing anything enjoyable about slavery; only suffering and punishment which threatens proslavery claims. Many slaves tried to challenge the notion of slavery by escaping or fighting back. Solomon fought back by whipping
Thomas Pringle wrote "The idea of Mary Prince's history was first suggested by herself. She wished it to be done, she said, that good people in England might hear from a slave what a slave had felt and suffered.” Mary Prince, was the first black woman to have her story published in Britain. Due to Mary Prince’s graphic detail, her anecdotes were sadistic to the extent that very few believed her . Mary Prince conveys that both slave owners and their slaves suffer physical and emotional effects of slavery, confirming Pringle’s write that "slavery is a curse to the oppressors scarcely less than the oppressed; it's natural tendency is to brutalize both.”
Slavery in the middle of the 19th century was well known by every American in the country, but despite the acknowledgment of slavery the average citizen did not realize the severity of the lifestyle of the slave before slave narratives began to arise. In Incidents in the life of a slave girl, Harriet Jacobs uses an explicit tone to argue the general life of slave compared to a free person, as well as the hardships one endured on one’s path to freedom. Jacobs fought hard in order to expand the abolitionist movement with her narrative. She was able to draw in the readers by elements of slave culture that helped the slaves endure the hardships like religion and leisure and the middle class ideals of the women being “submissive, past, domestic,
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like.
For Example, the mulatto and slave William Wells Brown comment “During the time that Mr. Cook was overseer, I was a house servant - a situation preferable to that of a field hand, as I was better fed, better clothed, and not obliged to rise at the ringing of the bell, but about half an hour after. I have often laid and heard the crack of the whip, and the screams of the slave”. Brown was the son of the plantation owner where he lived on and even though he was a slave he did not have the same obligations as the other slaves. He was simply a part of the family, but his father did not take his mother into consideration. She was still working in the field and getting whipped by the plantation’s overseer. In contrast to Brown being light skin and the son of the plantation owner, the mulatto Moses Roper had a total different experience. Roper’s father was also the plantation owner, but he was not considered a part of the family, he was simply another slave. Mr. Roper’s wife knew about Moses birth and she attempted to kill him after knowing that Moses was white. As Moses narrates, “she returned back as soon as she could, and told her mistress that I was white, and resembled Mr. Roper very much. Mr. Roper 's wife being not pleased with this report, she got a large club stick and knife, and hastened to the place in which my mother was confined”. Moses’s mother and him were not welcomed anymore in the
Motherhood, in its simplest definition is the state of being a mother; however, it isn't as clear cut and emotionless as the definition implies. Motherhood holds a different meaning for everyone. For some it is a positive experience, for others it's negative. Different situations change motherhood and the family unit. Slavery is an institution that twists those ideas into something hardly recognizable. The Master and the Mistress are parental figures. Slaves never became adults; they are called boy or girl no matter what their age. They are forced into a situation where biological parents have no say over their children. The slave owners control the slaves' lives and destroy the traditional idea of motherhood and family. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl deals with the issues of being a woman in slavery. The mothers throughout the narrative are powerless in keeping their children from harm. They watch as their children are hurt or sold and can't do anything about it. The mothers use everything in their power to protect their children and succeed in their motherly duty.
As female slaves such as Harriet Jacob continually were fighting to protect their self respect, and purity. Harriet Jacob in her narrative, the readers get an understanding of she was trying to rebel against her aggressive master, who sexually harassed her at young age. She wasn’t protected by the law, and the slaveholders did as they pleased and were left unpunished. Jacobs knew that the social group,who were“the white women”, would see her not as a virtuous woman but hypersexual. She states “I wanted to keep myself pure, - and I tried hard to preserve my self-respect, but I was struggling alone in the grasp of the demon slavery.” (Harriet 290)The majority of the white women seemed to criticize her, but failed to understand her conditions and she did not have the free will. She simply did not have that freedom of choice. It was the institution of slavery that failed to recognize her and give her the basic freedoms of individual rights and basic protection. Harriet Jacobs was determined to reveal to the white Americans the sexual exploitations that female slaves constantly fa...
In this essay I intend to delve into the representation of family in the slave narrative, focusing on Frederick Douglas’ ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’ and Harriet Jacobs ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.’ Slave narratives are biographical and autobiographical stories of freedom either written or told by former slaves. The majority of them were ‘told to’ accounts written with the aid of abolitionist editors between 1830 and 1865. An amount of narratives were written entirely by the author and are referred to as authentic autobiographies. The first of more than six thousand extant slave narratives were published in 1703. Primarily written as propaganda, the narratives served as important weapons in the warfare against slavery. Slave narratives can be considered as a literary genre for a number of reasons. They are united by the common purpose of pointing out the evils of slavery and attacking the notion of black inferiority. In the narratives, you can find simple and often dramatic accounts of personal experience, strong revelation of the char...
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
In his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he begins with a detailed description of life in his homeland. He describes a culture that had a hierarchal, patriarchal system, not unlike that of Pocahontas’ tribe. There is an established government, with chiefs and judges, one of which, is his father. It is important to note that while Equiano states that he was slated to claim the status of “grandeur”, he never reached that point in his narrative before he was kidnapped and sold as but another slave in the Middle Passage. Thus, early life for Equiano, while perhaps better than some of his counterparts, was still of the same class, dictated by the governance of these socially superior figures. Similar to Pocahontas too, Equiano eventually regained a “free” status. But unlike Pocahontas who is still bound by the voyeuristic gaze of the men surrounding her, Equiano’s unfreedom stems from the social stigma and struggle of being non-white European. As he recounted during his time in the Barbados, “as I knew there was little or no law for a free negro here […].” The social intolerance of African people, while different in the Caribbean from in England or America, was still clear.