Harriet Jacobs Life Of A Slave Girl Summary

Life of a Slave Girl is a fascinating inside look at slavery in the ante-bellum south and the various ways with which slaves resisted their masters and the system which kept them in bondage. In many ways, the book serves to shatter commonly held misconceptions about the nature of slavery. For example, when one mentions slavery the first thing that comes to mind is slaves working in a plantation field picking cotton. Harriet Jacob’s family however, were skilled artisans and craftsmen which could afford a higher standard of living than many poor whites despite their status as slaves. Indeed, this often created jealousy on the part of the poor whites who believed themselves better than the slaves. Overall, Harriet Jacobs tells how slaves

Northern delegates to the convention, such as Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, staunchly opposed slavery and wished a gradual program of emancipation to be set forth in law. Southerners however, were resolutely opposed to any efforts to eradicate slavery. Harriet Jacobs herself speaks of how southerners demanded absolute obedience from northerners and deference to slavery, what they called their “peculiar institution.” Any northerner in the south was expected to keep his or her mouth shut about slavery or risk violence. (Jacobs, 43) Despite the stubbornness of slaveholders, the constitutional convention did succeed in outlawing the Transatlantic slave trade. This meant that no “new” slaves could be brought into America from Africa, and instead, slaveholders had to rely on the internal slave trade in order to run their plantations. As a result, slavery became a hereditary position that people were born into. Oftentimes, even free blacks were brought back into slavery in order to meet the demand of southerners for slaves. Harriet Jacob’s family

The slaveholders were aware of this, and tried to convince the slaves that life in the north was terrible and that they were better off as slaves under a “kind master.” (Jacobs, 39) While the north was not willing to interfere with slavery in the south, they were also unwilling to turn over runaway slaves back to their southern masters. Until of course, the fugitive slave act threatened anyone with fines and jail time who aided or abetted runaway slaves. In many ways, the fugitive slave act would lead to the Civil War as northerners realized they could not simply ignore the existence of slavery in the south. For Harriet Jacobs, the fugitive slave law was the greatest threat to her freedom after her escape to the north. Harriet was constantly on the move between New York and Massachusetts to elude her captors, until eventually, her old master gave up the search. Still, Jacobs would not be safe until the Civil War came and slavery was