Harriet Jacobs and Slavery

The similarities of enslavement and skin color are just how much they affect Jacobs’ other identities. As an enslaved black woman, Jacobs knew that her beauty was a curse, and that she was unprotected in the eyes of the law. This significant lack of any protection is what leads to Jacobs being the victim of so much abuse, and indeed, what led to so many others just like her becoming the victims of their abusers. As a slave, she was born almost completely devoid of rights, and as a black person, southern society found it hard to put much effort towards caring for her. Overall, being a slave and Black American did not have the same implications for one’s life, but they did in equal parts affect how society viewed the

However this did not happen this way because Beloved came back to haunt the family which resulted in her two boys leaving because they could not stand the pressure of living in a haunted house. So, again motherhood was inhibited because with out any children there is no mother hood and this is all because of slavery. Although Sethe prevented her children from being put back into the evil forces of slavery, there is a greater question of importance. Can Sethe be thought of as a heroine for releasing them from slavery or is it murder? These questions must also be related back to the real-life character Margaret Garner.

The children caused tension between mistresses and slave women. The mistresses had to deal with the results of their husband’s infidelity . They were usually powerless and there and at that time, divorce was not an option. Due to jealousy and rage they often took out their anger on the slave women and her slave children. The slave husbands had no control over their masters forcing their wives into having sexual relations with them.

In in circumstances she felt that “Slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others” (Jacobs 234). Slaves endured much more cruelty of being raped, having their babies ripped from there wombs then sold into slavery child after another. They did all they could for themselves and children and tried to live a happy life but what life was a happy one with bitter slave masters and being a female slave of the

Although in the 19th century many slave owners had strict rules and control over slaves, enslaved individuals established their own way to go against the hardships they were placed in. Most people would have thought it was dangerous to defy a slave owner due to the consequences that were placed against those who resisted. Those who took part in the resistance, weighed their freedom higher than the risk of punishment. The various ways of effectively resisting the slave owner’s control are demonstrated in Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Slave owners sexually wanting a scandalous relationship was seen greatly throughout this time period.

Since black slave women are seen as property with no human rights they are not allowed to determine who they have sexual relations with. In Birthing a Slave, Schwartz explains how rape was discussed publically and privately in the region and how slave mothers saw forced sex, population, growth, and... ... middle of paper ... ... proved to be just as difficult for them to endure. In Birthing a Slave we can see the brutal physical side that slave women are facing during this time, but we can also see the psychological horrors that they are facing hand in hand with it. Similarly, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl gives a clear image of the trials of mental abuse that slave women are facing. With sexual abuse and fear of losing their children, slave women are being psychologically tortured and unable to achieve fulfillment in their lives.

Out of fear of pain or death, female slaves had no other alternative but to obey their masters. According to Lyerly, “As many historians of slavery have noted, slave women lived not only with slavery’s routine restraints upon their will; they also had to fight for control over their bodies. Victims of sexual abuse by whites, slave women were often subject to the will of others in the most intimate ways” (209).

Not only that, Gwin’s book discusses the idea that for most of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, a black woman usually got subjected to displacement of sexual and mental frustration of white women. Gwin discusses how these black women, because of the sexual and mental abuse, felt looked down on more by whites and therefore reduced to even a lower level than that of white women‘s status of being a woman. . 	A southern white female slave owner only saw black women as another slave, or worse. White women needed to do this in order to keep themselves from feeling that they were of higher status than every one else except for their husband.

This was another way in which slavery eliminated the values of slaves. And a constant struggle for Jacobs throughout the book; she wants to stay true to her beliefs. Her inability to stay true to her beliefs cause her to feel guilty and insecure about her decisions. Religiosity was considered very important in that era, however to be pious and gain religious insight you would need to be ... ... middle of paper ... ...Jacobs refuses to let her master destroy her body and soul and subsequently suffers greatly to escape his claws. Slavery would best be described as the complete annihilation of the individual being.

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the slave law states that the children follow the condition of the mother. This law gets in the way of the slaves uniting together. Linda has two children and wants them to be free, but she knows her children will not be free because she herself is a slave. The children’s father is a free African-American man, but the children become slaves since Linda is a slave. Dr. Flint gets in the way of... ... middle of paper ... ...up in men’s clothing, trying to escape Rufus.