Life of a Slave Girl

915 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Harriet jacobs incidents in the life essay

Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs constantly refers to friends that help her through her plight for freedom. Relying on the kindness of others seems to be a trend through out her life. Harriet was always helped out when she was a slave and when she escaped from slavery. When ever she got into trouble someone always came to her rescue. Everyone that came to her rescue was risking themselves when they would aid her. Be it a good old friend from the past, someone who knew her mother or a random stranger in the last expected place, there was always someone to save her. She thankfully accepted every bit of aid that came her way. Countless times Harriet speaks of getting help from someone whom she knew when she was little, be it an old friend or someone who is helping her because they knew her mother. People always wanted to help her, and this makes me wonder what she was like. Not once in her story does Harriet describe herself or do we get to know much about her other then how troubled she always is. Harriet was someone of a very strong moral character. Her second master Dr. Flint was relentless in his desires to have her as his lover yet she never gave in. In the situation of a slave this was very unusual. There was nothing to stop Dr. Flint from sticking Harriet in jail or whipping her until she couldn't stand anymore for no other reason then he felt like it. Yet she would not do anything she chose not to. She eventually ran away from him after spending years in his service and spent seven years hiding in an atic that summed up to be a large coffin then serve him and his family any more. She would rather torchure herself then submit to the Flints and do something she felt was wrong. At the age of six Harri... ... middle of paper ... ... to smuggle Harriet north. After much time, he found way by a sympathetic caption of a ship to bring her north. He gave seven years trying to help her with information and a way to get north instead of helping himself. To simply save a friend. After Harriet arived in New York she met Mr. Bruce. His second wife was the greatest help to Harriet through out all of her years. Though she was white, she treated Harriet as an equal and always tryed to do the best for her. At one point Harriet had to flee from New York for fear of being cought and Mrs. Bruce tells her to bring her baby with her so that if she happened to be cought they would have to bring Harriet back to her and that there might be some way to help her then. Eventually Mrs. Bruce enables someone to purchase Harriet for three hundred dollars from Mr. Flint's daughter so that Harriet could be free.

Show More
Related

  • The Classic Slave Narratives: Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano

    1992 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the autobiographical writings Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs’ reflects on the times that her master Dr. Flint consistently tried to molest her sexually. In spite of her fears of horrible repercussions such as beatings or torture if she refuses to submit to him, Harriet always manages to evade his proposals to become his mistress by out-smarting him. She defends herself from his numerous attempts to seduce her, by the power of her mental strength and intelligence, and her Christian morality. While she fears him each time he secretly approaches her with his sexual propositions when he caught her alone, she could always think of ways to protect herself. For example she protects herself from the dangers of his sexual advances by removing herself from the master’s presence any opportunity she gets. She sometimes stays with her grandmother or aunt at night to protect herself from him. They are both Dr. Flint’s former slaves too who live on the plantation where she lives. Even though he threatens to kill her if she tells anyone, she tells his wife about his sexual advances, and Mrs. Flint invites Harriet to sl...

    Read More

  • Slavery: Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story of Harriet Jacobs begins in North Carolina. In 1813 she was born into slavery, though she didn’t realize that she was a slave, stating “I was born a slave; but I never knew it. ”(Jacobs 1809-1829). Jacobs was with her mother until her death in 1819, then she lived with Margaret Horniblow, her mother’s mistress. Horniblow taught Jacobs to read, write, and sew, then in 1825 she died and willed Jacobs to her five year old niece.

    Read More

  • Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl: Harriet Jacobs

    1478 Words  | 3 Pages

    From 1813 to 1879, lived a woman of great dignity, strong will, and one desire. A woman who was considered nothing more than just a slave girl would give anything for the freedom for herself and her two children. Harriet Jacobs, who used the pen name Linda Brent, compiled her life into a little book called Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Mrs. Jacobs' story, once read, will leave nothing but pity and heart ache for her readers as they discover the life she had to endure. She however boldly states, "[I] earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse. I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what Slavery really is."(preface 1) Harriet Jacobs wanted to show the people who were not experiencing slavery exactly was going on in hopes that it would influence them to bring a stop to it. Though you cannot help but pity Harriet Jacobs, you can also take her story and the hard ships she endured and realize how strong a woman she truly was.

    Read More

  • Lifting as We Climb

    3002 Words  | 7 Pages

    Harriet Jacobs was born in 1813 into a slave family. Her father, a carpenter, was highly skilled in his trade. For the first few years of her life, Jacobs lived a happy, normal childhood. She was fortunate enough to live in the same household as her parents and her younger brother, William. When she turned six, her mother passed away, leaving her under the care of her grandmother. In her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet describes her life as a southern slave, calling herself Linda. She discusses the abuse she endured during servitude and how she managed to overcome it.

    Read More

  • Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

    1478 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the earliest part of Harriet?s life the whole idea of slavery was foreign to her. As all little girls she was born with a mind that only told her place in the world was that of a little girl. She had no capacity to understand the hardships that she inherited. She explains how her, ?heart was as free from care as that of any free-born white child.?(Jacobs p. 7) She explains this blissful ignorance by not understanding that she was condemned at birth to a life of the worst kind oppression. Even at six when she first became familiar with the realization that people regarded her as a slave, Harriet could not conceptualize the weight of what this meant. She say?s that her circumstances as slave girl were unusua...

    Read More

  • Incidence In The Life Of A Slave Girl

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl opens with an introduction in which the author, Harriet Jacobs, states her reasons for writing an autobiography. Her story is painful, and she would rather have kept it private, but she feels that making it public may help the antislavery movement. A preface by abolitionist Lydia Maria Child makes a similar case for the book and states that the events it records are true.

    Read More

  • Slavery Injustice Male versus Female

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    Harriet Jacobs author of “Incidents of a Slave Girl” depicted the life of a women enslaved to white planation owners between the years 1819-1842. Harriet Jacobs escaped for enslavement and went on to become a pivotal figure for the African American culture with tales of cruelty from her owners and her need for freedom. Jacobs penned her story to persuade white people in the North to fight against the maltreatment of African Americans in the South. Jacobs highlighted for abolitionist and non-abolitionist alike the abuse slaves felt for many years and the obstacles they went through to secure their freedom. Harriet Jacobs asserted, “Slavery is bad for men, but it is far more terrible for women.” In contrast to Jacobs, slavery for women did not exceed or fall below that of men. The circumstances in which the different genders were treated did show some variations, however, the effects of slavery affected both men and women equally. Slave men and women all had one common goal and that was to enjoy the freedoms and rights as human beings amongst the Caucasian counterparts. Erik Foner, author of Give me Liberty! An American History, stated, “Black sought to make white Americans understand slavery as a concrete reality—the denial of all the essential elements of freedom—not merely as a metaphor for the loss of political self-determination.” African American fought collectively with both men and women against oppression from Caucasians.

    Read More

  • Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her essay, “Loopholes of Resistance,” Michelle Burnham argues that “Aunt Marthy’s garret does not offer a retreat from the oppressive conditions of slavery – as, one might argue, the communal life in Aunt Marthy’s house does – so much as it enacts a repetition of them…[Thus] Harriet Jacobs escapes reigning discourses in structures only in the very process of affirming them” (289). In order to support this, one must first agree that Aunt Marthy’s house provides a retreat from slavery. I do not. Burnham seems to view the life inside Aunt Marthy’s house as one outside of and apart from slavery where family structure can exist, the mind can find some rest, comfort can be given, and a sense of peace and humanity can be achieved. In contrast, Burnham views the garret as a physical embodiment of the horrors of slavery, a place where family can only dream about being together, the mind is subjected to psychological warfare, comfort is non-existent, and only the fear and apprehension of inhumanity can be found. It is true that Aunt Marthy’s house paints and entirely different, much less severe, picture of slavery than that of the garret, but still, it is a picture of slavery differing only in that it temporarily masks the harsh realities of slavery whereas the garret openly portrays them. The garret’s close proximity to the house is symbolic of the ever-lurking presence of slavery and its power to break down and destroy families and lives until there is nothing left. Throughout her novel, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs presents these and several other structures that suggest a possible retreat from slavery, may appear from the outside to provide such a retreat, but ideally never can. Among these structures are religion, literacy, family, self, and freedom.

    Read More

  • Harriet Tubman: A Life Worth Living

    2264 Words  | 5 Pages

    Born on the Edward Brodas Plantation, in Dorchester Country to Benjamin Ross and Harriet Green around 1820, Harriet Tubman was one of the most advancing forces with the Underground Railroad. Originally named Araminta ‘Minty’ Ross, she changed her last name when she married and her first in honor of her mother (Women in History). As a young child, she was put to work as a house servant, taking care of menial chores like cleaning and taking care of babies. She once said, “I was so little that I had to sit on the floor and have the baby put in my lap, and that baby was always in my lap except when it was sleep or when its mother was feeding it (Driggs).” She did not like being forced to babysit every day and nonstop for hours at a time. Many times, she was “loaned” out to other slave owners to do similar work in their houses (PBS). She was rebellious even at a young age; she stole a lump of sugar at the age of seven and proceeded to run away to avoid being punished. She was gone for five days before she su...

    Read More

  • Essay On Harriet Tubman

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harriet Tubman (known as Araminta at the time) was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland in 1819. Like many other slaves she was raised in extremely poor and harsh conditions. She was whipped and beaten from very early on in her childhood. Before she was considered old enough to work she spent her childhood with her grandmother who was too old for slave labour since her parents were always put to work and couldn’t take care of her. When she was put to work at age six she did not tend to the fields like the majority of slaves commonly did, her master lent her to neighbouring families to work doing chores like basket weaving. She was moved around a bit for work due to her being disobedient or stealing al resulting in beating or whippings. At age 11 she was considered to no longer be a child and she lost her “basket name” and was then named Harriet after her mother. Not long after she suffered severe head trauma inflicted from a white overseer after assisting a runaway slave. She suffered black outs and migraines for the rest of her life due to this incident....

    Read More

  • Difference Between Harriet Jacob And Sojourner Truth

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Harriet Jacob had spent seven years in hiding in hopes to make it to the northern states to be free. She finally achieved it when the Dr. Flint had died and way followed by his daughter’s husband in Boston to have her buy her freedom. I have heard her say she would go to the ends of the earth, rather than pay any man or woman for her freedom, because she thinks she has a right to it. Besides, she couldn't do it, if she would, for she has spent her earnings to educate her children."(Incidents, pg. 180). She would never give up and there was no way that she would give in and pay for her own freedom. She had devoted her life to raising her children and educating them. While Sojourner Truth continued to persuaded people about the women’s rights. These women worked to get the truth out about the treatment they had received while in slavery. The Life and Incidents of a Slave Girl would be more convincing then the speeches of Sojourner Truth. Harriet had been fighting for a case for herself and a better life of her children where they would not have to live like she

    Read More

  • Harriet Jacobs Incidents And A Slave Girl: An Analysis

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    They were not capable of surviving on their own without white guidance (Boston). Dr. Flint, the master over the plantation where Harriet Jacobs lived showed a great example of paternalism. He cared for Harriet but in a possessive way to which he continuously sought the woman for his personal needs. For Dr. Flint, the slaves he owned should be grateful towards him and be willing to do what he asked with no rebuttal. This wasn’t the case with Harriet.

    Read More

  • Slavery In The Souls Of Black Folk By Harriet Jacobs

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    The greatest distress to a slave mother was realizing that her children would inevitably inherit her status as a slave. Jacobs writes of a mother who responded to the death of her infant by thanking "God for taking her away from the greatest bitterness of life (Jacobs 16). Furthermore, when Dr. Flint, her master, hurled her son Benjamin across a room Harriet experienced a fleeting moment of panic, believing that he could potentially dead; however, when she confirms that he is alive she could not determine whether she was happy that he son survived. Harriet experienced inadequacy and doubted her femininity in times that she could not protect her children from the harsh realities of the world in which they were born.

    Read More

  • What Is Harriet Tubman's Role In Civil Disobedience

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    To understand Harriet’s role in civil disobedience, one must first have knowledge of her personal life. Harriet was originally named Armanita Harriet Ross. She was one of nine children, her parents were Harriet Green and Ben Ross. Harriet was born into slavery because both of her parents were slaves. So she was exposed to the harmful ways of the slave life at a young age. Harriet received many punishment

    Read More

  • The Trial Of Girlhood And A Perilous Passage In The Slave Girl's Life Analysis

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

More about Life of a Slave Girl

Open Document