Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

3rd ed. New York: McGraw- Hill, 2003. Martin, Del., “A Letter From a Battered Wife.” Kesselman, McNair, and Nancy Schneidwind, eds. Women: Images and Realities, a Multicultural Anthology. 3rd ed.

In the end she is thought of as a "new kind of female hero" (497). She has gone through many hardships and she "articulates her struggle to assert her womanhood" (497). Even with her lack of a higher education, she shows intelligence throughout her writing. She had her own way of getting her points across, one being that a person could not possibly fully understand the degradation of slavery if he/she did not go through it themselves. This is a point within itself because it further relays the fact that slavery was a very horrible, evil and degrading thing.

Harriet Jacobs' Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl The feminist movement sought to gain rights for women. Many feminist during the early nineteenth century fought for the abolition of slavery around the world. The slave narrative became a powerful feminist tool in the nineteenth century. Black and white women are fictionalized and objectified in the slave narrative. White women are idealized as pure, angelic, and chaste while black woman are idealized as exotic and contained an uncontrollable, savage sexuality.

Nevertheless, Jacobs’ female slave narrative would eventually be discovered as an important literary achievement for the female slave and feminism. Harriet Jacobs female slave narrative brought to the fore-front many issues relating to gender and sexuality in the patriarchal society of antebellum America. In particular, the author described how the ideals of the “True Woman” were unfeasible depending on race and class and the refusal to submit to the patriarchal male to gain the power of choice. Jacobs’ narrative’s lack of acceptance during its time also shed light on patriarchal views. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl calls out to women for a break from the tyrannical oppression of the ideal “True Woman.” Jacobs’ work is an inspiring feminist narrative describing femininity and sexuality as related to the Feminist/Gender Theory.

There has been widespread neglect of women, which has lead to uneven data. Scholars have pointed accusing fingers at the African and imperial historiography for, the female invisibility has been one of the most dominant trends and a gross omission ... ... middle of paper ... ...gainst slavery and worked for their freedom. Therefore if we see all through the paper we see women who have worked a great deal in all spheres during slavery. Be it owning or trading them, be it working as slaves or even working for the abolition of slavery. As much as the data is extremely less regarding women, the least amount that is present is a clear example of the status of women in that period.

Slavery would best be described as the complete annihilation of the individual being. Female slaves would be stripped down of their sense of self and forced into complete subservience. This submissiveness was something that Jacobs could not live with and deemed unfair. With the threatening of her religiosity, purity and domesticity she stood up and rebelled. These were the areas that were considered to make-up a woman in the 1800s, however exactly also the areas that were denied to a female slave to acquire or practice.

06 Feb. 2014. . Jacobs, Harriet A., Lydia Maria Child, and Jean Fagan. Yellin. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1987.

December 8, 2001. http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/femcharacteristics.html. Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, November 1985. Ward, Jennifer A.

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 contrast, Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl is a direct portrayal of slavery through the eyes of a slave. Although the viewpoints are very different, there are similarities in their experiences and in the way each responds and fights for their freedom. The first parallel exists in how both Dana and Jacobs are taught to view themselves. Jacobs states, ? I was born a slave; but never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away?