Slave Girl Themes

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Recommended: Incidents in the life of a slave girl description

In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs expresses to her readers the experiences she has as a slave girl in the Southern part of America. Her story begins as a sheltered child, to her father’s death, and her struggle to live independently and dignified as a slave. She is constantly degraded by her master, and is constantly in danger of being sexually exploited by her mistress’s husband. However her experiences helped her learn to fight for her right as a free individual, and to stand up to her sexual predator Dr. Flint. These experiences that Harriet Jacobs puts into words intrigues her readers, and allows her to show the many different themes her work holds. Family and community serve a great purpose in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Slavery dehumanized people, and made human beings look upon slaves as less then human. Slavery wanted its slaves to become nameless items, instead of living breathing human beings. Most slaves fell into anger, depression, and lifelessness many were able to not only survive, but thrive due to their family. Family in slave culture had a different meaning then just blood; family to them meant everyone around them who struggled to survive just as they did. Family, friends, and neighbors provided the compassion, love, and hope that each person needed to make it …show more content…

The themes of Family and Religion are only a few of the ways Jacobs expresses the way of life the slaves had to endure during those difficult times. Her story is a constant reminder to those of us now to not make the same mistakes, and to move forward into a better and brighter future for human kind as a whole. The experiences of Harriet Jacob can be read for generations, and will allow us the ability to look back to see how one person can persevere through any situation with the help of family and unrelenting faith in

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