Slavery and the Life of Harriet Jacobs

1063 Words3 Pages

Slavery and the Life of Harriet Jacobs It is well known that slavery was a horrible event in the history of the United States. However, what isn't as well known is the actual severity of slavery. The experiences of slave women presented by Angela Davis and the theories of black women presented by Patricia Hill Collins are evident in the life of Harriet Jacobs and show the severity of slavery for black women. The history of slave women offered by Davis suggests that "compulsory labor overshadowed every other aspect of women's existence" (Davis 5). This is quite apparent through examination of the life of Harriet Jacobs. All slaves were forced to do hard labor and were subject to cruel remarks by whites, in this sense they were genderless, except women endured much more foul treatment. Harriet Jacobs was forced to listen to the sexual berating from her master, Dr. Flint, as well as receive jealous scorn from her mistress, Mrs. Flint. Yet worse than the verbal abuse was the physical, sexual abuse imposed on slave women. "Naming or not naming the father of a child, taking as a wife a woman who had children by unnamed fathers, [and] giving a newborn child the name of a father" were all considered by Herbert Gutman to be "everyday choices" in slave communities (Davis 15). Not being able to name a father must have made slave women feel great pain from being a "genderless" tool and great isolation by forcing them to take care of bastard children on their own. However, the worst comes when the child is old enough to work and, in most cases, is auctioned off. By auctioning off a slave woman's children slave masters not only dehumanized slave women but gave additional pain to slave women by taking their loved children away. Slave... ... middle of paper ... ...brother. These past three points all serve as examples of the severity of slavery for women. The U.S. slave system has placed African American women at a disadvantage for hundreds of years. It's atrocious to think this kind of thing could ever be allowed to happen. Even worse is to the reality that it wouldn't be that way if people truly believed in equality. Women were owned in every aspect, not merely free labor. Their minds, bodies, and souls were pushed to the limits and Harriet Jacobs is an example of this being true. Works Cited Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000 Davis, Angela. The Legacy Of Slavery: Standards For A New Womanhood. Jacobs, Harriet, and Yellin, Jean. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press

Show More
Related

  • The Use Of Slavery In Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl?

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, personal accounts that detail the ins-and-outs of the system of slavery show readers truly how monstrous and oppressive slavery is. Families are torn apart, lives are ruined, and slaves are tortured both physically and mentally. The white slaveholders of the South manipulate and take advantage of their slaves at every possible occasion. Nothing is left untouched by the gnarled claws of slavery: even God and religion become tainted. As Jacobs’ account reveals, whites control the religious institutions of the South, and in doing so, forge religion as a tool used to perpetuate slavery, the very system it ought to condemn. The irony exposed in Jacobs’ writings serves to show

    Read More

  • Slavery: Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... middle of paper ... ... Men were no different, but they were forced to mate with choice slaves to produce optimal offspring like livestock. Her experiences with slavery were in different ways, but the underlying result of it is the same for anyone else at the time.

    Read More

  • Equal Rights In Celia's Celia, A Slave

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    Were women in the 1850s not valued more than to live life as concubines? Did black men not deserve equal rights just as white men? The Antebellum Era was a pre-Civil War time when white men were positioned as the head of the house, and women and wives below them at their husbands’ service, and inferior to all remained the Negro population. In Celia, A Slave, Celia’s story revealed many difficulties faced by female slaves. Her story conveyed the position of women in Missouri during the 1850s, along with the position of slaves in regards to the resistance of oppression. Her trial gave a strong idea of the rights between masters and slaves.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs write narratives about their time being slaves. The narratives show dehumanization through physical and emotional abuse, along with sexual abuse supported with textual evidence. However, Jacobs states "slavery is bad for men, but is for more terrible for women", which I concur with.

    Read More

  • The Unique Experience of Women Slaves

    1348 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl. 2nd Edition. Edited by Pine T. Joslyn. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, INC., 2001.

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between Epps Wife And Solomon In Twelve Years A Slave

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    When talking about slavery many chose to overlook or ignore the chilling experiences that African American faced, in particular African American women. At the

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Celia, A Slave

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    All slaves faced struggle in their lives. In particular, female slaves were targeted as objects of abuse and the source for the sexual needs of their masters. Female slaves were seen as employees to any need of their masters. Author, Melton A. Mclaurin displays this when he writes, “A healthy sixty years of age, Newsom needed more than a hostess and manager of house hold affairs; he required a sexual partner” (Mclaurin 21). Anyone who is purchased is pre-purposed for hard labor or personal needs of the purchaser. Mclaurin exemplifies the way that slave masters viewed female slaves at the point of their possession. Though female slaves were acquired to be a mother figure of the household, there were reasons beyond the obvious. It was

    Read More

  • The Impact of Slavery on Black Women

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations.” (Jacobs, 120). These words are spoken by Harriet Jacobs (also known as Linda Brent) and after reading about her life experience as a slave, I have come to believe that slavery was far worse for women than it ever was for men. Jacobs never states that black slave men had it easy during the slave years, in fact she tells a few stories about how some slave men were beaten. She also tells about the life experience of a slave girl, herself. Her own experiences made me feel blessed that I was never born as a black woman during the time of slavery. I do not think that I would have been strong enough to endure such times.

    Read More

  • Gender Slavery And Freedom Essay

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, notions of freedom for Black slaves and White women were distinctively different than they are now. Slavery was a form of exploitation of black slaves, whom through enslavement, lost their humanity and freedom, and were subjected to dehumanizing conditions. African women and men were often mistreated through similar ways, especially when induced to labor, they would eventually become a genderless individual in the sight of the master. Despite being considered “genderless” for labor, female slaves suddenly became women who endured sexual violence. Although a white woman was superior to the slaves, she had little power over the household, and was restricted to perform additional actions without the consent of their husbands. The enslaved women’s notion to conceive freedom was different, yet similar to the way enslaved men and white women conceived freedom. Black women during slavery fought to resist oppression in order to gain their freedom by running away, rebel against the slaveholders, or by slowing down work. Although that didn’t guarantee them absolute freedom from slavery, it helped them preserve the autonomy and a bare minimum of their human rights that otherwise, would’ve been taken away from them. Black

    Read More

  • Harriet Jacobs Incidents And A Slave Girl: An Analysis

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like.

    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

  • Motherhood in Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York, NY: W. W. Norton &

    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

  • Olaudah Equiano And Harriet Jacobs Analysis

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    After reading the slavery accounts of Olaudah Equiano 's "The Life of Olaudah Equiano" and Harriet Jacobs ' "Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl", you gain knowledge of what slaves endured during their times of slavery. To build their audience aware of what life of a slave was like, both authors gives their interpretation from two different perspectives and by two different eras of slavery.

    Read More

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

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

More about Slavery and the Life of Harriet Jacobs

Open Document