Sojourner Truth

Jacobs’ life story gives a glimpse into how enslaved women lived, the challenges they faced, and how they were treated by unenslaved white women, namely their owners wives. Despite Jacobs’ treatment perhaps being on the more extreme end of the spectrum, her experiences should not be discounted or thought of as abnormal, but rather as a face for the millions of others who were treated similarly. Enslaved women were repeatedly reminded of their status by their masters, and regardless of their shared gender status, this inequality was often enforced by their mistresses. Despite stereotypes of having being more compassionate than their husbands, in some cases slave owners’ wives were crueler towards slaves as a way to maintain control. In Jacobs’ experience, mistresses often felt jealous or insecure of their husbands relations to their female slaves, and because of this were absolved of any feelings of female solidarity.

Harriet Jacobs serves as an example of the female slave's desire to maintain the prescribed virtues but how her circumstances often prevented her from practicing. Expectations of the women of the era resided in four arenas: piety, purity, domesticity and obedience. The conditions that the female slave lived in were opposed to the standards and virtues set by the society. It resulted in the female slave being refused what was considered the identity of womanhood. It was another manner in which slavery attempted to eliminate the slaves' value of themselves.

After the Civil War she even tried to persuade the government to repay former enslaved Africans with free land. Truth portrayed herself as a compelling speaker who profoundly moved those who heard her. She had a love for Sorensen Page 2 freedom and could easily convert others to feel the same love. Truth also believed she had a direct communication with God. At one point in her life she sensed that God told her to preach, to share the importance of women's rights and abolitionism and to tell the truth about the Holy Spirit.

The women who worked inside the house could be known as a sex object for the slave master. The “southern code of conduct” did not protect slave women. The religious messages the slaves took from black Christianity contradicted what their master church has been telling them. Men ran away more often then women due to many reasons. Lastly, the Louisiana Purchase helped sustain slavery in the south.

Slaveholders were expected to treat slaves as something less than human, which drove slave owners to enforce cruel and barbaric reprimands toward slaves. Frederick Douglass argues that slavery manipulates a person’s identity, mainly because of social expectations. There were rules and laws to abide to in regard of slaves; among the primary issues, slaves had no purpose in having the ability to read or write, while Douglass was being taught by an oblivious Mrs. Auld. Douglass’ mistress, had never owned a slave before Douglass, because of this, Mrs. Auld was not aware of how she was expected to treat a slave. Frederick Douglass relates how kindly and goodhearted Mrs. Auld was before her husband taught her the “correct” manner of treating a slave.

The Incongruity of Slavery and Christianity in Harriet A. Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself Slavery, the “Peculiar Institution” of the South, caused suffering among an innumerable number of human beings. Some people could argue that the life of a domestic animal would be better than being a slave; at least animals are incapable of feeling emotions. Suffering countless atrocities, including sexual assault, beatings, and murders, these slaves endured much more than we would think is humanly possible today. Yet, white southern “Christians” committed these atrocities, believing their behaviors were neither wrong nor immoral. Looking back at these atrocities, those who call themselves Christians are appalled.

Catt influenced many women during the encountering of women 's suffrage because she served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association,founder of the League of Women Voters, devised the "Winning Plan” and was an influential activist who fought for women 's rights. The National American Woman Suffrage Association Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the group the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. These Women had the goal to gain women’s right vote. Anthony and Catt became close partners and that is when Anthony decided to retire due to old age, and recommend Catt to be the president of the Association. As president o... ... middle of paper ... ...in Catt’s life and she believed if all women could vote there would be world peace.“If women could vote, she argued, they would become a force for world peace and would help improve the conditions of life for themselves and their children”("The Fight for Women 's Suffrage.

Slaveholders would often rape and impregnate their slave women, and then never let the women care for their mixed children. Actions like this contribute to prostitution today, yet people still do not consider prostitution a form of slavery. These truths are tangible today due to African American authors Susie King Taylor and Kate Stone. Thankfully, white abolitionist women such as Ida B. Wells and Mary Chesnut were around to stand up for slaves and women.

Acting rashly and not wanting a life of slavery for her children, Set... ... middle of paper ... ...t with the only energy and determination they had to reach freedom, the text of Beloved explains that “claiming ownership of [your] freed self was” not an obstacle for the feeble (Morrison 111-112). The way in which slaves were treated while confined within the land of their owners scarred them until death. Gender neutrality led to security issues and allowed for cooperation through physical sexual and emotional abuse. Animal inclinations were shown in all slaves such as Sethe when slaying her children. Identity crisis is also derived from the acts of owners in slavery and is a great obstruction to acceptance of freedom.

The African-American women were kept in good standing for the convenience of child bearing. Overburdened with the trials and tribulations of slavery Sojourner Truth was able to prosper with spiritual beliefs. Sojourner Truth's stability was made possible by a strong belief in the Holy Spirit. God was the major source of guidance, and willpower from the commencement of the slave trade until the emancipation of slavery. Slavery was orchestrated on a mass scale and caused the separation of many families in order to ensure that slaves would remain with there respective masters.