...Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Jacobs, Harriet Mroz, Jessica March 23, 2011 Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Barnes & Noble, Inc. 2005). In her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs is a slave that was born into slavery in 1813 that has decided to share her amazing story of slavery and her struggles to become free. When she was young her parents were “property” of a really nice lady that allowed her family to have a very comfortable life for a slave family. They were allowed to work for their own money and Harriet did not know that she was a slave for until she was twelve. When she was seven her master died and left her to her sister’s daughter who was five years old. She believed that it was not right to treat blacks in the way that whites did and that someone should not have to purchase themselves or their children. She believed that the whites were way too cruel. She eventually escaped to the north and eventually had someone purchase her freedom for her. The female slaves seemed to have the most difficulties while in slavery. Harriet Jacobs says “My master met at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to him, and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to him” (35). I interpreted this as a grown man trying to get a 12 year old girl to have sexual relations with him. I know that this was common in the years of the slavery but it was really not a good thing. I feel that it is disgusting...
Words: 825 - Pages: 4
...Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl In Harriet Jacob’s book; Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, She retells her life in a compelling story that shows just how unstable the lives of slaves were back then. Upon writing her book, Harriet Jacobs seeks to unveil the truth about life for slaves in the antebellum South. She depicts the cruel punishments, deprivation of food and appropriate clothing, harsh labor and broken families. In her book, she focuses a great deal on the prohibition of strong family ties by the selling off of family members or the forced dissolution of marriages, detailing the grief felt by mothers who saw their children sent away and the despair felt by Harriet when she realized she could not marry who she wanted. Harriet focuses on female slaves, who were subject to being raped and had to bear their masters' children. This book gave me a better view of how women were treated back then. Not only were women inferior, slave women were just useful for hard work and producing more slaves. It is kind of sickening knowing that women have been preyed upon like that and still undergo rapes and domestic abuse today. It would be interesting to know what kind of people think rape is acceptable as there are many still going on today. As you may read in other papers, I feel that women have always been considered the weaker sex. Not to say that men are evil and women are helpless, but genetics makes women less strong. Therefore they are more vulnerable...
Words: 497 - Pages: 2
...Incidents in the life of a slave girl was written by Harriet Jacobs. In Incidents the protagonist, Linda Brent, experienced many events that showed the North negatively embodying slavery. When Linda experienced racist comments, when there was still opportunities for Linda’s daughter to be put back into slavery, and when there was free African Americans still working as slaves in the North were all events that demonstrated how the North negatively embodied slavery. The times when she visited the north and expected to see all of the good things happening in the North, but she is proven wrong and is actually shown how the North deals with slavery negatively. The North negatively embodied slavery when Linda visited the North and slave owners made racist comments. When Linda was in the North, visiting and saw Luke talking about a slave he said,” So I taught dis nigger had a right to bring him to the free state.” (74) Luke was referring to a freed slave being brought to the North. Freed slaves still had to face the challenges of being verbally abused at the hand of their masters. Mr.Pike, a slave owner in the North, had African-Americans at his house and he treated them wrong by saying, “ Hearken, ye servants! Give strict heed unto my words.”(27) In this quote he’s being mean to the slaves. This also demonstrates him not treating them...
Words: 602 - Pages: 3
...I believe that Jacobs lived a harsh life. However after reading her story of “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl “most of her misery she brought upon herself. In my Opinion her story was no different than the other former slave narratives. The only exception would be that she volunteered to have children by a white man with hopes he would buy her. (828) and she would then become a free slave. This act of courageous in fact did not work out in her favor because her owner refuses to sell her. Now she is not only a slave but so are her offspring’s. However there were several events during her life that I felt extreme sympathy for her. For example when her grandmother turned her away and called her a disgrace to her dead mother. (829) during...
Words: 265 - Pages: 2
...Discovering Truth in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl _________________________ Melissa McGowen English 601 December 2013 Melissa McGowen Barish Ali English 601 December 2013 Discovering Truth in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Publication and Critical Reception: The autobiographical text, Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl suffered a difficult road in becoming published. The text suffered an even larger feat in becoming recognized for its worth. Because it took many years for the author, now revealed as Harriet Jacobs, to be properly identified, the work had been dismissed as fictional. Jacobs’ decision to remain anonymous came from guilt and disgrace over the way she was treated while enslaved and the actions she was forced to take to become free, particularly those pertaining to sexual acts. Wanting to be viewed as a “proper Christian” she decided to create the pseudonym name Linda Brent. It was under this name the text was published. In later years, her text has been viewed as an important text, speaking truth to the ears of sentimental novel readers in the north, and calling for action against the cruel institution of slavery. Employed as a teacher by Pace University in 1968, Jean Fagan Yellin wrote and published her dissertation. While re-reading Incidents in the 1970s as part of the project and to educate herself in the use of gender as a category of analysis, Yellin became interested in the question of the text's true authorship. Over the...
Words: 3336 - Pages: 14
...Incidents in the life of a Slave girl Slave girl, Harriet Jacobs, in her excerpts from her book, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", tries to persuade people in the North to help abolish slavery in the South. She supports her claim by first, sharing how poorly her owner treated her and how she was taken advantage of. She establishes a descriptive tone towards people in the North. Anaphoras are used throughout Harriet Jacobs story. In her story she is trying to be persuasive and get the point across of how badly she and other slaves are treated. For example, "God bless them! God give them strength and courage to go on! God Bless those, every where, who are laboring to advance cause of humanity!" This shows, how badly slaves are treated and how they need strength to get through their hardships. She repeats Gods name to put an emphasis on how badly he needs to look out for them. In addition, she uses an anaphora to show the audience how bad her slave owner was . For instance, "You never exhausted your ingenuity in avoiding the snares, and eluding the power of a hatred tyrant;...
Words: 480 - Pages: 2
...Empathy Between the Slave and Slaveholder’s Wife It’s common to learn about slavery through the perspective of a slave, but not through the eyes of a slaveholder’s wife. Fanny Kemble married a slave owner and moves to the South from Britain and is shocked by the conditions that slaves faced. In her journal she wrote about the traumatic imagery of slavery. Harriet Jacobs also shares her experiences as a slave in her narrative. Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Fanny Kemble’s Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 each show how slavery affects more people than just the slaves, but through the perspective of a slave (Jacobs) and through the perspective of a slaveholder’s wife (Kemble). Jacobs’s narrative...
Words: 1761 - Pages: 8
...This biography of Harriet Jacobs from a website titled, Documenting the American South, is mainly about Jacobs’ slavery life, how her famous book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, came about, and what the main purpose of the novel was. This article contained a couple terms that were confusing to understand. For example, the terms were; unassailably, clandestine, liaison, obscurity, and expatriate. The definition of unassailably is that someone is unable to be attacked, questioned, or defeated. Clandestine means when something or someone is kept a secret or done in secret. The term liaison indicates a certain communication or cooperation that facilitates a close relationship with people or organizations. Obscurity is when something is unknown or unimportant. This term can also be defined as the quality of being difficult to understand or something is unclear and not understandable. Lastly, expatriate means someone that lives outside their...
Words: 505 - Pages: 3
...Jared Page Mrs. Justeson English 3A 28 January, 2017 Slavery Literature Reflects Slave Life Slavery literature reflects the life of freed or escaped slaves. Slavery literature shows what it was like to be a slave. Some slaves when they were freed or when they escaped wrote about their life and what their life was like as a slave. Two great writers that wrote about their life as a slave after they escaped slavery were Harriet Ann Jacobs and Frederick Douglass (biography.com, 2014). Harriet Ann Jacobs wrote an autobiographical novel called,“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” (biography.com, 2014). Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography called,“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” (biography.com, 2016). Harriet...
Words: 613 - Pages: 3
...A Summer Tragedy and Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl, written by Arna Bontemps and Harriet Jacobs, respectively, offers different points of views of the lives of slaves. In Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl and A Summer Tragedy, slavery and racial inequality made life extremely difficult for African Americans. However, in Incidents, the main protagonist had the will to survive despite the sexual, emotional and psychological abuse she experienced, while in "A Summer Tragedy" the main characters chose a more final solution to their life of hardship and pain. In Bontemps’ story, the protagonists, Jeff and Jennie, were share farmers that were in major debt with the owner of the land, Major Stevenson, and lost their five grown children, due to death, in a short span of two years. They feel like they have nothing to live for, especially that Jennie is frail and blind, while Jeff has a bad leg that bothered more and more each week, according to Bontemps. For example, she mentioned that they never talked about their dead children and that Jeff is still stunned by the blow. They became depressed to the point that the story ended in them driving their Model T off into a stream to commit suicide....
Words: 435 - Pages: 2
...Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography written by Harriet Jacobs to share what she experienced as a slave girl. Linda Brent, a pseudonym for Harriet Jacobs, undergoes several transitions due to unfavorable circumstances. However, Linda initially was not a common slave. She was the product of “Mulattoes” and was trusted upon them for safe keeping. Her father was reputable for the many skills he had and as a result lived a life that was above that of a common slave, one similar to a freeman. He although never had full custody of his children, no matter how much he intended to pay for them. Upon first revelations, the readers learn that following the death of her mother, six year-old Linda Brent is handed over to her mother’s...
Words: 466 - Pages: 2
...Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl written by Harriet Jacobs was written between 1853-1858 and published in 1861 covers many aspects of her life. Jacobs recounts her childhood and young adulthood as a slave; her escape from the persecution of her lascivious master Dr. James Norcom (renamed Dr. Flint in the book); years of hiding in a small space in her grandmother's shed; her travels to the north and her residence there; and her eventual freedom. The main purpose of Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl is to give the reader information about her situations with slavery. She is informing the reader of things that has happened to her and her family during the 1850’s, which is also in the slave era. Jacobs states many issues about slavery, corruption, religion and how family is important. Some of the most important parts of the book tell how Jacobs and her family lived during this time period. “Reader, I draw no imaginary pictures of southern homes. I am telling you the plain truth. Yet when victims make their escape from the wild beast of Slavery, northerners consent to act the part of...
Words: 788 - Pages: 4
...In the book, Incidents in the life of a slave girl, written by Harriet Jacobs, presents events that occurred in the everyday lives of African American slaves. Harriet describes these incidents as a cruel and immoral institution that dehumanized her race, one that she refuses to comply. This institution included, but not limited to severe and numerous suffering among a big number of slaves that were refer as nothing but property. Harriet unfolds monstrosity including beatings, murders, sexual assaults and much more, in which, in fact, would be illegal today. She endured life's hardships for many years. On occasion she seeks death as the best alternative to escape this dreadful life. This institution demanded a different motherhood, a different...
Words: 824 - Pages: 4
...who suffer had a different way to see life; they appreciate every single moment of happiness. For slaves, there was almost no time for happiness. A writer that describes all that he/she had to go through during his/hers life time, explains every single detail because they remember what they felt at that moment, how it felt, the smell, the light, the thoughts, everything. Slaves suffered too much, until they said “enough”. As black slaves, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs have a lot of common because of the symbolism they used, the theme of how they describe slavery, and the literacy scene in how they did something everyone thought was impossible. For both, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, the symbolism of the word “slave” had a deeper meaning than just a word. In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave” is written, “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, change to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (Douglass). In this quote, Douglass is describing how the person who bought him for slave changed from being a good person to becoming a demon. The power that corrupts this person which in the story is Mrs. Auld makes her become a bad person by wanting to have control over the slave. This is one example of the symbolism...
Words: 1028 - Pages: 5
...plantation owners preyed upon their slaves with fearful explanations on what would happen to them if they tried to escape to freedom. “A slaveholder once told me that he had seen a runaway friend of mine in New York, and that she besought him to take her back to her master, for she was literally dying of starvation…” (Incidents in the life of a slave girl,pp39). The slaveholder’s would also tell stories of what a horrible death a slave endured after their escape. Much of their stories were fiction and just a tactic to ensure the other slaves would think twice about escaping. Many slaves did learn to read and write and learned of the truth through letters and newspapers. A wise slave would seldom speak of this knowledge, in fear that their master would learn of their ability to read. Slaves would often ‘dumb down’ their intelligence to avoid whatever the consequences might be. “One day he caught me teaching myself to write…. Before long, notes were often slipped into my hand. I would return them, saying ‘I can’t read them sir…” (pp29). Slaves had a hierarchy in which they were placed or born to. Many worked hard and laborious hours in dire conditions. Still some work directly with their Mistress and cared for the children born to the Mistress. This labor was higher on the social ladder that provides learning conditions to the children that could also be learned by the mistresses’ slave. Many more comforts were afforded to the mistresses’ slave and included access to food, clothing...
Words: 1060 - Pages: 5
