...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...
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...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...
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...Slavery Makes No Sense The ones 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...
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...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...
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...The American Slavery in the 19th century In modern history, historians have researched the significance of slavery in the United States’ history. Many Black women and men in America suffered misery of slavery through their entire lives especially by their slave owners. Most African Americans people were sent to the United States and were underprivileged from the freedoms, joy of family life, ability to make own choices, and even from the basic human rights. In order to evaluate the American system of slavery this paper will analyze and compare two primary sources, Thomas Jefferson's, “ Note on the State of Virginia”, and "The Trials of Girlhood and The Jealous Mistress" in “Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl,” by Harriet Ann Jacobs. While Thomas Jefferson proposes his idea to emancipate freed African American slavery, he was willing to reconsider the relationship between slaves and their owners. Harriet presents real situation of degraded relationships between white and slaves in her early slave life. However, both two disagree that slavery in the United States would divide human races into even more conflicts with social, cultural, economic, and political impacts. In “Note on the state of Virginia,” Jefferson discussed his proposal for the emancipation and removal of Virginia's slaves. In his not he explained why freeing black slaveries could not remain longer in the future. Jefferson argued that “deep-rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand...
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...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;...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...narrative. Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a slave narrative. While they are considered distinctive genres, they share some characteristics. Look at the excerpts you have from them in your reading. How are they similar? How are they different? Be sure to provide evidence from the texts to support your conclusions. Answer the above questions in a 1,000-1,250-word essay. ii) Prepare this assignment according to the MLA guidelines found in the GCU MLA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required. iii) Include three outside sources. These sources may be printed work or you can make use of the Grand Canyon University online library. You might find these databases helpful: EBSCO Host's Literary Reference Center and LION. Both are available through GCU's online library. Comparing Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative with Jacobs’ Slave Narrative The fugitive slave narrative and the Indian captivity narrative are distinctive genres in the American literature; however, they share some characteristics and frequently are subject to comparison. The first captivity narrative in the American literature was Mary Rowlandson's A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration in 1682, in which she wrote about her awful captivity experience by the Indians. Over sixteen decades later, Harriet Jacobs shared her autobiography in her Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl slave narrative in 1861 to help the...
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...In the small town of Edenton, North Carolina Delilah and Elijah Jacobs brought into the world a baby girl entitled, Harriet Ann (Brent) Jacobs. Who would’ve expected over two hundred years later their little girl a product of slavery would be an epitome of women in literature. For years Jacobs grew up in the life of slavery, but it was not until her parents’ death that she became aware of such lifestyle. Throughout her journey as a slave she endured several misfortunes in life and later was subjected to sexual promiscuity by her master, Norcom. For many years she was caged in her grandmother’s roof in order to escape the ongoing tragedies of slavery. In 1842 Harriet parted ways from slavery and travel to New York to seek a new outcome of life...
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...Huihui Zong Ally Day Women’s Studies 367.01 2/13/2011 Sexuality for Slave Girls In the book, “ Incidents in the life of a salve girl” (Jacobs, 1861), the writer Harriet Jacobs presents how a slave girl, Linda Brent, who mirrors Jacobs’s real experience, being suffered under the control and threaten of his master and how she escapes from the captors and finally gets free. The main character, Linda Brent, who is a slave girl working for Dr Flint’s daughter, is an epitome of the resistant black women. Having a master like Dr Flint, who threatens Linda constantly with violence and humiliating words, Linda shows intelligence and endurance to escape being further offended by Dr Flint. After Linda has children with Mr Sands who appears to be truly cares for Linda, Linda is threatened by Dr Flint again by being offered to buy her children’s freedom if Linda agree to live with him as his mistress. Linda refuses him and begins to plan her escape from that time. Linda has spent seven years hiding in her grandmother's attic and this exhibit her extraordinary psychological and spiritual strength. During the seven years, to elude her captors, she has moved several times to different cities within the help by some kind white people. Linda manages not only to survive but also to transcend seemingly insurmountable barriers, showing the difficulty for slave to live, especially women slave. Although some male authors of slave narratives had mentioned that African American women had been enslaved...
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...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...
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...persona as a slave working under the adverse supervision of Epps. The memoir had been derived from his perspective as a slave; thus, revealing his response towards key issues that perpetuated throughout the novel. Northup was able to explore the fundamental issue of the role of female slaves during the post-colonial period in America, specifically the sexual exploitation of female slaves. Northup’s persona towards the dire treatment of black female slaves is that of extreme animosity and disgust. His stance against female marginalisation was presented through the use of stylistic features; namely, the inherent employment of figurative language when discussing...
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...Solomon Northup, born as a free man to an emancipated slave, recalls his accounts of being sold into slavery and the torturous life he lived, in the autobiography 12 Years a Slave. Solomon lived in upper New York where he married a woman and began his family. Solomon was a talented fiddle player. Two con men offered him work in the circus playing the fiddle. They rejoiced at his skills; however, they took him to a restaurant, drugged him and then sold him into the deep south. For 12 years he was a slave named Platt. He started on a plantation where he was close to the end as he was almost hung by a slave patroller and two other men. He was then sent to a different plantation because it was no longer safe for Platt there. He was sent to a new cotton plantation where he was not treated well at all. At this stay, he was whipped many times. He made friends with a girl named Patsey and they helped each other survive. He also made friends with a white man from Canada. He told this man of his freedom and how he wished this man would write a letter to his family up north to send him his freedom papers. Not long after the man left, men from the North came down to the deep south and retrieved Solomon, taking him back to New York and to his home to be reunited with his family....
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