Essay Harriet Jacobs Life of a Slave Girl - 1322 Words

Stephanie J. Turner Ms. J. Reed EN 320 5 December 2011 Harriet A. Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Jacobs’s construction of black female empowerment despite the limitations of slavery Harriet A. Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography written under the name of Linda Brent. This autobiography is a detailed account of her life or lack thereof. I use the term lack thereof because Harriet Jacobs was raised by her grandmother due to her mother dying at a young age. Harriet was taught to read and write as a young slave girl by her mistress. Harriet’s grandmother was a well-respected older slave woman who gained her freedom in the last will and testament of her mistress.†¦show more content†¦Harriet displayed this attitude in all that she did she stayed one step ahead of Dr. Flint. To talk of the brutality that was perpetrated by slave owners on slave girls and women was taboo. Not only was it taboo but it was also unheard of. Harriet Jacobs was given a strong will and mind by God. She added to what God gave her by taking the advice of her grandmother. During this time in history black women were raped, molested, tortured, de graded and exploited economically. Black women worked on plantations picking cotton, cooking and cleaning their homes and nursing the mistress babies while most times their children were neglected. There was no possible way you had a right because you were property and property can’t own property (Jacobs). Dr. Flint told Harriet she was made for his use, made to obey his command in everything; that she was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his (Jacobs). Harriet would not accept those words. Harriet would not accept that sentence he pronounced on her life. Jacobs knew she had a brain and could think for herself and despite what society had dictated to her race and to black women she would help to free other black women. The United States grew on the backs of slaves male and female. Yes our men suffered great injustices. However, our black women suffered also. There is yet a debate for some as to who suffered the mostShow MoreRelatedThe Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs Essay1272 Words   |  6 PagesA slave narrative is to tell a slaves story and what they have been through. Six thousand former slaves from North America told about their lives during the 18th and 19th centuries. About 150 narratives were published as separate books or articles most slaves were born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War. Some Slaves told about their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms. 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As Jacobs states, slavery contains a de-constructive force that effects to all who surroundRead MoreEssay on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs909 Words   |  4 Pages Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs strongly speaks to its readers by describing the brutalities of slavery and the way slave owners can destroy peaceful lives. After reading and rereading the story have noticed certain things regarding how Jacobs tries to educate her readers and her intended audience which is the women of the North. As if we do not know enough about how terrible slavery is, this story gives detailed examples of the lives of slaves and provokes an incredibleRead MoreEssay about Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl1355 Words   |  6 PagesHarriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl The feminist movement sought to gain rights for women. Many feminist during the early nineteenth century fought for the abolition of slavery around the world. The slave narrative became a powerful feminist tool in the nineteenth century. Black and white women are fictionalized and objectified in the slave narrative. White women are idealized as pure, angelic, and chaste while black woman are idealized as exotic and contained an uncontrollableRead MoreCompare/Contrast Douglass and Jacobs1607 Words   |  7 PagesCompare/Contrast Essay Gender Specific Perspectives of the African-American Slave; A Compare and Contrast Essay of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. The experiences, memories and treatment in any situation are viewed upon differently between a man and a woman. Obvious in the case of slavery, the two sexes were treated differently and so therefore their recollections of such events were-different. In the following short essay, we look closely at the perspective of the female slave, Harriet JacobsRead MoreAfrican American History Essay1137 Words   |  5 PagesHawthorne HIS 14 FALL 2012 Essay Assignment Due: November 29, 2012 An analysis of the book Harriet Jacobs autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl reveals, in my opinion, that it is an accurate representation of the antebellum South under a slave system based on other published works such as Soujourner Truth, Address to the Womens’ Right’s Convention Akron, Ohio 1851 and Benjamin Drew, Narratives of Escaped Slaves 1855. The accounts described by Harriet Jacobs are consistent with theseRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1292 Words   |  6 Pagesslavery. I chose to focus on two texts: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In the personal narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, author Harriet Jacobs depicts the various struggles she endured in the course of her life as a young female slave and, as she grew older, a runaway escaped to the â€Å"free† land of the North, referring to herself as Linda Brent. Throughout this story, Jacobs places a heavy emphasis on the ways in which Brent andRead MoreA Comparison Of Writings By Harriet Jacobs And Frederick Douglass1718 Words   |  7 PagesA Comparison of Writings by Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass In this paper I will compare the writings of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. I will touch on their genre, purpose, content, and style. Both authors were born into slavery. Both escaped to freedom and fought to bring an end to slavery, each in their own way. Both Jacobs and Douglass have a different purpose for their writings. Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass were both slaves that wrote about their struggles