Ain T I A Woman Analysis

Jasmine Jones

Dr. S. Boyd

English 2180

24 September 2015

An Analysis of Sexual Abuse and Mistreatment of African American Female Slaves in Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman"

Jacobs’ and Truth’s illustrate in their writings how unfathomably harsh American slavery was for both male and female slaves. However, they place emphasis on the sexual abuse and ridicule specific only to females. Each author describes in detail the abuse and unfair treatment they experience while enslaved and these descriptions exist to make the reader better understand just how horrible conditions were back in the 1800s for Black women. An analysis of their writings proves that conditions for women were far worse

than they were for men because men were incapable of experiencing the same injustices as women.
Despite not even being considered legally human, female African American slaves were expected to align with the principles of the cult of domesticity.

These four principles include piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity (Lavender, 1998). Both women include in their writings glaring examples of how the institution of slavery contradicts each of these principles. In order to be pious and domestic, a “true woman” must devote her time to religion and maintaining a spotless home. But how is this possible for a slave? Women who were enslaved didn’t have the option of staying home while their partners went to work and the home they were responsible for cleaning was not even the one in which they lived in. Even their purity was out of their control as "slaveholders had no legal obligation to respect the sanctity of the slave's marriage bed, and slave women...had no formal protection against their owners' sexual advances,” (UKEssays.com,

2013). An example of this can be found in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” where Jacobs describes a scene of a young slave girl dying after childbirth. Rather than assist or offer medical attention, the girl’s mistress mocks her agony, “You suffer do you?...You deserve it all and more too,” the mistress exclaimed (Jacobs,1861). This girl had been sexually assaulted by her owner and become pregnant, and now as she lay dying birthing the illegitimate child, she’s being condemned by her mistress and her last memories are of her being told she won’t be allowed into heaven. One should also consider the perspective of the girl’s mother. Her only child lay dying in her arms while the woman whose children she no doubt helped raise curses her daughter to eternal damnation. No male slave would have ever been in that situation, nor one similar to it.
In addition, while it is mentioned in her biography and not in her writing, readers should know that Sojourner Truth was not allowed to marry the man she loved.

This is significant not only because it’s unjust but also because it further emphasizes the impossible position that female slaves were in. How can a woman be expected to remain chaste or be submissive to the man she’ll marry if she’s denied the right to do so? Jacobs describes a similar situation in her own narrative when she mentions that a male slave once requested to marry her but Dr. Flint denied the request because he wanted Jacobs for himself though never planned to marry her. She eventually chooses Dr. Sands, another white male who had no intention to marry her, and has children with him but faces ridicule from her grandmother who calls her a “disgrace” and temporarily stops speaking to her. It is maddening trying to comprehend how female slaves must have felt mentally as they had no one to run to. Their owners abused them, their mistresses were jealous of them, and their own family expected them to model themselves after women with twice their level of

privilege.
The final point to be considered in understanding the horrors female slaves were subjected to is the fact that their own children did not really belong to them. Since the women were considered property, so were their offspring. Meaning that their children could be snatched from them and sold at a moment’s notice and no legal action could be taken. On a regular basis, these children sold away for mere dollars and the slaves were expected to continue on with their daily tasks as if nothing had happened. Truth, in her speech, claims to have birthed thirteen children and that most of them were taken from her and sold into slavery to unknown persons (Truth, 1851) and Jacobs asserts that Dr. Flint often threatened to sell her children away in an effort to draw her out of hiding (Jacobs, 1861).
Female slaves had no control and no power whatsoever. They could not choose who they wanted to marry, their children did not belong to them, their own bodies did not belong to them, yet despite being biologically weaker, they were still expected to complete the same back-breaking tasks as their male counterparts. The writings of Jacobs and Truth make evident the complexities and hardships of American slave life specific to women and help readers fully understand what was faced by American slaves. One must understand that while the experience of slavery was horrific to all who were enslaved, the experience was not generic to everyone involved.