Analysis Of Incident In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Throughout American history there have been many horrific tragedies and events that have impacted the country and its citizens but none can be compared to the evils of slavery. This “peculiar institution” was the fate of millions of African Americans who were subject to cruelty and contempt by their owners and society. They were treated as if they were animals whose only purpose in life was to please their white owners. It is shameful to know that it was condoned as a “necessary evil” and lasted for over two hundred years in North America. In the beginning, the public did not know the truth behind a slave’s life and the obstacles they endured and overcome to survive it. However, the reality is revealed in slave narratives of who lived during that time and wrote of their experiences. They tell the unheard truths of their masters’ cruelty and the extent it was given to all victims of slavery. In the slave narrative, Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, she focuses on the torment of being a female in slavery and why it was a much worse fate than being a male slave.
Although there are now hundred of slave narratives, they all did not have the same experiences; each one is unique and inspiring in its own way. For example, Frederick Douglas’s story and Harriet Jacobs story, they both seem to have the same ultimate goal of freedom from enslavement and also how determined they were to achieve it. However, as to achieving it was different. Douglas’s narrative is about his journey to freedom and becoming an American Citizen. Jacobs’s narrative is about the sexual exploitation of being a female slave. He could physically fight his way to his freedom; but by being pregnant, Jacobs’s priorities change from being her own d...

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...s her point that being a female slave is more dangerous than the life of a male slave. Slavery for a woman has extra hardships that male slaves did not encounter. They did not have to be on their guard from unwanted attentions from the opposite sex and they did not know the fear of a mothers’ heart. She not only had to avoid ill seeking men, especially her master but also had to go through the ordeal of being frantically worried about her children and what their fates would become. Jacobs represented a strong willed woman whose determination and selfless love acquired her freedom and kept her children safe from the bondage of slavery. Through her testimony, the world can experience the strenuous and emotional task it was to be a female slave and a mother all at once and why it made her a stronger and more determined individual striving for the freedom of her family.