John Carbone 3/10/14 EN 102 In “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs, Jacob’s writing demonstrates to challenge the acceptance of slavery during the 1800’s. Jacobs, who is writing inside a “contact zone” tries to connect both societies in this story. According to Mary Louise Pratt a contact zone is: “Social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today”(Pratt 607). Therefore a contact zone is a mutual space where two completely different cultures collide, and benefit from one another. Harriet Jacobs is writing to an audience of white people so they can understand what being a slave was like. Since Jacobs was an activist during the time of slavery, she attempts to create a visual for the readers of what slavery is and was. Regardless the variances to Pratt’s work, writing within the use of a contact zone, Jacobs display a powerful piece of literature. If Jacobs and Pratt are both accurate in their views of contact zones, then why does it even matter at all what kind of contact zone is being demonstrated in their writings? Understandably Jacobs wasn’t alive when the phrase “contact zone” was even manifested but does incorporating a contact zone into her work change how we read and understand Jacobs? Anywhere on earth, especially in the United Sates, there are different types of communities and cultures that combined to become one; so when you really think about it there are contact zones everywhere. In the mindset that a contact zone even exists in Jacob’s writing, her work could be viewed very differently. It is perhaps, given a... ... middle of paper ... ...y that is revealing an inspiring. In a time when the slavery was such a monumental issue, yet most people from the North and South were poorly knowledgeable. Familiar with the contact zone in which Jacobs wrote about, her work also reveals the idea of overcoming the contact zone through abolishment of slavery. Jacobs, being a slave, had the ability to write about her life and to capture the attention of the audience as to how fragile her life was. Today, it is obvious that slavery was wrong, but at a time when freedom for few wasn’t accepted, this work of encouragement was so critical. For Jacobs had taken the right stance on this very important issue and wrote a very strong auto ethnographic piece in the areas of a contact zone. Even though her work is not accurately accepting towards Pratt’s contact zone, Jacobs work clearly makes a valid argument against slavery.
Jacobs using an important figure of the abolitionist movement not only catches the eyes of the readers, but it also helps to make her argument more convincing to establish the antislavery movement. Even in the editor’s note provided by Child herself, it helps for the readers to believe that what Jacobs is saying is the truth, and further helps the argument that the slave narrative is not an exaggeration.
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like.
In her thought-provoking lecture, “The Arts of the Contact Zone,” Mary Louise Pratt stirs the interest of her readers by raising an important argument. She strings together various anecdotes, from crediting historical authors to speaking about her personal experience, to convey her thoughts that contact zones undermine the ideas generated by society that cause one to believe falsities about the community. In addition, contact zones allow people from different backgrounds to acquire new perspectives of the others’ respective cultures, thus dissipating the ignorance they once held. Therefore, by utilizing and crediting her sources, she effectively delivers her argument about the benefits of contact zones to her audience.
In Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, personal accounts that detail the ins-and-outs of the system of slavery show readers truly how monstrous and oppressive slavery is. Families are torn apart, lives are ruined, and slaves are tortured both physically and mentally. The white slaveholders of the South manipulate and take advantage of their slaves at every possible occasion. Nothing is left untouched by the gnarled claws of slavery: even God and religion become tainted. As Jacobs’ account reveals, whites control the religious institutions of the South, and in doing so, forge religion as a tool used to perpetuate slavery, the very system it ought to condemn. The irony exposed in Jacobs’ writings serves to show
It is well known that slavery was a horrible event in the history of the United States. However, what isn't as well known is the actual severity of slavery. The experiences of slave women presented by Angela Davis and the theories of black women presented by Patricia Hill Collins are evident in the life of Harriet Jacobs and show the severity of slavery for black women.
In the earliest part of Harriet?s life the whole idea of slavery was foreign to her. As all little girls she was born with a mind that only told her place in the world was that of a little girl. She had no capacity to understand the hardships that she inherited. She explains how her, ?heart was as free from care as that of any free-born white child.?(Jacobs p. 7) She explains this blissful ignorance by not understanding that she was condemned at birth to a life of the worst kind oppression. Even at six when she first became familiar with the realization that people regarded her as a slave, Harriet could not conceptualize the weight of what this meant. She say?s that her circumstances as slave girl were unusua...
After reading the slavery accounts of Olaudah Equiano 's "The Life of Olaudah Equiano" and Harriet Jacobs ' "Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl", you gain knowledge of what slaves endured during their times of slavery. To build their audience aware of what life of a slave was like, both authors gives their interpretation from two different perspectives and by two different eras of slavery.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. Print.
...f Jacobs’s narrative is the sexual exploitation that she, as well as many other slave women, had to endure. Her narrative focuses on the domestic issues that faced African-American women, she even states, “Slavery is bad for men, but it is far more terrible for women”. Therefore, gender separated the two narratives, and gave each a distinct view toward slavery.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Ed. Jennifer Fleischner. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. Print.
The Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt opened up a whole new concept for our class. The new term “contact zone” appeared and Pratt defined it as "social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today." The idea of the contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that trigger much of the thinking about language, communication, and culture.
Mary Louise Pratt wrote the essay “Arts of the Contact Zone” with the purpose of explaining that society would benefit if people were exposed to and understood the concept of “contact zones”. She refers to contact zones as social spaces where cultures meet and clash with each other, usually with one culture being dominant over the other. A person living in a contact zone is exposed to two different cultures, two different languages, and as a result is presented with a struggle in each culture to maintain themselves. From being surrounded by several different cultures, people begin to integrate the concept of transculturation—a process in which subordinate cultures evolve by taking things from dominant, more advanced cultures, and make it their own. She also calls to attention the error of assuming that people in a community all speak the same language and all share the same motives and beliefs. Pratt insists that education and society must be reformed in such ways that introduce people to the principles of contact zones in order to gain mutual understanding of each other and acquire new wisdom. In order for this mutual understanding to be achieved, the subordinate cultures that exist need to be able to make their voices heard; this leads to the improvement of society as a whole.
For this very reason Jacobs uses the pseudonym Linda Brent to narrate her first-person experience, which I intend to use interchangeably throughout the essay, since I am referencing the same person. All throughout the narrative, Jacobs explores the struggles and sexual abuse that female slaves faced on plantations as well as their efforts to practice motherhood and protect their children from the horrors of the slave trade. Jacobs’ literary efforts are addressed to white women in the North who do not fully comprehend the evils of slavery. She makes direct appeals to their humanity to expand their knowledge and influence their thoughts about slavery as an institution, holding strong to the credo that the pen is mightier than the sword and is colorful enough to make a difference and change the the stereotypes of the black and white
With more education the higher the stature a person has, and with more knowledge a person can understand morality and the way the world works. For this education was denied to African-Americans. This kept African Americans inferior to the white men. This is illustrated by Harriet Ann Jacobs when she said in her book, Incidents in The Life of a Slave Girl, “It is the ignorance in which white men compel him to live”, with “him” representing African-American men (68). Although it was illegal for slaves to learn how to read and write, some white mistress and children taught slaves anyway. Thus slaves taught other slaves during their secret meetings. Therefore, it is not surprising that Harriet Ann Jacobs was able to write her story in her book. In addition, Harriet lived a horrifying life that is completely unforgettable to her and those like her. This meaning that it is also not surprising how vivid and detailed her work is. African-Americans were not just property; they were human beings, and human beings have the capability to remember tragic events vividly for long periods of
As female slaves such as Harriet Jacob continually were fighting to protect their self respect, and purity. Harriet Jacob in her narrative, the readers get an understanding of she was trying to rebel against her aggressive master, who sexually harassed her at young age. She wasn’t protected by the law, and the slaveholders did as they pleased and were left unpunished. Jacobs knew that the social group,who were“the white women”, would see her not as a virtuous woman but hypersexual. She states “I wanted to keep myself pure, - and I tried hard to preserve my self-respect, but I was struggling alone in the grasp of the demon slavery.” (Harriet 290)The majority of the white women seemed to criticize her, but failed to understand her conditions and she did not have the free will. She simply did not have that freedom of choice. It was the institution of slavery that failed to recognize her and give her the basic freedoms of individual rights and basic protection. Harriet Jacobs was determined to reveal to the white Americans the sexual exploitations that female slaves constantly fa...