“O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave…” (Jacobs 49)
It is rare for an author to directly address their audience, even more uncommon for them to establish characteristics for an unknown person. General conventions of writing suggest that first and third person is for the narrative form while the secondary “you”, the address to the audience, is typically left out. However, Harriet Jacobs, in her autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, issues repeated statements to the “reader”, often referring to them as “you”. Given the nature of slave narratives, which were often used as propaganda for abolitionist agendas, the leap to second-person was not necessarily so great for Jacobs. Introductions or letters written
…show more content…
In the preface, the first sentence of the autobiography— “Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction.”—immediately associates these appeals to attempts to define the work as “strictly true” (2). Although the violence she depicts in her autobiography might feel excessive to the reader, she assures them that she draws “no imaginary pictures of southern homes” (33). Her appeals bring attention to the difference between the realities of slavery and the vision Northern white women have come to believe. In fact, Jacobs tells the reader that the cruelties of slavery are “greater than you would willingly believe” (26). The key word here is “willingly”. Jacobs knows, that despite the reader being a Northern white woman, and (probably) a progressive abolitionist, even they cannot handle the truth without constant direct assurances that those cruelties are lived experiences. Like the introductory letters from white abolitionists, Jacobs uses these appeals to assert the validity of her story and gain the reader’s trust. She knows that it is something that must be carefully won over because people often questioned the authenticity of slave narratives, particularly those of …show more content…
Her conversation with the reader represent attempts to arouse sympathy for black women by drawing on the shared experience of womanhood and motherhood while emphasizing the contrast between a free and enslaved life. She juxtaposes “O, you happy free women” with “poor bond-woman” and reminds the reader that her child is hers, that “no hand but that of death can take them from [her]” (16). Offering the grim image of a child’s death forces the reader to confront the horror of having a child unwillingly stolen from her, a reality, like a premature death, few would contemplate as frequently as a slave mother. The imagery of a child torn from a mother, with “irons upon his wrists”, repeats throughout the narrative to prompt the reader to conclude that “slavery is damnable” (23). However, as much as she wishes the reader to identify with a slave mother, she acknowledges that she cannot. When Jacobs reunites with her son, she suggests that the Northern woman cannot understand the depth of her joy (142) and she reminds the reader that “if you have never been a slave, you cannot imagine the acute sensation of suffering at my heart” (160). Jacobs, therefore, utilizes these conversations to assert the magnitude of the slave mother’s suffering, first by engaging the reader’s empathy through shared motherhood, second by engaging her sympathy of imagined
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.
Morrison’s authorship elucidates the conditions of motherhood showing how black women’s existence is warped by severing conditions of slavery. In this novel, it becomes apparent how in a patriarchal society a woman can feel guilty when choosing interests, career and self-development before motherhood. The sacrifice that has to be made by a mother is evident and natural, but equality in a relationship means shared responsibility and with that, the sacrifices are less on both part. Although motherhood can be a wonderful experience many women fear it in view of the tamming of the other and the obligation that eventually lies on the mother. Training alludes to how the female is situated in the home and how the nurturing of the child and additional local errands has now turned into her circle and obligation. This is exactly the situation for Sethe in Morrison’s Beloved. Sethe questions the very conventions of maternal narrative. A runaway slave of the later half of 19th century, she possesses a world in which “good mothering” is extremely valued, but only for a certain class of women: white, wealthy, outsourcing. Sethe’s role is to be aloof: deliver flesh, produce milk, but no matter what happens, she cannot love. During the short space of time (which is 28 days) Sethe embraces the dominant values of idealised maternity. Sethe’s fantasy is intended to end upon recover, however, it doesn’t, on that ground she declines to give her family a chance to be taken from her. Rather she endeavours to murder each of her four kids, prevailing the young girl whom she named Beloved. Sethe’s passion opposes the slave proprietor’s- and the western plot line's endeavours at allocations, for better or in negative ways. It iwas an act arranged in the space between self-attestation and selflessness, where Sethe has taken what is humane and protected it
Slavery in the middle of the 19th century was well known by every American in the country, but despite the acknowledgment of slavery the average citizen did not realize the severity of the lifestyle of the slave before slave narratives began to arise. In Incidents in the life of a slave girl, Harriet Jacobs uses an explicit tone to argue the general life of slave compared to a free person, as well as the hardships one endured on one’s path to freedom. Jacobs fought hard in order to expand the abolitionist movement with her narrative. She was able to draw in the readers by elements of slave culture that helped the slaves endure the hardships like religion and leisure and the middle class ideals of the women being “submissive, past, domestic,
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
Jacobs, Harriet, and Yellin, Jean. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
A recurring theme in, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is Harriet Jacobs's reflections on what slavery meant to her as well as all women in bondage. Continuously, Jacobs expresses her deep hatred of slavery, and all of its implications. She dreads such an institution so much that she sometimes regards death as a better alternative than a life in bondage. For Harriet, slavery was different than many African Americans. She did not spend her life harvesting cotton on a large plantation. She was not flogged and beaten regularly like many slaves. She was not actively kept from illiteracy. Actually, Harriet always was treated relatively well. She performed most of her work inside and was rarely ever punished, at the request of her licentious master. Furthermore, she was taught to read and sew, and to perform other tasks associated with a ?ladies? work. Outwardly, it appeared that Harriet had it pretty good, in light of what many slaves had succumbed to. However, Ironically Harriet believes these fortunes were actually her curse. The fact that she was well kept and light skinned as well as being attractive lead to her victimization as a sexual object. Consequently, Harriet became a prospective concubine for Dr. Norcom. She points out that life under slavery was as bad as any slave could hope for. Harriet talks about her life as slave by saying, ?You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of chattel, entirely subject to the will of another.? (Jacobs p. 55).
Slave narratives were one of the first forms of African- American literature. The narratives were written with the intent to inform those who weren’t aware of the hardships of slavery about how badly slaves were being treated. The people who wrote these narratives experienced slavery first hand, and wanted to elicit the help of abolitionists to bring an end to it. Most slave narratives were not widely publicized and often got overlooked as the years went by; however, some were highly regarded and paved the way for many writers of African descent today.
Frederick Douglass's Narrative, first published in 1845, is an enlightening and incendiary text. Born into slavery, Douglass became the preeminent spokesman for his people during his life; his narrative is an unparalleled account of the inhumane effects of slavery and Douglass's own triumph over it. His use of vivid language depicts violence against slaves, his personal insights into the dynamics between slaves and slaveholders, and his naming of specific persons and places made his book an indictment against a society that continued to accept slavery as a social and economic institution. Like Douglass, Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, and in 1853 she published Letter from a Fugitive Slave, now recognized as one of the most comprehensive antebellum slave narratives written by an African-American woman. Jacobs's account broke the silence on the exploitation of African American female slaves.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Ed. Jennifer Fleischner. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. Print.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
Harriett Jacobs is a woman who lived in the nineteenth century. She wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl based upon her own life. The character that was representing her in the novel was Linda Brent. She was a woman who was well educated and lived as a young child comfortably, in consideration for her being a slave, but then her life took an unexpected turn when her kind mistress died and no one to protect her from the harsh crimes of the world she was about to endeavor. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl uses many classic elements of sentimental novels throughout Jacobs’s autobiography but she did not stay within the boundaries of a pure sentimental novel by opening up and telling the readers about her life in pure honesty.
This passage from Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, functions as a preface or disclaimer to Jacobs’ account of her relationship with Mr. Sands, a white man interested in her. Here, and in the subsequent passages, Jacobs’ purpose is twofold: to plead for her readers’ understanding, and to take ownership of her actions. Jacobs is sure to make it clear that she entered into this relationship with “deliberate calculation” (69). That is to say, for Jacobs the decision wasn’t a matter of “compulsion from a master” nor was it the result of “ignorance or thoughtlessness,” (69) as although she was young, growing up under slavery already stole her innocence “concerning the evils of the world” (69). Rather, the decision was just that: a
However, Harriet Jacobs, in her autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, issues repeated statements to the “reader”, often referring to them as “you”. Perhaps the leap to second-person was not so great for Jacobs, as slave narratives often were preceded by introductions or letters written by white people to assert the validity of the story. In the most famous slave narrative, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison concluded his preface
In “The Trial of Girlhood” and “A Perilous Passage In the Slave Girl’s Life” Jacobs’s narrative emphasizes the problems that are faced by female slaves. She shares the sexual abuses that are commonly practiced by slave master against young female slaves. She does this through revealing the unique humiliation and the brutalities that were inflicted upon young slave girls. In this narrative we come to understand the psychological damage caused by sexual harassment. We also realize how this sexual harassment done by the slaveholders went against morality and “violated the most sacred commandment of nature,”(Harriet 289)as well as fundamental religious beliefs.