Masters And Mistresses: Jacobs Vs. Douglas

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Surpassing childhood both Jacobs and Douglass hit the chapter in their lives living and working under care of masters and mistresses. What is a master you may ask.? According to Merriam-Webster a master is a male teacher, one having an authority over another, and one that conquers or masters. A mistress is a woman who has power, authority, or ownership according to Merriam-Webster. Both definition seems to be identical the only difference between both is that one role is played by a male and the other by a female. For example, usually someone in higher authority is a parent or guardian or even in a working environment you have a boss that runs the show. These types of figures are held responsible to make sure you follow properly the rules …show more content…

According to Women’s Resistance, “Slavery is terrible for men, but far worse for women”. Now that Harriet was young women she troubled a situation her master would bring upon her. He would trouble her with remarks such as whispering foul things into her ear, behave in a manner that would evidently show he had some type of attraction towards her. It was nowhere near as easy for Harriet to stay away from Dr. flint e would use any excuse to get close to her, even use his young daughter as a way to get to where he needed to be and that was close to her. Linda explains, “He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things” (26). Any slave women stuck in a situation as this one has no one to turn to for protection. The only male figure Linda had at the time was her brother William and he couldn’t protect her because he was nowhere in sight. Women have a lot more to lose in comparison to men. They could possibly experience whippings, rape or maybe even death if they would not follow through with demands. The only figure standing in the way of anything happening between Dr. Flint and Linda was her …show more content…

A master is male figure who has full authority over a slave. The first master figure Douglass has come across goes by the name of Captain Anthony. This master was described by Douglass as, “Master however, was not a humane slaveholder”. Masters usually were described as cruel, horrifying, and non-merciful. As Douglass would say, “He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding”. It was incredibly remarkable how masters and overseers fed of the pain they inflicted on the slaves. They had no sense of remorse nor trouble in behaving how they did. We can suppose that both Jacobs and Douglass carried out an ongoing relationship with masters and mistresses but a common characteristic between both of these individuals is that they were cruelly mistreated by this higher authority. In Douglass life not only was there a master but as well as an overseer. Overseers assumed about the same responsibility as a master did. They acted as cruel or even more cruel. One individual that carried the position as an overseer that Douglass has had an encounter with is Mr. Severe. Douglass had said he was rightly named he was a cruel man. As the repetition of figures who follow the same traits and characters throughout a story are considered to be Archetypes. According to Merriam- Webster an archetype is the original pattern or model of which all things of the same

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