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Harriet Jacobs’s slavery narrative next to Frederick Douglass’s slavery narrative
Slaves relations with their masters
Harriet Jacobs’s slavery narrative next to Frederick Douglass’s slavery narrative
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Two different slave lives
A young girl named Linda Brent that grew with the dream of everyone’s childhood Happy, playful and loving. It wasn’t until she grew into his six years when she found out that having a master and/ or a mistress was cruel, A Narrative of a slave girl who grew to hate life. A boy separated after birth from his mother named Frederick Douglass, living a terrible life being punished by his master. He lived unhappily not knowing his age, a narrative by Frederick Douglas who knew there was no way out of slavery. Fighting for life and going through life isn’t the same, but for these two slaves they don’t have a choice but to do both.
In Edenton, North Carolina Harriet grew into slavery in 1813, the book “Incidents in the life of a slave girl,” was written by her to show what she lived. Linda had the life many slaves wanted, she could read and get in touch with her grandmother. Although her parents died at least she knew who and how they were. According to Harriet her father was a hard workingman that she admired, considering her first sentences were about him. Frederick Douglass was a very unfortunate baby when he got separated from his mother. The book “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass,” was written because he wanted the world to know what he was made of and all the pain that he went through. Two slaves that didn’t wish the life they had when they were destined to be slaves.
In both of these books is being shown an example of the misconduct upon slavery for both slaves and slaveholders. Linda was fortunate to have contact with her grandmother, use to feed her and keep her company. In some cases her loving grandmother gifted her items so she could always be with her granddaughter. Linda never thou...
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...tle. With Linda his master wanted to force her into something she didn’t want to but then that pushed her into working hard so she could escape slavery. With Frederick his master forced him to go to work as a carpenter on a ship but really that was freedom for Frederick. Pushing towards escaping slavery was what kept both Linda and Frederick living through their life. These two books teach a very good lesson in my opinion, that sometimes someone problems to be able to peruse what they really want to in life.
In my opinion, I think these two books were written well enough for someone to understand. There were some grammar errors and wrong combinations of words. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs got their story across and me personally I was moved by it. Specially how Frederick didn’t reveal his escape plan in order to let other slaves escape and not get caught.
Literature is written in many ways and styles. During his time, Frederick Douglass’s works and speeches attracted many people’s attention. With the amount of works and speeches Douglass has given, it has influenced many others writers to express themselves more freely. Though Douglass lived a rigorous childhood, he still made it the best that he could, with the guidance and teaching of one of his slave owner’s wife he was able to read and write, thus allowing him to share his life stories and experiences. Douglass’s work today still remain of great impact and influence, allowing us to understand the reality of slavery, and thus inspiring many others to come out and share for others to understand.
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. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
They both were in bad situations when they decided to learn to read and write. Douglass
Jacobs, Harriet, and Yellin, Jean. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
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.
In The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, an African American male describes his day as a slave and what he has become from the experience. Douglass writes this story to make readers understand that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that he still has intellectual ability even though he is a slave. In the story, these messages are shown frequently through the diction of Frederick Douglass.
Narrating these stories informs readers not familiar with slavery a clear idea on how slaves lived and were treated. The novel brings a strong political message to our society. If Douglass explains to people what slavery was about, they would be influenced to make a change. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the story of Frederick Douglass from the time he was born a slave to the time of his escape to freedom. Through years of physical abuse and assault, Douglass overcame these obstacles to become an advocate against
The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick
In relation to the novel, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass’s disobedience ultimately sparked his freedom. Being introduced to the “heart-rending shrieks” from his aunt at such a young age, slavery implanted a long-lasting effect on his life. Often times, when one experiences a painful memory in the manner such as watching a family member hit until they are covered with blood, sparks a fire to stand up for what is right in the back of their mind. Douglass carried those visions of his aunt along with him his whole life, as well as his own repulsive
...triumphs. Her responsibilities as a mother overpower anything that gets in her way. She wants a good life for her family, not a life in slavery with the possibility of losing her children. She doesn't only want freedom for her children; she wants a good life. Even when she is free Linda still needs more for her family; she wants a home of her own. Linda saw many families ripped apart by slavery. The pain she witnessed allowed her to persevere for the unity of her family. She overcomes many obstacles and endures a lot of pain and suffering to finally gain freedom for herself and her children. The reader can be sure that she will work hard to buy her own house for her family and continue to strive to provide the best for her children.
The tone established in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is unusual in that from the beginning to the end the focus has been shifted. In the beginning of the narrative Douglass seems to fulfill every stereotypical slavery theme. He is a young black slave who at first cannot read and is very naïve in understanding his situation. As a child put into slavery Douglass does not have the knowledge to know about his surroundings and the world outside of slavery. In Douglass’ narrative the tone is first set as that of an observer, however finishing with his own personal accounts.
It was noticed that Harriet focus more on love, whereas Douglass focus more on trying to find a way out. In other words Harriet showed a lot of feminism throughout her narrative, and on the other had Douglass showed more determination to get out. Due to these events, and circumstances it can be justified that gender contributed a lot in the lives of Fredrick Douglass, Linda Brent (Harriet A. Jacobs). It can also be concluded that age, and dismemberment played a big role in their lives coming up as slaves.
... book also shows how even a man who has been beaten, starved and “broken in body, mind and soul” can rise from slavery and fight back. Douglass goes through many awful events as a slave, but once he finds that reading is the way to freedom his life is changed forever. He continually is filled with the want to escape slavery and even goes as far as to fight one of his masters in an event Douglass calls “the turning point in (his) career as a slave” On September 3rd, 1838 Frederick Douglass was a free man. Although little is said about his escape from slavery, he tells us not only of how it felt to finally be free but also gives us some details on what it was like to be free for the first time, not trusting anyone and feeling paranoid that at any time he may be caught , and then slowly becoming accepting of the help offered to him and making a new life for himself.
The narrative begins by informing the readers that slaves were kept in the dark about crucial issues in their lives such as their dates of births. The slaves, particularly those born in slavery, were not allowed to know such important aspects of their lives as birthdays. For instance, Douglass was not sure of his exact birth date. They were even kept in the dark on the identity of their parents, “I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day” (Douglass, 10). This implies that the slaves were separated from their biological parents at a tender age, and subjected to harsh living conditions. One of the slaves, Fredrick Douglass, was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was seven years old. The slaves are not emotionally affected by the separation since they are separated from their parents at a tender age and they become used to living without their parents. Slaves are subjected to harsh co...