The novel “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” was published in 1861 by Harriet Ann Jacobs. The novel takes a dive into Jacobs early and mid-life as she endured the terror of slavery. Jacobs orchestrates this book in a unique way to depict her story. She incorporates a fictional person by the name of “Linda Brent” to essentially be her, as she narrates. The main reason behind this method was for her to be a “spectator in her own life” (Jacobs 10). I personally find this technique to be a unique one considering how Linda Brent could represent multiple lives of slave girls. Meaning rather than Jacobs simply implementing her own name in the story, the context can be more universal. It can now serve as a depiction of what many slave girls went …show more content…
She was jubilant and gracious to be in an environment where she wouldn’t have to suffer the same things she did in the South. Although while it wasn’t as sinister and cruel as the South, Jacobs endured something else, that is, racial discrimination. On page 365, Jacobs states the following quote, “they do not allow colored people to go in the first-class cars.” This left Jacobs in a flabbergasted state as she didn’t expect this kind of occurrence in the North. She saw how even in the ‘good old North’ racial inequality was still present. Another obstacle that she ran into was trying to obtain a job. Now considering that she was black and also a woman, employment was certainly not the easiest to find. As well as, a lot of the job hiring required recommendations, which she really didn’t have. Jacobs later then states how she was blessed to obtain this nursey job that didn’t require any recommendation. This was something reminisced the time of where she would take care of her own kids when they were infants. Moving forward, Jacobs ran into more racial discrimination but this time she went about it a different way than before. At this tea place that she and Mrs. Bruce visited, Jacobs was told that she was in the wrong section to be served (Jacobs 387). But that didn’t stand too well with her, so she refused to leave unless the captain himself removes her (Jacobs 388). This occurrence expressed the bold and courageous attributes Jacobs gained via fleeing from slavery. She expresses so much of this attitude that it even persuades her employer (Mrs. Bruce) to treat her just like her other
In the autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Harriet Jacobs is able to tell her story and show the pain of bondage she endured. Jacobs lived from 1813-1897, and all she ever knew was the life of a slave. It is her story, even though she uses a pseudonym, Linda Brent, in order to protect her identity. Her real name is later discovered by scholars, and she is then given the credit for her writing. The book was published in 1861, after fleeing north to New York.
When Jacobs escapes to New York, she is employed as a nurse to a white family and often accompanies them to dinners and events. This experience teaches Jacobs that even though most people in the North considered themselves abolitionists, they were still racist toward African Americans. While at a dinner with the family she is employed by, she is asked to “seat the little girl in the chair, and stand behind it and feed her,” (page 144) when she sits the child in her lap. She emphasizes the fact that no matter where she goes, slavery and racism will always follow
As a result of this, many bi-racial slaves, were the ones who worked in the house and not out in the fields. Having her children work out in the fields as opposed to working in the house, not only subjected them to the daily trials of being a slave, but also might have caused them to be ostracized by other slaves for being bi-racial, because of the stigma that followed with being mixed race. Jacobs wanted to save her family, be reunited with them. Many slaves didn’t even have the right to have a family. They couldn’t legally marry, and although slaves may have had children and families, they were often separated and sold off.
Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine. With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave
Jacobs was speaking directly to her Caucasian readers. She wanted to enlighten the Northern Caucasian readers because Northerners never truly understood what slavery consisted of. In fact, Southerners would minimize the everyday struggle of a slavery causing this allusion. 2. How and why did Aunt Martha save up to three hundred dollars?
Jacobs later began “to contribute her life story to the abolitionist cause in a way that would capture the attention of Northern white women in particular, to show how slavery debased and demoralized woman” (Baym, 921). Jacobs wrote an autobiography on her life as a slave little girl. In her book she described the kind of treatment African
In Harriet Jacobs’ book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs retells her story of slavery, as well as her suffering, and shows the virtues of true womanhood that not only she, but also many other slave women tried to upheld in order to prove that they were, in fact, humans, and women at that. However, this proved to be a difficult task, as Jacobs shows. For the life of Linda, her fate was set out for her the day she was born. Her parents, who were slaves, as well as her grandmother who was also a slave, yet a well-respected slave in the community set Linda up for a life of servitude herself. The young slave girl was forced to grow up too fast, realizing only at the age of 6 that she was a slave.
Throughout the course of the autobiography, Jacobs uses the pseudonym Linda Brent. With that being said, Linda Brent (a.k.a. Harriet Jacobs) uses a slave narrative to address and explore the struggles, torment, and sexual abuse that female slaves faced on plantations, as well as their efforts
In the excerpt from the Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass describes the inhuman life for the enslaved people on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. First, Douglass mentions that those enslaved are given the very minimum amount of resources. In addition, Douglass states that the enslaved were given two shirts, one pair of trousers, one jacket, one pair of stockings and one pair of shoes, these they have to wear for a year until the next allowance day. For children who can no longer wear their clothes were naked until the next allowance day. Second, the enslaved were lack of food, their monthly allowance of food contained eight pounds of pork or fish, and one bushel of corn meal.
Jacobs was born into slavery. Her owner Mr. Flint made her live in their house because they were scared she would try to escape if she lived in the slave quarters. Little did her owner know she was slowly
Harriet Ann Jacobs is the first Afro-American female writer to publish the detailed autobiography about the slavery, freedom and family ties. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent to keep the identity in secret. In the narrative, Jacobs appears as a strong and independent woman, who is not afraid to fight for her rights. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was published in 1961, but was unveiled almost 10 years later due to the different slave narrative structure. Frequently, the slave narratives were written by men where they fight against the slavery through literacy by showing their education.
The beginning of the 17th Century marked the practice of slavery which continued till next 250 years by the colonies and states in America. Slaves, mostly from Africa, worked in the production of tobacco and cotton crops. Later , they were employed or ‘enslaved’ by the whites as for the job of care takers of their houses. The practice of slavery also led the beginning of racism among the people of America. The blacks were restricted for all the basic and legally privileged rights.
Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are two well-known authors in American literature who have spoken out against slavery's atrocities and the fight for freedom. Both of them were subjected to slavery in the 19th century in the United States, and they utilized their literature to share their stories with other people. Despite the fact that they both experienced persecution in a similar way, their stories diverged significantly, especially when it came to gender. In order to determine if Jacobs and Douglass experienced and depicted the same kind of freedom, this essay will examine the various ways that gender influenced their experiences and writing styles. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs both went through the horrors of slavery, but due to their gender, their experiences were drastically different.
This exposure to oppression shaped her to be the person she is today. As her “Incidents” show, she was not afraid to use her past as a stepping stone for future success. Truth and Jacobs’ sacrifices demonstrate the evolution one might call rags to riches. In this case, however, the riches displays a sense of impact that both women achieve. They fought until their dying breaths and their legacy still holds strong
Dr.Flint threatened to kill Jacobs if she tells anybody, especially her grandmother. Jacobs did all she could to avoid Dr.Flint, because of this she also faced psychological effects from the harassment. From the very beginning it is noticed that Jacobs was raised to be a lady and to be pure and Jacobs held on to that purity, nevertheless finally she had to let that go in order to escape Dr.Flint. Jacobs got pregnant by a white man to whom she had no feelings of love for. She saw it as something that had to be done, since she knew that Dr.Flint would lose interest in her, and that he would send her away.