Harriet Jacobs Present Book Report

As a person goes through life he or she may wonder “Who am I?” and “What is my purpose?” The objective of this paper is to allow me to reflect and critically analyze who I am as a person. In this paper, I will discuss my social location and identity, my life experiences and my privileges and disadvantages.

In Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs narrative they show how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physically and emotionally. In Jacobs narrative she talks about how women had it worse than men did in slavery. While men suffered, women had it worse due to sexual abuse. The emotional, physical, and sexual abuse was dehumanizing for anyone.

Harriet A Jacobs was born into slavery by the parents of Elijah and Delilah jacobs February 11, 1813.Harriet grew up in Edenton NC,at a very young age she was being traded back and forward following the death of her mother which lead her to become sad and alone only as a child. Harriet was a slave of former masters of Margaret horniblow,Daniel Jacobs,and Andrew Knox. Later on Harriet escaped from slavery and was later freed,she became a abolitionist speaker and reformer. Harriet Ann Jacobs was a very broken person throughout the hard times she went through as a young child based on the troubles of her mother's passing and a fact that she born into such cruel thing known as slavery and having to deal with being passed around to a different

Geographically the United States was divided with the North being against slavery and the South supporting slavery. This division in the states had a great affect on the decision making in congress

Labor was the mechanism through which many people resisted their status as slaves, pivoted into lives of freedom, and earned their means to survive. Although enslaved people eventually obtained freedom, many continued into free life working jobs with which they had become familiar during their time in bondage. However, for many former slaves, labor could only be found through working available tasks under poor conditions. For men and women, these tasks were widely separate, with men often providing labor as public manual laborers, and women restricted to more private, domestic affairs. Therefore, occupations of freed people were often a continuation of similar duties performed while enslaved.

Slavery became a key issue in the arguments of the north and the south. The south was very agricultural while the north was industrial. The south feared the declaration of freedom for the slaves by government leaders in the north. Government officials at the time were not interested in ending Slavery in the slave states, but instead in keeping newly admitted states from becoming slave states. The first official disagreement of this came in 1820.

Analogous in form to the spiritual autobiography, the slave narrative emphasizes the difficulty of upholding moral goodness under the weight of slavery. By revealing herself as a “fallen woman” Jacobs creates a hazardous problem, capable of eliminating the sympathies of a primarily white audience. Moreover, Jacobs risks portraying herself as an impure woman, whose virtuousness departs from the piousness and gracefulness typically exemplified by the ideal woman or “angel in the house,” according to the “Cult of True Womanhood.” Therefore, in an effort to preserve the ethos of her argument, Jacobs attributes her unchaste condition to the systemic effects of American slavery. Hoping to destroy the ideology of benign paternalism, Jacobs reveals her consequential ethical dilemma through a faint description of her master’s, Dr. Flint’s, licentious behavior.

The Civil War was one of the most defining events in American history and the antebellum years of the 1840’s were filled with turmoil and bloodshed due to wars. The expansion of slavery into Western territories caused a great deal of controversy and increased the sectional tensions. Since drafting of the Constitution, the North and the South had grown further apart in terms of economy, ideology, and society. Slavery became even more divisive when it threatened to expand westward because non-slave holding white settlers did not want to compete with slaveholders in the new territories. The south viewed slavery as essential to their traditional ways but the north opposed its spread.

My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was allowed to work at his trade, and manage his own affairs. His strongest wish was to purchase his children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded.” (page 820) Harriet Ann Jacobs was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813. Jacobs grew up in a family where her father was able to keep her and her brother together without being separated.

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.

In their respective narratives, both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs expose slavery as a brutal and degrading institution. Though the tone and approach they incorporate in their individual narratives differ, both seek to renounce the romanticized view of plantation culture and reveal the harsh actualities. Jacobs also seeks to debunk the stereotypical notion that house slaves lived a more privileged life than plantation slaves. Furthermore, Jacobs goes on to explain the role of the slave-mistress and how that complicates the life of a slave girl growing up in a house with a licentious master and his jealous wife.

The book draws on a variety of scholarship across numerous fields, including African American history, women’s history, colonial American history, feminist theory, and cultural studies. As a professor of both Social and Cultural Analysis as well as History, with research interests in the history of the Black Atlantic World, comparative slavery, and gender and sexuality studies, Morgan is clearly quite adept at working with the intersection of such ideas. She also articulates the necessity of employing such a range of fields to fill the surprising gaps and omissions in the current

Harriet Jacobs and Sojourner Truth are women who face adversity categorized in an invisible sub-group, making it difficult for black women to compete in the world. This sub-group is known as intersectionality. Black women struggle with the perception being inferior placing them at the bottom of the social class. Jacobs and Truth, however, share their experiences to other men and women allowing them to be aware of this invisible group. They willingly chose to speak out against this discrimination.

However, these differences show that the North and South were actually two distinct countries held together by one constitution. The North felt that decisions regarding slavery and its legality were entrenched in the central government while the South felt that such decision belonged to the individual states. In the times preceding the war, both sides could not reach a compromise. Bonner mentions, “Because secession and war were permitted to come, warned Russel, "We are not entitled to lay the flattering unction to our souls that the Civil War was an inevitable conflict (Bonner, 195).” Hence, these differences could only be addressed through war.

Harriet Jacobs, referred to in the book as Linda Brent, was a strong, caring, Native American mother of two children Benny and Ellen. She wrote a book about her life as a slave and how she earned freedom for herself and her family. Throughout her book she also reveals countless examples of the limitations slavery can have on a mother. Her novel, also provides the readers a great amount of examples of how motherhood has been corrupted by slavery.