American Slave Narrators: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs
As former slaves living in the same generation, both Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) devoted their professional lives to telling their respective stories. As a matter of fact, Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) are considered the most important works in the slave narrative genre. Thus, their essays provide a ground for a meaningful comparison of their respective experiences of slavery in the nineteenth-century. While both writers present a significant contribution to the genre of the slave narrative, however, they differ in the way they highlight
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Even readers considered her narrative factious or a sentimental novel. However, after the scholar Jean Fagan Yellin proved that her autobiography was legitimate in the 1980s, Jacobs was vindicated. Since then, many scholars have come to regard her autobiography as a crucial work in the fields of African-American and women's literature. Indeed, prior to the authentication and authorship of Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Douglass’s work served as the primary example of the slave narrative genre because it led to a rethinking and a new understanding of the genre (Riemer n.p). In addition, Douglass’s mainly focuses on the physical abuses, and most importantly, the turning point in his journey toward freedom, which came when Douglass was taught to read and write; in contrast to Jacobs, his account is purely based on the male experience, and it shows how literacy can play a crucial role in attaining freedom and …show more content…
Despite the fact that they lost their mothers and realized their status as slaves at about the same age, Douglass’s and Jacobs’s feelings are very different. For instance, looking in the beginning of Jacobs’s autobiography, it is evident that she is filled with grief and sadness about losing her mother. She wrote, “I grieved for her, and my young mind was troubled with the thought who would now take care of me and my little brother” (Baym 923). After the death of her mother, Jacobs was attached to her grandmother, Aunt Marthy. For Jacobs, the relationship with her grandmother was a gift; her grandmother took over the mother’s role in her life. Douglass, on the other hand, seems indifferent about losing his mother. He says, “I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger" (Baym 1183). He is uncertain as to his age and to his father’s identity. He mentions that “my father was a white man” (1182). Douglass had a grandmother as well, but he did not maintain a connection with her because she lived so far from him (1194). Obviously, then, Douglass lacks Jacobs’s strong family ties. In addition, his childhood is totally different from Jacobs. He was exposed to the traumatic experience as a young boy when he witnessed the bloody whipping and torture of his aunt Hester. Douglass depicts this horrific experience as “the blood-stained gate, the
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.
In the beginning of Douglass’ tale, he expressed a lack of knowledge of his own age (Douglass 1182.) At this stage, one may
This lead Douglass on a trail of being loaned out to other masters until he could save money and escape to New York. Jacobs had her children indirectly due to the master she had and the people she knew while Douglass had to fight his master to eventually earn his way to
To begin, Douglass masterfully hooked the reader by relating his experiences to those of the readers. When Douglass related to the reader's experiences it helped him create a deeper connection between them, leading to a deeper understanding of his arguments. He emphasizes: “It caused me more pain than anything else in the whole transaction. I was ready for anything rather than separation.”
He was separated from his mother at an early age. As an adult, he conjectured that this separation was “to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child” (Douglass 24). Once separated, Douglass saw his mother only four or five times in his life and could not “recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day” (Douglass 25). Douglass (28-30) remembered as a young boy hearing the piercing screams of his aunt as she was stripped, tied and then whipped into unconsciousness. The incident struck him “with awful force.
In this autobiography, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, by Frederick Douglass, slavery is introduced as a negative effect in many different ways. Although slavery is a tough subject to talk about, the reader believes that it should be addressed and considered as one of the most negative events in history. A moral effect from the autobiography, is from Frederick’s perspective of Mrs.Auld, a wife to a slaveholder. He states, “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery soon became red with rage; the voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord;
“My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant- before I knew her as my mother.” In this quotation, Douglass explain how he was separated from his mother as an infant, which resulted in a hindrance of his affection towards her. “For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it is to be to hinder the development of the child’s affection towards its mother... This is the inevitable result.” As a result of his relationship with his mother, when she died it did not affect him as much because he barely knew her; the only time he saw his mother is when she would walk twelve miles after dark to lie next to him.
In the 1800’s, Frederick Douglass writes a book about his experience as an African American slave titled, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” and reveals
As Douglass mentions this in both autobiographies, it reinforces the difficulties he had as a slave and the emotional toll it took on him. In The Narrative, Douglass describes the lack of a relationship with his mother from a very young age, the several mile trips his mother walked to reach him at night and her illness that facilitated her death (Douglass,1845,41-42). Douglass appeared bitter in The Narrative, when describing the separation of him and his mother, questioning the purpose (Douglass,1845,42). Again, in The Narrative, once he received news of his mother's death he had very little emotion towards her death as he was unfamiliar with her (Douglass,1845,42). However despite the ten year difference between the publication of the two autobiographies the information of his mother is quite similar.
At the age of six, her mother died and she was forced to live with Margaret Horniblow, the mother’s owner. The mistress took a good care of Jacobs and taught her how to read, write and sew. Her father was always telling her to feel free and do not feel someones property. While her grandmother was always teaching Jacobs respect and manners. She was always telling her about principles and ethnics.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; an autobiography consisting of Frederick Douglass’ search for freedom from the slaveholders who kept many African Americans captive, allowed many to understand the pain and misery in the midst of slavery. Published in 1845, Douglass conveyed the lives of African Americans and how they have suffered a great deal of pain and discomfort through a provocative tone . Throughout his autobiography, Douglass used countless metaphors to portray his life. From Mr. Plummer to Mrs. Auld, the reader could better perceive the text by visualizing the metaphors that Douglass has used. Using Frederick’s writing, youthful audiences can gain knowledge about slavery and its effects.
Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Essay The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass himself, is a brutally honest portrayal of slavery’s dehumanizing capabilities. By clearly connecting with his audience’s emotions, Douglass uses numerous rhetorical devices, including anecdotes and irony, to argue the depravity of slavery. Douglass clearly uses anecdotes to support his argument against the immorality of slavery. He illustrates different aspects of slavery’s destructive nature by using accounts of not only his own life but others’ alsoas well.
After having read both Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and Harriet Jacobs’s Incident 1. How were Douglass and Jacobs similar and different in their complaints against slavery? What accounts for these differences? In both the inspiring narratives of Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass by Frederick Douglass’s and in Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs the respective authors demonstrate the horrors and disparity of slavery in there own ways.
Beecher Stowe vs. Jacobs When Harriet Jacobs’ narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was initially published, it was believed that the story was fictional. This belief may in part be due to Jacobs’ changing the character’s names, to protect the guilty, as well as the innocent. It was not until the 1980s that Jacobs’ account was determined to be an autobiography. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was very popular when it was first published, despite being controversial. Although both women wrote literary pieces in support of the abolishment of slavery, Jacobs, a mulatto freed slave, found it more difficult to get her narrative published.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is Frederick Douglass’s autobiography in which Douglass goes into detail about growing up as a slave and then escaping for a better life. During the early-to-mid 1800s, the period that this book was written, African-American slaves were no more than workers for their masters. Frederick Douglass recounts not only his personal life experiences but also the experiences of his fellow slaves during the period. This book was aimed at abolitionists, so he makes a point to portray the slaves as actual living people, not the inhuman beings that they are treated as. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slaves are inhumanly represented by their owners and Frederick Douglass shines a positive light