What Was The Purpose Of The Autobiography Of Harriet Jacobs

When people believe that they have the right to “own” another human, they can abuse their power and completely disregard the lives of others. While, thankfully, slavery has been abolished in the US, we can still see these same principles play out in the dynamics between people who believe they are superior to their counterparts, such as the relationship between a CEO and an employee, or the relationship between a parent and a child. Douglass reported feeling broken in “body, soul, and spirit” after countless days of working hard for his slaveholder. He and his fellow slaves were not provided beds and were rarely given an adequate amount of food. He witnessed the cruelty directed towards those who were enslaved, an example being slaves who got whipped and cut when they didn’t comply with a small request.

When reading Harriet Jacobs/Linda Brent’s autobiography addressing her life as a slave who grew up in the deep south and who later fled to the North, two important characters make an impact on her life. Like many people, Jacobs/Brent’s life actions are heavily impacted by the people and the atmosphere around her, driving her decisions, wants, and desires. Although Jacob/Brent’s grandmother makes an impact on her life, Dr. Flint makes a greater impact on her life. With his pushing, he helps determine whom she has children with, controls her life through the livelihood of her children, and even impacts her life after he has passed away through his surviving daughter and son-in-law.

I have been reading a book that I am enjoying it. The name of the book is the Incidents in the life of a slave Girl. Harriet Ann Jacobs was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813. The book talks about a girl that she did not know she was a slave, but later on, she has found out that she is a slave. She explores the struggles and sexual abuse that female slaves faced on plantations as well as their efforts to practice motherhood and protect their children when their children might be sold away.

In Harriet Ann Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a personal memoir, Jacobs tells her story about her experiences as a slave and her son followed escape from slavery. The story was written with no effort to disguise her political message. From the excerpt we read, it can easily be seen that she wants to do everything she can to help the millions of people who are still slaves. “Jacobs was very family-oriented and relationships were the main focus of her life” (InscriptionsJournal 3). This is proven many times as she talks about her grandmother and kids and their well-being.

Professor James T. Downs gave an interesting lecture on the masking of epidemics after the civil war. His take on the Harriet Ann Jacobs’ story was something that extremely captivated me because I had not known much about her story. Harriet Ann Jacobs exposed the reality of what it meant to be a slave and gave a different perspective from that of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Despite all, she did to expose the conditions that former slaves lived in, and the progress that she helped create in the 19th century, many whites did not believe that Jacobs wrote her own story. This was due to the basis that she was poor and black.

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

He then said to her “Now, you d---d b---h, I’ll learn you how to disobey my orders!”and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor… I had never seen anything like it before. (9) Through punishments, such as the one given to Aunt Hester, Douglass understood how slave owners saw their slaves as basic property that was at their disposal. Slave owners also forced slaves to believe that they were not human through these punishments. Even Frederick Douglass, who at the time was literate, had been convinced that he was only a slave while serving cruel slave master, Edward Covey. In Narrative, Douglass confesses:

Douglass suggests how slaves often are transferred year in and year out, regardless of the place the slaves’ families are. Slave owners know that they get slaves with the right amount of value and the age of the slaves only to the extent that they can be valuable and have productive labor; they frequently treat slaves like livestock, mere animals, barring reason. Douglass presents this cure of people as objects or animals as cruel and absurd. Douglass’s life as a slave describes the slaves on Colonel Lloyd's massive plantation as living in concern of beatings and other varieties of bodily abuse. (Douglass).

It would make him discontented and unhappy.” This quote suggests that as long as slaves live in uneducated ignorance, that they will be happy with the situation they are in. The master will convince himself that he is doing no wrong, as the slaves are perfectly satisfied with their lives in bonds. In Huckleberry Finn, they say, “Everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, and they’d make Jim feel it all the time.” This suggests that Jim should not only be content being a slave, but happy.

It was heinous how the masters treated all the slaves. The masters had different reasons for punishing, whipping, and discriminating against the slaves. “The wretchedness of slavery, and the blessedness of freedom were perpetually before me. I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free State.” (pg. 82)

A particular section in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” that stood out to me was the section where Douglass goes on to describe how slaveholding has negative affects and changes a person. Thomas Auld and Edward Covey are men in the story that both pretend to be something that they are not. Thomas auld tries to be the almighty and powerful slaveholder but eventually becomes crueler because cannot pretend to be an all powerful slaveholder, that the slaves know it is for show. Edward Covey pretends to be a Christian man but, any Christian man would not submit such cruelty to any kind of human being. The last example of slaveholding changing people for the worse is Sophia Auld.

“After apologizing for his ignorance, and reminding the audience that slavery was a poor school for the human intellect and heart, he proceeded to narrate some of his facts in his own history as a slave, and in the course of his speech gave utterance to many noble thoughts and thrilling reflections.” In addition, he shows himself to be sympathetic to others by acknowledging he isn’t the brightest. Furthermore, he shows himself to be honest when he says that “slavery was a poor school” because slaves were forbidden to have an education. The evidence above gives the idea of why slavery is harmful to anyone who is

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.

One character, Sophia Auld, Captain Auld 's wife, before becoming a slaveholder’s wife,has a kind and understanding moral character. However, seeing “the white man 's power to enslave the black man,” she became a cruel slave owner”(Douglass 40). (insert commentary)“The fatal poison of the irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work”(Douglass 39). Another example is Thomas Auld. He became corrupt and inhumane after inheriting slaves through marriage.

Sojourner Truth was a woman who believed strongly about human rights and spoke blatantly about the importance of women’s rights. In doing so, she traveled the world to tell the truth about the importance of women’s equality rights, hence her name Sojourner Truth. She sacrifices family time to travel from place to place making sure everyone is aware of women’s inequality. Harriet Jacobs, on the other hand, sacrifices differently. As a child, she underwent the exposure of oppression and prejudice.