Who Is Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

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.

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.

Harriet had a tough life for the fact that she lived in fear for ten years, because she didn’t want slave owners to find her once she escaped from slavery. She expressed her slavery life through a powerful book name Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl. In this book she spoke about her white owner who harassed her and on her life as a slavery

The extreme cruelty experienced by the victims of the South’s “peculiar institution” in Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, reflect the inhumanity of the time period’s slave owners and the impact they had on their slaves both physically and mentally. Harriet’s transfer to the Flint’s household offers several examples of the malice the owners hold in quick succession. The Flint’s have their own ways of treating the cooks, both callous. Mrs. Flint spits into the pots and pans, rendering any food left within them .

The Auld Family, Fredrick Douglass’s owners, and Dr. Flint, Harriet Jacob’s owner, are prime examples of the effects of slavery on slave-owners. Through recognizing “the white men’s power to enslave black men” (Douglass 235), Thomas Auld, Sophia Auld, and Dr. Flint lose their sense of humanity; they conform to the social roles given to them by the rest of society. Society (other people of high prestige) allows them to maintain a superior status to their slaves, so they take advantage of this

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs, writing under the pseudonym Linda Brent, writes autobiographically of the painful and tragic struggles faced by her and her family as slaves in the South during the 19th century. As Brent depicts the various obstacles and struggles she endured in her journey to freedom she shows how “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” by giving insight to the sexual abuse female slaves were subject to and the aftermath of this sexual abuse. In the following review of Brent’s work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, I will include a summary of the book’s contents along with an analysis of its major argument and purpose to give understanding to the atrocities face by

Dr. Flint did treat Harriet better than most slaves, but Dr. Flint had what seemed like an obsession with Harriet. He wanted her to stay in the house and he would never sell her. Harriet was not given the same opportunity has her grandmother where she was given her own time. Her grandmother attempted to buy her time and Dr. Flint said no every time to anyone who asked to purchase Harriet. This was cruel of Dr. Flint, Harriet was not a necessity, it was a decision

Harriet Jacobs wrote about her experiences with slavery not to gain sympathy for her suffering, but to raise awareness towards the women of the North about the horrible conditions for slaves in the South. At the beginning stages of her life, Harriet is brought up in decent conditions making her unaware of her status as a slave. When her mother dies, she harshly finds out that she is a slave. Dr. Flint plays a crucial role in her life in a negative way. He believes that Harriet is entitled to him in a sexual manner because he is her master. After seven years of hiding in a cellar, Harriet is able to make her way up North but despite her escape, Dr. Flint keeps up his persistence to find her.

Frederick Douglass & Harriet Jacobs Slavery has been noted as one of the biggest social issues in America. From the beginning of time, race has been seen as a barrier for some people despite their various attempts at equality none seem to yield any positive results. Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs both have tried to be seen as equal to others but come up short due to the oppression of their skin color. But as a result of their power to not conform to being enslaved and treated like objects due to dehumanization is what leads them on their journey to becoming one of the few free slaves. “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute.”

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.

Flint, whom she loathes” (Robinson 42). Her lover is a free, black man who has proposed to her, but she realizes that her status as a slave and the law forbid marriage. Her master, Dr. Flint, confronts her about the marriage, telling her “if you must have a husband, you may take up with one of my slaves” (Jacobs 914). Jacobs boldly opposes this suggestion, demonstrating a newfound sense of agency. She challenges that even a slave can have some preference about who they love, asserting that who has access to her body will be on her own terms.

Harriet Jacobs was a woman of great dignity and respect. This book became one of the most influential narratives of a slave of all time. Individuals can analyze the immorality of slavery by observing examples of extreme punishment, rape, immorality of slavery bible in the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. At the point when a slave happened to ignore their master, punishment was exceptionally serious.

Slavery has happened all over the world for hundreds of years. Bonding humans to humans is not a new concept. People sold other people into slavery as prisoners of war, to repay debts, or because of the color of their skin. In the Americas, humans were enslaved because of the color of their skin. These slaves would write narratives explaining their plight and situation in descriptive – often graphic – terms.

The document Frederick Douglass Narrative, excreted from his 1845 autobiography, is about his life as a child slave on a plantation. Vividly describing his childhood in his opening chapters, readers get the full effect of what not only happened to Douglass, but what was also the norm for most of American slaves. He wrote about his knowledge and experiences as a child slave, and gave readers the true meaning of what slave families went through, in comparison to what was published in the media by whites. One of the main arguments presented in Douglass’s autobiography is the way women are treated and how they live as a family. From a very young age, before he was even a year old, Douglass was separated from his African mother, Harriet Bailey,

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.