Similarities Between Harriet Jacobs And Frederick Douglass

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.

The most universal topic in both of the narratives is the beating and punishment that slaves faced. Douglass and Jacobs both describe the cruel punishments that they witnessed or were personally subjected to themselves. One of the horrifying accounts depicted in Jacobs’ narrative discusses the punishment of a male slave named James after he had been captured again after his escape. Jacobs’ recounts: Some weeks after his escape, he was captured, tied, and carried back to his master’s plantation… This wretched creature was cut with the whip from his head to his feet, then washed with strong brine…

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass are two names that cannot be skimmed over when examining the abolitionist movement in the United States. They were abolitionists who played key roles in dismantling slavery and ensuring equality for those in bondage. Both were former slaves and recounted their hardships when expressing the vile nature of the institution of slavery. Although they were both slaves in the same time period, their experience in enslavement had major differences. There were similarities, of course, as both their childhoods were stripped from them and their own lives were completely under the power of those who “owned” them in their enslavement.

In the narratives of Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs we see a point of view of two slaves in the 1800s, one being a man and the other being a woman. In Fredrick’s narrative we see that he was a born slave. As he grew up he desired to learn how to read, believing that this was the key to him being a free man. He became a leader for many other slaves and quarreled with his masters. He bought his time and eventually fled to the north where he ended up working with wages.

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

Jacobs was a house slave and not a plantation slave which was rare. The Cotton Revolution was central in North Carolina, where Jacobs lived, meaning there were many plantations. In the cotton business, there was a high demand and purchase of slaves, leading to “In many cases, enslaved women did the same work as men, spending the day—from sun up to sun down—in the fields picking and bundling cotton. In some rare cases, especially among the larger plantations, planters tended to use women as house servants more than men, but this was not universal. ”3

“The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” written by Frederick Douglass himself, is a piece of literature about slavery. Born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Frederick Douglass, the voice within the text, was an abolitionist and activist who wanted to reveal the cruelness of slavery. Douglass decided to expose slavery by writing his story down in 1845, making his age roughly 27 years old. Throughout the narrative, Douglass uses ethos, pathos, and logos to convince the readers that his story is the truth and to establish credibility by exposing the barbaric ways of slavery. Through the use of rhetorical devices, Douglass reveals that the slaveholders prove their looks and their words work together by the heartlessness

He escaped from his home in Maryland around the age of 20, changed his name, and declared himself free. Douglass had then written many autobiography’s about his time as a slave and is now a very famous American writer. Although they both have a background with slavery, the ways they wrote about it differed due to their personal experiences.

Even though Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs write about the common experience of slavery, their distinct stories are unique through their individual genders. From his male perspective, Douglass connects to his male readers through his objective writing, physical abuse, and desire for freedom. On the other hand, Jacobs uses her female perspective to connect with her readers through her emotional language, sexual abuse, and motherly nature. These individual accounts of slavery sculpted by gender provide an even more encompassing perspective on the matter, for by themselves they miss a key perspective in understanding the experience of slavery.

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.

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, both southern enslaved African Americans in antebellum America, shared their experiences through the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Both Douglass and Jacobs attempt to appeal to an audience much larger than the white northerners: those across the Atlantic living in free Europe. By documenting the horrors of slavery and exposing the underlying hypocrisy, Douglass and Jacobs argue that the institution of slavery should be abolished as it affects not only the enslaved, but everyone in the country. Douglass reveals the male experience of slavery through details of physical abuse, while Jacobs displays the female experience by uncovering the emotional

Jacobs' experience of slavery was distinct because she was a woman and her owner sexually exploited her. She was compelled to have children by her owner, and having to worry about the wellbeing of her offspring added to her hardships. Douglass, a man, on the other hand, endured physical assault and toil. Despite these distinctions, they both encountered the degrading impacts of slavery, which they

Jacobs, a woman, was subjected to sexual exploitation by her owner, which made her experience of slavery unique. She was forced to bear children by her owner, and her struggles were compounded by the fact that she was responsible for the welfare of her children. On the other hand, Douglass, a man, was subjected to physical abuse and hard labor. Despite these differences, both of them experienced the dehumanizing effects of slavery, which

They both use their unique experiences in the difference facets of slavery to show a very complete picture of the problems and atrocities of slavery. Douglas and Jacobs were both part of the horrible system know as the slavery. They both expressed some similar complains about slavery. One of those examples is that there can be no good slave owner and how it can turn even a kind person into a monster.

Slavery Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacob’s stories vary vastly from previous narratives; as former slaves rather than as white northern abolitionists. While both write on their own personal experiences, each autobiography varies deeply in how they chose to write their stories. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass has a primary focus of slavery on a larger level, while in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Jacobs focuses her individual relationships and the effects of slavery on them. Although Douglass relies on the power dynamics of slavery to promote abolition, Jacobs uses the communal relationships amongst slaves and slave owners to achieve the same purpose, therefore both use their relationships