Summary Of A Girl By Harriet Jacobs

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.

The emotional and sexual abuse was awful for Jacobs. In her narrative she talks about how horrible it really was for women "My master began to whisper foul words in my ear." Her master told her she was property "He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things." She says how she had to give up their children "The children were sold to a slave-trader,

Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine. With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a slave narrative written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1845. A few years later, in 1861, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by Harriet Jacobs, was published. Similarly, the two narratives are written in the first person, illustrating the author’s personal experience in slavery and their successful battle for freedom. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs have one very important element in common: knowledge. Their education and the awareness of their situation certainly helped them in escaping, and was a key element in successfully gaining freedom.

Lesson 6 Discussion In “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” Harriet Jacobs reveals some of the many unpleasant and terrible situations slaves were forced to experience. Jacobs described her slave master, Dr. Flint, as a vile monster who filled her mind with unclean images and subjected her to sexual harassment at an early age. Unfortunately, Dr. Flint eventually forced Jacobs to have sexual relations with him. Dr. Flint threatened Jacobs not to tell anyone, including her grandmother, and that she needed to obey her master as well as his orders.

There were no laws that protected slaves from their owners and slave voices were not heard. Slaves were subjected to the absolute power of their masters. Jacobs did not have many options that would protect her from the abuse. She must go against her morals and principles to have some defense against her master. To protect herself, Harriet Jacobs gets pregnant.

In the issue of whether the name should be American Culture or American Cultures I believe that due to the vast variety and distinctness of the cultural groups that make up the United States the name should be American Cultures. To examine why we will look at sources from several different figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Jacobs, Jackson Turner, John D’Emilio, Gerda Lerner, and Fredric Douglas. To start, we will first look at Harriet Jacobs and her biography detailing her life as a slave. Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, however was unaware of this until the loss of her protection, her father who was a skilled slave, she is shocked by the realization saying “I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise”(Jacobs, 8)

In this book, Jacobs’ describes the living conditions as a slave and her own personal experiences; her descriptions show how violent and poor her living conditions were. Harriet Jacobs wrote, “Various were the punishments resorted to. A favorite one was to tie a rope round a man’s body, and suspend him from the ground. A fire was kindled over him, from which was suspended a piece of fat pork,” (Jacobs 41) . This is one of the many examples of how poorly slaves were treated on plantations and by their owners.

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.”

Both men and ladies approached to distribute their stories, frequently under pseudonyms to guarantee their security. Albeit all slave autobiographies concentrated on the craving for and journey towards picking up freedom, the way in which the stories were introduced had a tendency to fluctuate between the sexes (Bulgrin, 2006). The battles experienced, center of thought, and perspectives on the family unit all varied in the middle of male and female slaves. The self-composed autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs showcase the contemplations of men and ladies on these subjects and consider a correlation of the experience of slavery between

In today’s world, we learn about the harsh lives that slaves had to endure and how mistreated they were their entire lives. It’s often hard to imagine what it would have been like and how they coped with their terrible lives. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs discuss how they were able to find hope and comfort through the toughest of times. Through the harsh reality of slavery, slaves had the comfort of family, friends, and God to give them hope to one day have freedom.     Family was a large comfort and a little bit of an incentive for slaves who were fortunate enough to have their family near them.

Small acts could trigger these authorities, and that would result in painful repercussions. They lived in constant anxiety, waiting for punishment for anything. The female slave was the object of white men’s lust. They were expected to perform work and were punished just the same as the male slave. They often had to deal with the mistress’s resentment towards them.

Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another.” She explains how it feels to be a slave and how you wouldn’t know what it felt like to be a slave, unless you have been a slave before. “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own,” (Number 4, Sparknotes).

Henny, a slave girl subject to being crippled, was seen as a waste of money and waste of space, and her master would release his anger onto her, a victim to whom had no control in her ailment (Douglass, 1845/1995, p.33).Even though physical abuse was the most common method to rebuke slaves it was not the only way. Starvation, privation of sleep,

It left both physical and emotional scars on those who were enslaved. They were shackled to the past - the unforgettable past. In the historical fiction novel Beloved, written by Toni Morrison, the lives of female and male slaves were explicitly described. From the time they were bought, till their later lives after the escape, it is evident that