African American Women In The 19th Century

The lives of women in the nineteenth century were greatly shaped by an attitude that believed women should be domesticated, pure, pious, and submissive; true women focused their lives around the family and the home, influencing husbands and children by providing them a moral compass. These women, however, were shielded from the outside world and were neither influenced by nor a part of the politics and business taking place on the other side of their doors. The idea that women were meant for households, unable to complete demanding labor, developed into the idea of the “cult of true womanhood” and limited the interactions of women to their homes and families. However, strong conflicts arose between the traditional and untraditional idealists
of the nineteenth century and dispute between male and female writers arose regarding what role women should undertake. Among the female writers who dedicated their work to challenging the old views about the place in society a woman should hold was Harriet Jacobs, a former slave herself. In her narrative, Jacobs shares vivid detail about her side of society’s view of “true womanhood”. This idea of “true womanhood”, however, ignored the millions of African-American women slaves and allowed them to continue their backbreaking work in the fields and in the homes.
The hard labor on the backs of enslaved women helped build the Southern economy and drove forward the Northern industrial development. Treated like men, African American women planted, picked, harvested, and many other laborious activities. They were not spared either from beatings, separation from family, even rape; they had no right to their own body, their own children, or their belongings. White women were superior to all others, yet became so at the expense of African American women whose work resulted in the seamlessly domestic household. In her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs highlights the paradox of nineteenth-century womanhood: “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…” Jacobs published her narrative in 1861 at the peak of the idea of the “cult of true womanhood” and her work was a criticism of the ideals that all women should possess certain virtues. Slavery made it impossible for Jacobs to achieve those virtues and she voices this in her text, desiring to “arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what [Jacobs] suffered, and most of them far worse.” 19th century African American women were thought to be dishonorable and malevolent, their bodies objectified by their white male superiors. While white women were placed on a pedestal, black women were unable to rise to “true womanhood”. Slavery defeminized women, made them feel inferior, not worthy. Their lives were on a decline from the moment they entered the world. Jacobs even stated she would prefer death to a life of slavery. The labor of black women was a very important part of the economy and a very complex one at that.
Black women assumed multiple roles while enslaved: field hands, servants, mothers, etc. Slavery was a very demanding position to be in, requiring full participation in work. For a woman who had many roles, life was constant labor, sometimes literally. Because slaves were considered property with no personal liberty, reproduction was necessary for slave women and increased the property of the slave master. The reproductive ability of a slave woman was just as important as her ability to work and was a vital part of the slave economy: she supplied more workers. While motherhood was sweet, there was a strong reality that women bred property, not
people.
For enslaved women, motherhood was an all-inclusive role that merged the roles of a black man and a white woman. They were in a constant state of reproduction, expected to accomplish the same demanding tasks as men, and act as servants for white women. Black motherhood was extraordinary, taxing, and needed for survival. Slave women tested the boundaries of the notion of womanhood set by whites and were more than willing to challenge it. Their actions helped create a more significant reality for the experiences of African American women and expanded the definition of what it meant to be an enslaved black woman. Black women fought for liberty in a society that saw all black women as slaves. In order to survive, many withstood slavery, studied the cultural philosophy, and accepted the price of changing their current lives in preparation for potentially improved futures. The response of black women to the multiple roles they took on suggested that they desired to craft a new definition for black womanhood, making motherhood the priority in their lives. Black women challenged their current stereotype and created a new definition that allowed them to oppose the dominating American system, the inferior position African Americans were placed in, and the conventional idea of womanhood. This marked a revolution in the social order of 19th century America, black women playing an important role in creating this change. Harriet Jacobs could only dream of freedom and of family. She condemned slavery and, in her narrative, exposed the corrupted truth behind the system. She states that, "no pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." Jacobs argues the curse of slavery to both blacks and whites: it makes the white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched. The specific focus Jacobs puts on the problems of female slaves reveals the flaws in the ideology of slavery; flaws that are vital to the slave system in the United States. Jacobs portrays her own problems in her narrative and seeks to astonish her readers, of which most were female, of the wrongdoings towards enslaved women. Jacobs use the idea of true womanhood, though it has little to offer to her, to demonstrate how it does not apply to both free and enslaved women. Under her pseudonym, Jacobs cries for a change in the social norm.