Analysis: The Incidents Of Harriet Jacobs

The Incidents of Harriet Jacobs

My cultural background stems from both my American and black/Caribbean heritage. Throughout American history, there has a constant problem within the realms of race and sex, and for a long time, prejudice was a fundamentally core belief of the good old USA. The theme of constant oppression in America is what lead me to Harriet Jacobs’ narrative. Harriet Jacobs was a former slave, turned female abolitionist. If you know anything about the history of America, you know that white males were the keyholders to the oppression of Black people and of women. The effects of this are still prevalent in our society as these groups of people continue to fight against their
However, she remained close to the her previous employers even after. Her brother, John S. Jacobs, a former slave who had also escaped, created an anti-slavery reading room in Rochester, New York. Famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, was an active member and the reading room served as a center of anti-slavery activities among whites.

While living with her brother, she met Amy Post and her husband Isaac Post, who were staunch abolitionists and soon, Jacobs became a part of the American Anti-Slavery Society, as well. She helped support the reading room by educating others and raising money. Her speeches were often quoted in published works. After the launching of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Jacobs feared for their lives and fled Rochester, Harriet staying in New York City while John left for California where the act wasn’t enforced and he met his nephew Harriet’s son
Without these vents occurring throughout her life, she would have remained a slave in North Carolina and her narrative would not have been exposed to the world. Former First Lady Julia Tyler wrote a defense of slavery titled "The Women of England vs. the Women of America", in response to the "Stafford House Address" petition against slavery. In response to that Jacobs wrote a letter to the New York Tribune, her first published writing, in 1853 called “Fugitive”. In her own story, Jacobs changed the names of everyone, including herself, to conceal their true identities and protect them from any adverse reaction. Getting publishing for her book was no easy task as one publisher wanted her to convince others to provide an introduction to her book to which she refused, eventually signing an agreement with Thayer and Eldridge publishing house and having her book published in 1861. It was called “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and told a unique perspective of the female slave one of which challenged the white middle class ideology of womanhood. During Slavery, black women were not even seen as women and she uses her platform through this book to show the detrimental effect of slavery on women's chastity and sexual virtues. Slave women had often been blamed when white men used them sexually, and Jacobs wanted to show how they were abused by the relationships. She refused to be a victim, instead