Compare And Contrast 12 Years A Slave And Sojourner Truth

Response Paper 1 Slavery for women differ than it does for men, especially black women. During the times of the 1800s to the 1900s slave women fought extremely hard for their right to be free and to be considered equal to men. There were three well known slaves who told their stories of how women experienced slavery and freedom Sojourner Truth, Solomon Northup and Harriet Wilson. Sojourner Truth was a six-foot tall slave turned feminist and antislavery activist. As a woman and an emancipated slave Truth experienced an ordeal like no other. She never learned to read or write but could give powerful speeches that brought attention to those who were listening. Truth worked in many civil rights fronts, she fought for the struggles women had with escaping from the south, she even become known as the representative for a brand of female
During this time of Northup’s slavery he encounter a few slave women whom he experienced slavery with. One female slave in particular was named Patsey. There were a few things about Patsey that stuck out Northup such as intellect and her loftiness that he writes no amount of punishment, nor labor, nor weariness is capable of destroying. He writes “she had no comfort of her life” (p.194). She was the house slave to an angry lustful slave master and a jealous mistress. Northup writes she suffered more often than her other slave companions boring a thousand scars on her back .Things became even more crucial for Patsey’s life when Epps the slave master demands that Northup beat her insensible for leaving to go buy soap adding to the multiple amounts of scars throughout her body. Patsey lived the rest of her life in slavery barely ever touching freedom, and the same could be said for many other black women who were either slaves or experienced servitude. For example Harriet Wilson who was a “free” black woman in the North still endured a life of