Harriet Jacobs And Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl
1. Introduction
I have chosen this subject because of my personal interest in American female literature. Having read Anne Bradstreet gave me great pleasure, because I got an inside view of not just the big conquerer, but the woman whose is standing quietly at his side. Now I wanted to approach to another, very deep subject in American history. Writing about such an outstanding woman, fighting for her right as a human being, a woman, a mother, makes me feel pride – not as a white person, but as a woman.
1.1. The Author Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks. It makes white …show more content…
fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched. And as for the colored race, it needs an abler pen than mine to describe the extremity of their sufferings, the depth of their degradation.[1]
Harriet Jacobs faced the challenge to write about a subject just a few of the potential readership wanted to hear, slavery and the sexual exploitation of women in her autobiographical narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,Written by Herself. Harriet, born as a slave in Edenton, South Carolina, realised to escape to the North of America.
Years have passed and she was urged from friends to write down her own biography. As a fugitive slave and as a woman, she writes out of a social marginality and needed urgent help for editing her book. Just 16 out of 160 autobiogrpaphical narratives were written from women, and mostly from free black women.[2] It might have never been possible without the white female editor Lydia Maria Child. Her book was first published in Boston under the title The Deeper Wrong and one year later in London with the title I mentioned above. Although Harriet’s book was published at the very beginning of the Civil War, did she raise attention to that sensible subject. Her book was mostly read by people of Great Britain and by the time did it gain more and more attention in the United States. It has been held as a fictive novel for a long time because of her use of “[...] conventions of the sentimental literature to both relate to readers accustomed to such literature and to underscore the injustice of her situation.”[3], but Jean Fagan Yellin proved through extended research to be an authentic narration of her life. But that should not be the subject for further discussion.
The editor published the book with an pseudomnymously author, Linda Brent. Therefore I will refer to Linda as the protagonist of the narrative and to Harriet as the woman behind the scenes. The other persons mentioned in that narrative are pseudonymously as well.
The term incidents in the title evokes the thought, that she refers to just a small selection of her experiences, mixed with the narrations of other slaves in order to give a broad overview and a deep insight into the life and the feelings of slaves, women, mothers. Harriet used the convention of omission in the text very often. Maybe because she wanted to let the reader think and let the narrative reflect, maybe it has hurt her too much to write about in such a detail. It is for sure that she wanted to enlighten the reader and to make him sensible to peolpe, who have to carry such a heavy burden on their backs.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl leads the narration of Linda Brent from her childhood and the lost of both of her beloved parents, to the tortures of her master and mistress – the Flints – which leads her into the arms of a white man – Mr.
Sands, wherefore she became the mother of two children – over to the escape from her master. This escape is scaled in different stages, leading her from an attic of a good female slaveholder to the seven-years imprisonment in the den of her grandmother’s house and to the tiny room on the boat who took her to Philadelphia as “[...] a progression from one small space to another.”[4] She managed to escape into the North and build an own existence.
1.2. Questioning and Further Approach
Harriet always pointed out the importance of being a woman in her narrative. After Linda had the affair with Mr. Sands, she described herself as nothing more, than, as Robert S. Levine has written, “[...] a fallen woman.”[5]. This term induced me for further research where I found out about the ideology of true womanhood, which I am now going to discuss in detail and how it was realized. Furthermore do I intend to discuss and resolve the question of Linda’s self-evaluation.
2. The Southern Ideology of True
Womanhood
As the feminist Barbara Welter summarized, The ‘ideology of true womanhood’, whose rules were imprinted upon generations of 19th century American women, compromises four main virtues, “piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity”, which every woman had to absorb [...][6]
The duties of the woman for being a true woman were mainly, that she lives the life under the laws of God – piety; goes into marriage as a virgin – purity; obeys the orders of her husband – submissiveness; bears a lot of children and is a caring housewife – domesticity. It was said that the real and natural life is the family, that her life begins when entering into a marriage and raisiing a lot of children. “Law and tradition placed women under men’s control.”[7]
As the quotation from Susan Rubinow Gorsky just said, could the woman not claim anything of value as hers. She was neither allowed to hold property, nor could she sign a contract without her husband. The word of her husband was absolute, in society, at home and in bed. “Virtually any man’s home was his castle, where law and custom let him rule with nearly absolute power. His wife reigned not as a queen [...]”[8] She had to obey to every wish, no matter how degrading it was. There was almost no escape out of this situation.
Being a mother was as glorified as being a wife. The woman had to be a good mother and had to let them go in their adult age.[9] Here do they have as many rights in the participative management as elsewhere. In the case of a divorce was the law against her in claiming custody for her children.
Did the woman, however, not obey to those rules, was she declared as non-womanly – a fallen woman. Most times they were declared as a fallen woman in terms of breaking the rule of purity.[10] There were very few ways to redeem oneself. Once a fallen woman, death is mostly the only way out of the shameful feeling.
2.1. Realization of the Ideology of True Womanhood for the Black Female Slave
The dictum of slavery includes the negation of black men and women to be seen as human beings. Therefore they could not define themselves as men or women. In the eyes of the white people were they working-machines with no human feelings and human needs. Slaves were “[...] not allowed to have any pride of character.”[11] Slaves have to bow under the heavy burden of slavery and can therefore not walk erect and look straight. As time goes by their soul fades away until they are nothing more than a hollow working-machine, just as the slaveholders want them to be.
I have not mentioned it before, but the ideology of true womanhood is just realizable for the white woman. I once saw two beautiful children playing together. One was a fair white child; the other was her slave, and also her sister... The fair child grew up to become a still fairer woman. ...her slave sister...drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery, whereof her persecuted race are compeled to drink.[12]
The slave woman never had the chance to be virtuous woman and live after the ideology. As this quotation states were the slave women “[...] literally forced to offer themselves willingly [...] to their masters.”[13] As the white wife was the property of the man, so was the slave woman the property of the master, “[...] no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding; for, according to Southern laws, a slave, being property, can hold no property.”[14] They exist to “[...] continually increase their owner’s stock.”[15] The only fitting stereotype for the slave woman in those days was a breeder[16], not a woman.
Black children, born in slavery, had no legal claim to a name and belonged to the master as the legal ownership. They could be sold at any time.
Furthermore did the slave have no right to a legal marriage “Her master or mistress could annul it any day they pleased.”[17] It was even forbidden by law to learn reading and writing.
Therefore did the slave woman have no rightful claim to anything that is determined in the ideology, neither a husband, nor children to care for, unless they are the master’s. “It is deemed a crime inher to be virtuous.”[18] and as a result declares the slave woman as not virtuous, and out of that result as a fallen woman.
3. Self-evaluation of Linda as a Woman
3.1. Linda and Mr. Flint, the Attempt to Keep Up Her Courage
Although she hardly faced physical hardship in her younger years – when she was untouched –, but she suffered immensly under mental degradation. Her master Mr. Flint was a constant threat to her purity and “[...] had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images.”[19] Full of fleshly desire directed towards her, he was not even ashamed to touch the most sensitive subject of womanhood; “Poor, foolish girl! You don’t know what is for your own good. I would cherish you. I would make a lady of you.”[20] Linda had enough self-respect to say what she wanted and felt as shown in that incident where she wanted to marry the free-born black man.[21] But she had no one who fought on her side, who protected her in the house of his master, “I wanted to keep myself pure; and, under the most adverse circumstances, I tried hard to preserve my self-respect [...]”[22]. In order not to be possessed by him she thoght about the calculation of interest as the only way out.
3.2. The Calculation of Interest and the Fall Into Shame
The calculation of interest was Linda’s way of taking revenge on her master, because she had nothing except the psychological weapon. And she knew that he wanted nothing more than possessing her body by law and virginity by despair [...]”[23] She decided to start a sexual relationship with the white Mr. Sands. Firstl was it meant as a “[...] triupmh over my tyrant, even in a small way.”[24] Secondly because she hoped to be bought from him. The escape from him would have made it a lot easier for her. Thridly, and as the most important reason, to prevent herself from being compelled to sexual actions rather than doing it out of her own will, „It seems less degrading to give one’s self, than to submit to compulsion.“[25] She saw herself as a being, even though slavery negated the fact of slaves having an own will. “My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.”[26] Even though the sexual practice was ineluctable, she at least chose the person of herself; “ I knew what I did and I did it with deliberate calculation.”[27] From this moment on was Linda’s most valuable possession was gone. As she realized that she “[...] drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery [...]”[28] and has lost her purity, self-respect and innocence; that she was neither a girl anymore, nor a woman was almost unbearable for her, as she said: “I felt wretched. My self-respect was gone! I had resolved to be virtous though I was a slave. [...] And now how humiliated I felt.”[29] For the white woman, who lived after the ideology was the fact of losing your purity a reason to commit suicide. She did not even blame herself, but her family and her bethrothed/husband. But “[...] there was no heaven for self-murderers; [...]”[30] and Linda knew this, she beared the heavy burden of her shame. As another reason for her will to survive was the fact of her pregnancy. Her children gave her support and energy as Harriet pointed out with the two titles of chapter 11 “The New Tie to Life”[31] and chapter 14 “Another Link to Life”[32] even if they were ”[...] the ever-present witness of my shame.”[33]
Althought Mr. Flint did not possess her innocence, her claimed even more to the right as his property and was therefore still a constant pain for the disgraced self. “You can do what I require; and if you are faithful to me, you will be as virtuous as my wife,”[34] was his hollow dictum to her. But how virtuous was his woman – Mrs. Flint – and was it even a desirable purpose? Did he really thought that Linda desired to be like the woman who did not let her to the burial ceremony of her beloved father?
Those and other circumstances brought the thought nearer to escape. The actuator was the fact, that Mr. Flint intended the children of her to be broke[n] in[35] for the plantation work.
3.3. Linda Escaped into Emancipation
Linda went through unimaginable and inhuman tasks and was in anguish for over such a long time just. She was “[...] faint in body, but strong of purpose.”[36] for the sake of her children. Linda though, that she might redeem herself in front of God “[...] who would forgive my sins for the sake of my sufferings.”[37] With a lot of help and her determined will, she made the escape into the North and started to work for money – for the first time. She realized, that she can take care of her own and her two children. Although they could not live with her at first, she managed to take good care of them and their education. She became “[...] somewhat enlightened [...]”[38] From this point on did Linda represent the person the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary would describe under the term “be your own woman”[39] what meant nothing more than “to act or to think independently, not following others or being ordered [...]”[40] She emancipated herself, always with this end in view of a good woman, who is capable to care for herself – without being married – and a good mother, who is abled to take care of her children – without a husband. She defined the ideology of true womanhood for herself new. It is womanly to be aware of oneself and the others around you as equal human beíngs; and always stand up for the right thing without being conquered. She proved that by giving another fugitive slave woman her seat on the boat. Linda Brent proved that she has to be considered as a human being, for herself and the reader.
But she would not have achived so much if she would not have had any other persons who helped her when she was at need.
4. Encountering Sisterly Acts in Incidents
Within Harriet’s narration did she mention a lot of white female characters whom she has met – male characters as well, but this will not be discussed in this term paper. Anyone of them had different attitudes and different intentions towards Linda – and other female slaves. Some of them betrayed and looked down on them, some of them reached out for help. But why were there women, who hepled her? Did Jean Fagan Yellin write: “One explanation is that these women are responding to Linda Brent’s oppression as a woman exploited sexually and as a mother trying to nurture her children.”[41] I fully agree with her opinion. But furthermore do I want to add that to my mind is it necessary to accept yourself as a woman primary, who thinks independentely and for her own good; who is her own woman – in order to save another person from a bad treatment. This act was not determined trhough racial or hierarchical aspect, therefore I will call it a sisterly act. And Linda did encounter some sisterly acts from white and black women.
Until her escape the narration was mainly framed with relationships to white women as “[...] was determined through a racial, not gendered, categorization.”[42] and was mostly presented with cruel and scattered with betrayal.
Her first mistress promised her mother on the death-bed that Linda „[...] should never suffer for anything; and during her lifetime she kept word.”[43] But what happened after her death could not have been a sisterly gesture. She was given to the Flints as the property of the very young daughter. Meanwhile was Mrs. Flint her mistress. After her discovery of the desire of her husband towards Linda, she just looked away although she was “[...] weak,spoilt, jealous, and sickly.”[44] Towards Linda did she assure protection but she “[...] totally deficient in energy. [...] her nerves were so strong, that she could sit in her easy chair and see a woman whipped, till the blood tickled from every stroke of the lash.”[45] This woman pitied herself too much to care about other woman’s feelings. Then there was her adult daughter, who claimed her right on Linda as her property. When she was a little infant, things were very different, “I loved her and she returned my affection. [...] I said to myself, ”Surely, little children are true.””[46] I will not go into further detail with this quotation, but I like to add here that Emily was also forced into the pattern of the ideology while she grew up and therefore dismissed Linda as her foster mother. As the first ray of hope did a female slaveholder occur, who was willing to hide Linda under her roof. “She was unlike the majority [...]”[47] and risked very much. This noble act was clearly a sisterly act, not towards her but to the grandmother, because they were friends. Who else calls a freed slave and a slaveholder friends, when they do not regard each other as women and sisters.
Then there was the ambiguous relationship to Mrs. Hobbs in the North. Linda was told that her daughter Ellen would have a good live there as a guest, but instead she got betrayed. Mrs. Hobbs just wanted to make of Ellen “[...] a nice little waiting-maid [...]”[48] But surprisingly did she let her go and gave her the permission to attend a school. Maybe she thought selfish about it, that she might get an educated waiting-maid back or she felt pity for the mother, who could not be with her daughter. Certainly I do not expect, that this act was meant sisterly because she knew that Linda as a fugitve slave – and saw her as that –, not as a woman. The better she could hide her real identity she better she could cope with other woman in the North. Her light complexion made it easier for her as well, but the prejudices were almost extinct. Her first employer in the North was Mrs. Bruce, who “[...] was a kind and gentle lady, and proved a true and sympathizing friend.”[49] and she was the first woman, who stuck by her word and who saw Linda as a woman “She listened with true womanly sympathy...”[50] This bond of sisterhood was further established with the new Mrs. Bruce, who “[...] was a person of excellent principles and a noble heart.”[51] She finally was a woman who accepted her as equal and was ready to suffer for another woman instead of torturing one, “I will go to the state’s prison, rather than have any poor victim torn from my house, to be carried back to slavery.”[52] To my mind was this was a climax of the sistely act in Harriet’s autobiography.
But she met several black women as well, who helped for emancipating her. Her role models were her dead mother and her grandmother. The grandmother did not just give her emotional support, but she risked everything – her, home, her possessions, her freedom – to hide her in the den. Notwithstanding this noble act of her, did she not do it out of spontaneity. She was forced into that situation because Linda more possibilities to hide anymore. But after Linda’s escape into the North did she feel happy and was proud of her as well. The most outstanding encounter of sisterhood was with the female slave Betty. Althought she was ordered from her mistress to take good care of her, did she treat her more than just an order. She put herself in danger and did as much as she could do from her limited condition. About the actions of Linda did she feel nothing but admiration. There was no trace of jealousy, as she said “[...] I’se glad I could help you, and I hope de good Lord vill open de path for you.”[53] not knowing how long the path has been.
Harriet Jacobs did not write about the encounter with so many women without a reason, but this will be discussed in further detail in the next chapter.
5. The Female Reader as the Last Democratic Instance
The reason for Harriet Jacobs to write her own autobiography was the fact, that she had experienced too many evil things that simply could not disappear without a trace. She wanted to raise attention of the circumstances people had to face in slavery, most notably the women. As Ulla Haselstein wrote „[...] die weißen Leser sollten zur Solidarität mit denjenigen bewegt werden, die sie bislang nicht als Menschen anerkennen wollten.“[54] Harriet appeals to the reader as the last democratic instance in this patriarchical system, not for gaining mercy about her past, but to achieve attention to that subject. I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself; [...] But I earnestly desire 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 I suffered, and most of them far worse.[55]
She knew that she touched a forbidden subject and that the southern reader would not bestow much consideration on her work. So Harriet addressed her autobiography mainly to the white female middle-class readership in the North. Black women were rarely educated in reading and the white working-class women did long working shifts and therefore had no time to read. Furthermore did the northern not really know about the circumstances of slavery. As a woman from North Carolina wrote: Northerners know nothing at all about slavery. They think it is perpetual bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, slavery. If they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible as system was overthrown.[56]
She understood how hard it might be, to accept the fact, that her writing correlates with her experiences – and that means accepting it as a reality – to the fullest. Therefore she repeatedly address the reader directly: “If you want to be fully convinced of the abdominations of slavery, go on a southern plantation, [...] and you will see and hear things that will seem to you impossible among human beings with immortal souls.”[57] and underlined the difference between her and the reader again and again[58].
As I have mentioned above did Harriet direct her autobiography towards white women up in the North. Even though the North was more liberate for white women than the South, they still were in bondage of the ideology of true womanhood[59]. However, women were „Tauschobjekte; sie zirkulieren auf dem Heiratsmarkt als Besitz ihrer Familien; ihre Freiheit besteht lediglich in der Geschicklichkeit, mit der sie sich selbst zu vermarkten vermögen.“[60] The reader should indentify themself with the text – and with the black slave woman. She wanted to show that they suffer from the same things – the patriarchical system of the time –, althought she knew that the reader would never be able to think of themself in her shoes, as this quotation states, “O reader, can you imagine my joy? [...] no, you cannot, unless you have been a slave mother.”[61]. She addressed her story from woman to woman, from mother to mother, no matter what the complexion is. She hoped that the followig quotation could grow into the minds and hearts of the people; “Your skin is darker than mine; but God judges men by their hearts, not by the color of their skins.”[62] and give up the old-fashioned chains of that ideology.
6. Conclusion
Give up the white chains of the ideology of true womanhood; realize yourself as an independent thinking woman and mother, and help those “[...] who cannot help themselves.”[63] – your sister – were the main aims for Harriet Jacobs, the former female slave, to write down her own biography. The following emblem underlined this statement. There you can see a black woman, whose is put in chains, kneeling in front of a standing white woman. This white woman, identified as justice because of the scale in her hand, reaches her hand to the kneeling one to help her up to stand erect and at eye level. The right woman considers herself being a woman with own opinions and who makes decisions by herself, because no person other than herself reaches down to the left woman. The inscrpition “AM I NOT A WOMAN AND A SISTER?”[64] refers to all the said aspects in the chapters above. It was the demand for equal opportunities for women of the patriarchy system, and of course the abolishment of slavery.
[pic][65]
Compared to the emblem did the protagonist Linda Brent – and Harriet Jacobs, as they have the same identity – resolved to rise from the kneeling position. A lot of people smoothed the way for her, otherwise it would not have been realizable. Not just because of her contribute, but with other great former slaves, like Douglass and Equiano and the rising anti-slavery movement. The awakening of the Northern people was successful.
7. Bibliographical Reference
Anonymous. “Linda: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. The Slave’s Narrative. Ed. Charles T. Davis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. 32-36.
Carby, Hazel V. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Dickson, D. Bruce Jr. The Origins of African-American Literature, 1680-1865. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Ernest, John. “Beyong Douglass and Jacobs”. The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative. Ed. Audrey Fisch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 218-231.
Gorsky, Susan Rubinow. Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the Nineteenth Century New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
Haselstein, Ulla. Die Gabe der Zivilisation: kultureller Austausch und literarische Textpraxis in Amerika 1682-1861. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag München, 2000.
Jacobs, Harriet. „The Text of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism. Ed. Nellie y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster. New York: Norton & Company, 2001. 1-156.
Levine, Robert S. „The Slave Narrative and the Revolutionary Tradition of American Autobiography“. The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative. Ed. Audrey Fisch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 99-114.
Nelson, Dana D. The Word in Black and White: Reading “Race” in American Literature 1638-1867 New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 6th ed. Ed. Sally Wehmeier. New York: Oxford University Press 2000. 1489.
Schmidli, Karin. Models and Modifications early: African-American Women Writers, from the Slave Narrative to the Novel. Tübingen: Tübingen und Basel, 1995.
Taves, Anne. “Spiritual Purity and Sexual Shame: Religious Themes in the Writings of Harriet Jacobs”. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism. Ed. Nellie Y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster. New York: Norton & Company, 2001. 209-221.
Yellin, Jean Fagan. Women & Sisters: The Antislavery Feminists in American Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
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[1] Harriet Jacobs, „The Text of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” “Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders, “ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism ed. Nellie y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster (New York, 2001) 45.
[2] Ann Taves, “Spiritual Purity and Sexual Shame: Religious Themes in the Writings of Harriet Jacobs,” Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism ed. Nellie y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster (New York, 2001) 210.
[3] John Ernest, “Beyong Douglass and Jacobs,” The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative ed. Audrey Fisch (Cambridge, 2007) 228.
[4] Ernest 228.
[5] Robert S. Levine, „The Slave Narrative and the Revolutionary Tradition of American
Autobiography,“ The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative ed. Audrey Fisch (Cambridge, 2007) 112.
[6] Karin Schmidli, Models and Modifications early: African-American Women Writers, from the Slave Narrative to the Novel (Tübingen, 1995) 68.
[7] Susan Rubinow Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women,” Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1992) 16ff.
[8] Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women” 16ff.
[9] Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women” 16ff.
[10] Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women” 16f. The quotation concerning the passage above: “Women fall because they are friendlless, lonely, and scared–innocent children unprepared to face a man’s or their own sexual drives.”
[11] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood” 27.
[12] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood” 27.
[13] Hazel V. Carby, “Slave and Mistress, Ideologies of Womanhood under Slavery,” Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist (New York, 1987) 21.
[14] Jacobs, “Childhood” 10.
[15] Jacobs, “Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders” 43.
[16] Dana D. Nelson, “Read the Characters, Questions the Motives,” The Word in Black and White: Reading “Race” in American Literature 1638-1867 (New York, 1993) 134.
[17] Jacobs, “Aunt Nancy” 113.
[18] Jacobs, “The Trails of Girlhood” 27.
[19] Jacobs, “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 46.
[20] Jacobs, “TheJealous Mistress” 32.
[21] Jacobs, “The Lover,” 34. The quotation to the passage above: “If he is a puppy I am a puppy, for we are both of the negro race. It is right and honorable for us to love each other. The man you call a puppy never insulted me, sir: and he would not love me if he did not believe me to be a virtuous woman.”
[22] Jacobs, “Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 46.
[23] Jacobs,” Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 47.
[24] Jacobs, “Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 47.
[25] Jacobs, “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 47.
[26] Jacobs, “Continued Persecutions” 70.
[27] Jacobs, ”A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 46.
[28] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood” 27.
[29] Jacobs, “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 48.
[30] Jacobs, “The Slave Who Dared to Feel Like a Man” 24.
[31] Jacobs, “The New Tie to Life” 49.
[32] Jacobs, “Another Link to Life” 63.
[33] Jacobs, “Another Link to Life” 63.
[34] Jacobs, “The Curch and Slavery” 63.
[35] Jacobs, “Scenes at the Plantation” 77.
[36] Jacobs, “Preparations for Escape” 123.
[37] Jacobs, “Still in Prison” 98.
[38] Jacobs, The Fugitive Slave Law” 150.
[39] Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 6th ed. (New York, 2000) 1489.
[40] Oxford 1489.
[41] Schmidli 275f.
[42] Hazel 55.
[43] Jacobs, ‘”Childhood” 10.
[44] Schmidli 80.
[45] Jacobs, “The New Master and Mistress” 14.
[46] Jacobs, “The Slave Who Dared to Feel Like a Man” 20.
[47] Jacobs, “Months of Peril” 81.
[48] Jacobs, “The Meeting of Mother and Daughter” 131.
[49] Jacobs, “A Home Found” 132.
[50] Jacobs, “The Hairbreath Escape” 140.
[51] Jacobs, „The Confession“ 147.
[52] Jacobs, „The Fugitive Slave Law“ 151.
[53] Jacobs, „New Perils,“ 90.
[54] Ulla Haselstein, „Die Gabe des Selbst: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861),“ Die Gabe der Zivilisation: kultureller Austausch und literarische Textpraxis in Amerika 1682-186,“ (München, 2000) 127.
[55] Jacobs, “Preface by the Author,” 5.
[56] Anonymous, “Linda: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” The Slave’s Narrative ed. Charles T. Davis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York, 1985) 33. The passage above is a testimony of an anonymous woman of North Carolina.
[57] Jacobs, “Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders,” 45.
[58] Jacobs, “Preface by the Author”. The quotation to the passage above: “Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of aboninations.”, 5.
[59] See chapter 2.
[60] Haselstein, “Die Gabe des Selbst: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861),“ 133.
[61] Jacobs, “The Old Enemy Again” 135.
[62] Jacobs, “The Church and Slavery” 61.
[63] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood,” 28.
[64] See inscription of the emblem below.
[65] Jean Fagan Yellin, „The Abolistionist Emblem,“ Women & Sisters: The Antislavery Feminists in American Culture (New Haven, 1989) 18. For further description of the emblem and the historical background, see Yellin, “The Abolistionist Emblem,” 3ff.
I have chosen this subject because of my personal interest in American female literature. Having read Anne Bradstreet gave me great pleasure, because I got an inside view of not just the big conquerer, but the woman whose is standing quietly at his side. Now I wanted to approach to another, very deep subject in American history. Writing about such an outstanding woman, fighting for her right as a human being, a woman, a mother, makes me feel pride – not as a white person, but as a woman.
1.1. The Author Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks. It makes white …show more content…
fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched. And as for the colored race, it needs an abler pen than mine to describe the extremity of their sufferings, the depth of their degradation.[1]
Harriet Jacobs faced the challenge to write about a subject just a few of the potential readership wanted to hear, slavery and the sexual exploitation of women in her autobiographical narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,Written by Herself. Harriet, born as a slave in Edenton, South Carolina, realised to escape to the North of America.
Years have passed and she was urged from friends to write down her own biography. As a fugitive slave and as a woman, she writes out of a social marginality and needed urgent help for editing her book. Just 16 out of 160 autobiogrpaphical narratives were written from women, and mostly from free black women.[2] It might have never been possible without the white female editor Lydia Maria Child. Her book was first published in Boston under the title The Deeper Wrong and one year later in London with the title I mentioned above. Although Harriet’s book was published at the very beginning of the Civil War, did she raise attention to that sensible subject. Her book was mostly read by people of Great Britain and by the time did it gain more and more attention in the United States. It has been held as a fictive novel for a long time because of her use of “[...] conventions of the sentimental literature to both relate to readers accustomed to such literature and to underscore the injustice of her situation.”[3], but Jean Fagan Yellin proved through extended research to be an authentic narration of her life. But that should not be the subject for further discussion.
The editor published the book with an pseudomnymously author, Linda Brent. Therefore I will refer to Linda as the protagonist of the narrative and to Harriet as the woman behind the scenes. The other persons mentioned in that narrative are pseudonymously as well.
The term incidents in the title evokes the thought, that she refers to just a small selection of her experiences, mixed with the narrations of other slaves in order to give a broad overview and a deep insight into the life and the feelings of slaves, women, mothers. Harriet used the convention of omission in the text very often. Maybe because she wanted to let the reader think and let the narrative reflect, maybe it has hurt her too much to write about in such a detail. It is for sure that she wanted to enlighten the reader and to make him sensible to peolpe, who have to carry such a heavy burden on their backs.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl leads the narration of Linda Brent from her childhood and the lost of both of her beloved parents, to the tortures of her master and mistress – the Flints – which leads her into the arms of a white man – Mr.
Sands, wherefore she became the mother of two children – over to the escape from her master. This escape is scaled in different stages, leading her from an attic of a good female slaveholder to the seven-years imprisonment in the den of her grandmother’s house and to the tiny room on the boat who took her to Philadelphia as “[...] a progression from one small space to another.”[4] She managed to escape into the North and build an own existence.
1.2. Questioning and Further Approach
Harriet always pointed out the importance of being a woman in her narrative. After Linda had the affair with Mr. Sands, she described herself as nothing more, than, as Robert S. Levine has written, “[...] a fallen woman.”[5]. This term induced me for further research where I found out about the ideology of true womanhood, which I am now going to discuss in detail and how it was realized. Furthermore do I intend to discuss and resolve the question of Linda’s self-evaluation.
2. The Southern Ideology of True
Womanhood
As the feminist Barbara Welter summarized, The ‘ideology of true womanhood’, whose rules were imprinted upon generations of 19th century American women, compromises four main virtues, “piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity”, which every woman had to absorb [...][6]
The duties of the woman for being a true woman were mainly, that she lives the life under the laws of God – piety; goes into marriage as a virgin – purity; obeys the orders of her husband – submissiveness; bears a lot of children and is a caring housewife – domesticity. It was said that the real and natural life is the family, that her life begins when entering into a marriage and raisiing a lot of children. “Law and tradition placed women under men’s control.”[7]
As the quotation from Susan Rubinow Gorsky just said, could the woman not claim anything of value as hers. She was neither allowed to hold property, nor could she sign a contract without her husband. The word of her husband was absolute, in society, at home and in bed. “Virtually any man’s home was his castle, where law and custom let him rule with nearly absolute power. His wife reigned not as a queen [...]”[8] She had to obey to every wish, no matter how degrading it was. There was almost no escape out of this situation.
Being a mother was as glorified as being a wife. The woman had to be a good mother and had to let them go in their adult age.[9] Here do they have as many rights in the participative management as elsewhere. In the case of a divorce was the law against her in claiming custody for her children.
Did the woman, however, not obey to those rules, was she declared as non-womanly – a fallen woman. Most times they were declared as a fallen woman in terms of breaking the rule of purity.[10] There were very few ways to redeem oneself. Once a fallen woman, death is mostly the only way out of the shameful feeling.
2.1. Realization of the Ideology of True Womanhood for the Black Female Slave
The dictum of slavery includes the negation of black men and women to be seen as human beings. Therefore they could not define themselves as men or women. In the eyes of the white people were they working-machines with no human feelings and human needs. Slaves were “[...] not allowed to have any pride of character.”[11] Slaves have to bow under the heavy burden of slavery and can therefore not walk erect and look straight. As time goes by their soul fades away until they are nothing more than a hollow working-machine, just as the slaveholders want them to be.
I have not mentioned it before, but the ideology of true womanhood is just realizable for the white woman. I once saw two beautiful children playing together. One was a fair white child; the other was her slave, and also her sister... The fair child grew up to become a still fairer woman. ...her slave sister...drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery, whereof her persecuted race are compeled to drink.[12]
The slave woman never had the chance to be virtuous woman and live after the ideology. As this quotation states were the slave women “[...] literally forced to offer themselves willingly [...] to their masters.”[13] As the white wife was the property of the man, so was the slave woman the property of the master, “[...] no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding; for, according to Southern laws, a slave, being property, can hold no property.”[14] They exist to “[...] continually increase their owner’s stock.”[15] The only fitting stereotype for the slave woman in those days was a breeder[16], not a woman.
Black children, born in slavery, had no legal claim to a name and belonged to the master as the legal ownership. They could be sold at any time.
Furthermore did the slave have no right to a legal marriage “Her master or mistress could annul it any day they pleased.”[17] It was even forbidden by law to learn reading and writing.
Therefore did the slave woman have no rightful claim to anything that is determined in the ideology, neither a husband, nor children to care for, unless they are the master’s. “It is deemed a crime inher to be virtuous.”[18] and as a result declares the slave woman as not virtuous, and out of that result as a fallen woman.
3. Self-evaluation of Linda as a Woman
3.1. Linda and Mr. Flint, the Attempt to Keep Up Her Courage
Although she hardly faced physical hardship in her younger years – when she was untouched –, but she suffered immensly under mental degradation. Her master Mr. Flint was a constant threat to her purity and “[...] had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images.”[19] Full of fleshly desire directed towards her, he was not even ashamed to touch the most sensitive subject of womanhood; “Poor, foolish girl! You don’t know what is for your own good. I would cherish you. I would make a lady of you.”[20] Linda had enough self-respect to say what she wanted and felt as shown in that incident where she wanted to marry the free-born black man.[21] But she had no one who fought on her side, who protected her in the house of his master, “I wanted to keep myself pure; and, under the most adverse circumstances, I tried hard to preserve my self-respect [...]”[22]. In order not to be possessed by him she thoght about the calculation of interest as the only way out.
3.2. The Calculation of Interest and the Fall Into Shame
The calculation of interest was Linda’s way of taking revenge on her master, because she had nothing except the psychological weapon. And she knew that he wanted nothing more than possessing her body by law and virginity by despair [...]”[23] She decided to start a sexual relationship with the white Mr. Sands. Firstl was it meant as a “[...] triupmh over my tyrant, even in a small way.”[24] Secondly because she hoped to be bought from him. The escape from him would have made it a lot easier for her. Thridly, and as the most important reason, to prevent herself from being compelled to sexual actions rather than doing it out of her own will, „It seems less degrading to give one’s self, than to submit to compulsion.“[25] She saw herself as a being, even though slavery negated the fact of slaves having an own will. “My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.”[26] Even though the sexual practice was ineluctable, she at least chose the person of herself; “ I knew what I did and I did it with deliberate calculation.”[27] From this moment on was Linda’s most valuable possession was gone. As she realized that she “[...] drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery [...]”[28] and has lost her purity, self-respect and innocence; that she was neither a girl anymore, nor a woman was almost unbearable for her, as she said: “I felt wretched. My self-respect was gone! I had resolved to be virtous though I was a slave. [...] And now how humiliated I felt.”[29] For the white woman, who lived after the ideology was the fact of losing your purity a reason to commit suicide. She did not even blame herself, but her family and her bethrothed/husband. But “[...] there was no heaven for self-murderers; [...]”[30] and Linda knew this, she beared the heavy burden of her shame. As another reason for her will to survive was the fact of her pregnancy. Her children gave her support and energy as Harriet pointed out with the two titles of chapter 11 “The New Tie to Life”[31] and chapter 14 “Another Link to Life”[32] even if they were ”[...] the ever-present witness of my shame.”[33]
Althought Mr. Flint did not possess her innocence, her claimed even more to the right as his property and was therefore still a constant pain for the disgraced self. “You can do what I require; and if you are faithful to me, you will be as virtuous as my wife,”[34] was his hollow dictum to her. But how virtuous was his woman – Mrs. Flint – and was it even a desirable purpose? Did he really thought that Linda desired to be like the woman who did not let her to the burial ceremony of her beloved father?
Those and other circumstances brought the thought nearer to escape. The actuator was the fact, that Mr. Flint intended the children of her to be broke[n] in[35] for the plantation work.
3.3. Linda Escaped into Emancipation
Linda went through unimaginable and inhuman tasks and was in anguish for over such a long time just. She was “[...] faint in body, but strong of purpose.”[36] for the sake of her children. Linda though, that she might redeem herself in front of God “[...] who would forgive my sins for the sake of my sufferings.”[37] With a lot of help and her determined will, she made the escape into the North and started to work for money – for the first time. She realized, that she can take care of her own and her two children. Although they could not live with her at first, she managed to take good care of them and their education. She became “[...] somewhat enlightened [...]”[38] From this point on did Linda represent the person the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary would describe under the term “be your own woman”[39] what meant nothing more than “to act or to think independently, not following others or being ordered [...]”[40] She emancipated herself, always with this end in view of a good woman, who is capable to care for herself – without being married – and a good mother, who is abled to take care of her children – without a husband. She defined the ideology of true womanhood for herself new. It is womanly to be aware of oneself and the others around you as equal human beíngs; and always stand up for the right thing without being conquered. She proved that by giving another fugitive slave woman her seat on the boat. Linda Brent proved that she has to be considered as a human being, for herself and the reader.
But she would not have achived so much if she would not have had any other persons who helped her when she was at need.
4. Encountering Sisterly Acts in Incidents
Within Harriet’s narration did she mention a lot of white female characters whom she has met – male characters as well, but this will not be discussed in this term paper. Anyone of them had different attitudes and different intentions towards Linda – and other female slaves. Some of them betrayed and looked down on them, some of them reached out for help. But why were there women, who hepled her? Did Jean Fagan Yellin write: “One explanation is that these women are responding to Linda Brent’s oppression as a woman exploited sexually and as a mother trying to nurture her children.”[41] I fully agree with her opinion. But furthermore do I want to add that to my mind is it necessary to accept yourself as a woman primary, who thinks independentely and for her own good; who is her own woman – in order to save another person from a bad treatment. This act was not determined trhough racial or hierarchical aspect, therefore I will call it a sisterly act. And Linda did encounter some sisterly acts from white and black women.
Until her escape the narration was mainly framed with relationships to white women as “[...] was determined through a racial, not gendered, categorization.”[42] and was mostly presented with cruel and scattered with betrayal.
Her first mistress promised her mother on the death-bed that Linda „[...] should never suffer for anything; and during her lifetime she kept word.”[43] But what happened after her death could not have been a sisterly gesture. She was given to the Flints as the property of the very young daughter. Meanwhile was Mrs. Flint her mistress. After her discovery of the desire of her husband towards Linda, she just looked away although she was “[...] weak,spoilt, jealous, and sickly.”[44] Towards Linda did she assure protection but she “[...] totally deficient in energy. [...] her nerves were so strong, that she could sit in her easy chair and see a woman whipped, till the blood tickled from every stroke of the lash.”[45] This woman pitied herself too much to care about other woman’s feelings. Then there was her adult daughter, who claimed her right on Linda as her property. When she was a little infant, things were very different, “I loved her and she returned my affection. [...] I said to myself, ”Surely, little children are true.””[46] I will not go into further detail with this quotation, but I like to add here that Emily was also forced into the pattern of the ideology while she grew up and therefore dismissed Linda as her foster mother. As the first ray of hope did a female slaveholder occur, who was willing to hide Linda under her roof. “She was unlike the majority [...]”[47] and risked very much. This noble act was clearly a sisterly act, not towards her but to the grandmother, because they were friends. Who else calls a freed slave and a slaveholder friends, when they do not regard each other as women and sisters.
Then there was the ambiguous relationship to Mrs. Hobbs in the North. Linda was told that her daughter Ellen would have a good live there as a guest, but instead she got betrayed. Mrs. Hobbs just wanted to make of Ellen “[...] a nice little waiting-maid [...]”[48] But surprisingly did she let her go and gave her the permission to attend a school. Maybe she thought selfish about it, that she might get an educated waiting-maid back or she felt pity for the mother, who could not be with her daughter. Certainly I do not expect, that this act was meant sisterly because she knew that Linda as a fugitve slave – and saw her as that –, not as a woman. The better she could hide her real identity she better she could cope with other woman in the North. Her light complexion made it easier for her as well, but the prejudices were almost extinct. Her first employer in the North was Mrs. Bruce, who “[...] was a kind and gentle lady, and proved a true and sympathizing friend.”[49] and she was the first woman, who stuck by her word and who saw Linda as a woman “She listened with true womanly sympathy...”[50] This bond of sisterhood was further established with the new Mrs. Bruce, who “[...] was a person of excellent principles and a noble heart.”[51] She finally was a woman who accepted her as equal and was ready to suffer for another woman instead of torturing one, “I will go to the state’s prison, rather than have any poor victim torn from my house, to be carried back to slavery.”[52] To my mind was this was a climax of the sistely act in Harriet’s autobiography.
But she met several black women as well, who helped for emancipating her. Her role models were her dead mother and her grandmother. The grandmother did not just give her emotional support, but she risked everything – her, home, her possessions, her freedom – to hide her in the den. Notwithstanding this noble act of her, did she not do it out of spontaneity. She was forced into that situation because Linda more possibilities to hide anymore. But after Linda’s escape into the North did she feel happy and was proud of her as well. The most outstanding encounter of sisterhood was with the female slave Betty. Althought she was ordered from her mistress to take good care of her, did she treat her more than just an order. She put herself in danger and did as much as she could do from her limited condition. About the actions of Linda did she feel nothing but admiration. There was no trace of jealousy, as she said “[...] I’se glad I could help you, and I hope de good Lord vill open de path for you.”[53] not knowing how long the path has been.
Harriet Jacobs did not write about the encounter with so many women without a reason, but this will be discussed in further detail in the next chapter.
5. The Female Reader as the Last Democratic Instance
The reason for Harriet Jacobs to write her own autobiography was the fact, that she had experienced too many evil things that simply could not disappear without a trace. She wanted to raise attention of the circumstances people had to face in slavery, most notably the women. As Ulla Haselstein wrote „[...] die weißen Leser sollten zur Solidarität mit denjenigen bewegt werden, die sie bislang nicht als Menschen anerkennen wollten.“[54] Harriet appeals to the reader as the last democratic instance in this patriarchical system, not for gaining mercy about her past, but to achieve attention to that subject. I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself; [...] But I earnestly desire 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 I suffered, and most of them far worse.[55]
She knew that she touched a forbidden subject and that the southern reader would not bestow much consideration on her work. So Harriet addressed her autobiography mainly to the white female middle-class readership in the North. Black women were rarely educated in reading and the white working-class women did long working shifts and therefore had no time to read. Furthermore did the northern not really know about the circumstances of slavery. As a woman from North Carolina wrote: Northerners know nothing at all about slavery. They think it is perpetual bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, slavery. If they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible as system was overthrown.[56]
She understood how hard it might be, to accept the fact, that her writing correlates with her experiences – and that means accepting it as a reality – to the fullest. Therefore she repeatedly address the reader directly: “If you want to be fully convinced of the abdominations of slavery, go on a southern plantation, [...] and you will see and hear things that will seem to you impossible among human beings with immortal souls.”[57] and underlined the difference between her and the reader again and again[58].
As I have mentioned above did Harriet direct her autobiography towards white women up in the North. Even though the North was more liberate for white women than the South, they still were in bondage of the ideology of true womanhood[59]. However, women were „Tauschobjekte; sie zirkulieren auf dem Heiratsmarkt als Besitz ihrer Familien; ihre Freiheit besteht lediglich in der Geschicklichkeit, mit der sie sich selbst zu vermarkten vermögen.“[60] The reader should indentify themself with the text – and with the black slave woman. She wanted to show that they suffer from the same things – the patriarchical system of the time –, althought she knew that the reader would never be able to think of themself in her shoes, as this quotation states, “O reader, can you imagine my joy? [...] no, you cannot, unless you have been a slave mother.”[61]. She addressed her story from woman to woman, from mother to mother, no matter what the complexion is. She hoped that the followig quotation could grow into the minds and hearts of the people; “Your skin is darker than mine; but God judges men by their hearts, not by the color of their skins.”[62] and give up the old-fashioned chains of that ideology.
6. Conclusion
Give up the white chains of the ideology of true womanhood; realize yourself as an independent thinking woman and mother, and help those “[...] who cannot help themselves.”[63] – your sister – were the main aims for Harriet Jacobs, the former female slave, to write down her own biography. The following emblem underlined this statement. There you can see a black woman, whose is put in chains, kneeling in front of a standing white woman. This white woman, identified as justice because of the scale in her hand, reaches her hand to the kneeling one to help her up to stand erect and at eye level. The right woman considers herself being a woman with own opinions and who makes decisions by herself, because no person other than herself reaches down to the left woman. The inscrpition “AM I NOT A WOMAN AND A SISTER?”[64] refers to all the said aspects in the chapters above. It was the demand for equal opportunities for women of the patriarchy system, and of course the abolishment of slavery.
[pic][65]
Compared to the emblem did the protagonist Linda Brent – and Harriet Jacobs, as they have the same identity – resolved to rise from the kneeling position. A lot of people smoothed the way for her, otherwise it would not have been realizable. Not just because of her contribute, but with other great former slaves, like Douglass and Equiano and the rising anti-slavery movement. The awakening of the Northern people was successful.
7. Bibliographical Reference
Anonymous. “Linda: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. The Slave’s Narrative. Ed. Charles T. Davis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. 32-36.
Carby, Hazel V. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Dickson, D. Bruce Jr. The Origins of African-American Literature, 1680-1865. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Ernest, John. “Beyong Douglass and Jacobs”. The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative. Ed. Audrey Fisch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 218-231.
Gorsky, Susan Rubinow. Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the Nineteenth Century New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
Haselstein, Ulla. Die Gabe der Zivilisation: kultureller Austausch und literarische Textpraxis in Amerika 1682-1861. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag München, 2000.
Jacobs, Harriet. „The Text of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism. Ed. Nellie y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster. New York: Norton & Company, 2001. 1-156.
Levine, Robert S. „The Slave Narrative and the Revolutionary Tradition of American Autobiography“. The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative. Ed. Audrey Fisch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 99-114.
Nelson, Dana D. The Word in Black and White: Reading “Race” in American Literature 1638-1867 New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 6th ed. Ed. Sally Wehmeier. New York: Oxford University Press 2000. 1489.
Schmidli, Karin. Models and Modifications early: African-American Women Writers, from the Slave Narrative to the Novel. Tübingen: Tübingen und Basel, 1995.
Taves, Anne. “Spiritual Purity and Sexual Shame: Religious Themes in the Writings of Harriet Jacobs”. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism. Ed. Nellie Y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster. New York: Norton & Company, 2001. 209-221.
Yellin, Jean Fagan. Women & Sisters: The Antislavery Feminists in American Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
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[1] Harriet Jacobs, „The Text of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” “Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders, “ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism ed. Nellie y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster (New York, 2001) 45.
[2] Ann Taves, “Spiritual Purity and Sexual Shame: Religious Themes in the Writings of Harriet Jacobs,” Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Context, Criticism ed. Nellie y. McKay, Frances Smith Foster (New York, 2001) 210.
[3] John Ernest, “Beyong Douglass and Jacobs,” The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative ed. Audrey Fisch (Cambridge, 2007) 228.
[4] Ernest 228.
[5] Robert S. Levine, „The Slave Narrative and the Revolutionary Tradition of American
Autobiography,“ The Cambridge Companion to: The African American Slave Narrative ed. Audrey Fisch (Cambridge, 2007) 112.
[6] Karin Schmidli, Models and Modifications early: African-American Women Writers, from the Slave Narrative to the Novel (Tübingen, 1995) 68.
[7] Susan Rubinow Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women,” Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1992) 16ff.
[8] Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women” 16ff.
[9] Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women” 16ff.
[10] Gorsky, “Marriage and Family: Gentle Ladies and New Women” 16f. The quotation concerning the passage above: “Women fall because they are friendlless, lonely, and scared–innocent children unprepared to face a man’s or their own sexual drives.”
[11] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood” 27.
[12] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood” 27.
[13] Hazel V. Carby, “Slave and Mistress, Ideologies of Womanhood under Slavery,” Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist (New York, 1987) 21.
[14] Jacobs, “Childhood” 10.
[15] Jacobs, “Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders” 43.
[16] Dana D. Nelson, “Read the Characters, Questions the Motives,” The Word in Black and White: Reading “Race” in American Literature 1638-1867 (New York, 1993) 134.
[17] Jacobs, “Aunt Nancy” 113.
[18] Jacobs, “The Trails of Girlhood” 27.
[19] Jacobs, “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 46.
[20] Jacobs, “TheJealous Mistress” 32.
[21] Jacobs, “The Lover,” 34. The quotation to the passage above: “If he is a puppy I am a puppy, for we are both of the negro race. It is right and honorable for us to love each other. The man you call a puppy never insulted me, sir: and he would not love me if he did not believe me to be a virtuous woman.”
[22] Jacobs, “Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 46.
[23] Jacobs,” Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 47.
[24] Jacobs, “Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 47.
[25] Jacobs, “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 47.
[26] Jacobs, “Continued Persecutions” 70.
[27] Jacobs, ”A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 46.
[28] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood” 27.
[29] Jacobs, “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life” 48.
[30] Jacobs, “The Slave Who Dared to Feel Like a Man” 24.
[31] Jacobs, “The New Tie to Life” 49.
[32] Jacobs, “Another Link to Life” 63.
[33] Jacobs, “Another Link to Life” 63.
[34] Jacobs, “The Curch and Slavery” 63.
[35] Jacobs, “Scenes at the Plantation” 77.
[36] Jacobs, “Preparations for Escape” 123.
[37] Jacobs, “Still in Prison” 98.
[38] Jacobs, The Fugitive Slave Law” 150.
[39] Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 6th ed. (New York, 2000) 1489.
[40] Oxford 1489.
[41] Schmidli 275f.
[42] Hazel 55.
[43] Jacobs, ‘”Childhood” 10.
[44] Schmidli 80.
[45] Jacobs, “The New Master and Mistress” 14.
[46] Jacobs, “The Slave Who Dared to Feel Like a Man” 20.
[47] Jacobs, “Months of Peril” 81.
[48] Jacobs, “The Meeting of Mother and Daughter” 131.
[49] Jacobs, “A Home Found” 132.
[50] Jacobs, “The Hairbreath Escape” 140.
[51] Jacobs, „The Confession“ 147.
[52] Jacobs, „The Fugitive Slave Law“ 151.
[53] Jacobs, „New Perils,“ 90.
[54] Ulla Haselstein, „Die Gabe des Selbst: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861),“ Die Gabe der Zivilisation: kultureller Austausch und literarische Textpraxis in Amerika 1682-186,“ (München, 2000) 127.
[55] Jacobs, “Preface by the Author,” 5.
[56] Anonymous, “Linda: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” The Slave’s Narrative ed. Charles T. Davis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York, 1985) 33. The passage above is a testimony of an anonymous woman of North Carolina.
[57] Jacobs, “Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders,” 45.
[58] Jacobs, “Preface by the Author”. The quotation to the passage above: “Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of aboninations.”, 5.
[59] See chapter 2.
[60] Haselstein, “Die Gabe des Selbst: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861),“ 133.
[61] Jacobs, “The Old Enemy Again” 135.
[62] Jacobs, “The Church and Slavery” 61.
[63] Jacobs, “The Trials of Girlhood,” 28.
[64] See inscription of the emblem below.
[65] Jean Fagan Yellin, „The Abolistionist Emblem,“ Women & Sisters: The Antislavery Feminists in American Culture (New Haven, 1989) 18. For further description of the emblem and the historical background, see Yellin, “The Abolistionist Emblem,” 3ff.