Preview

Harriet Jacob's Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
886 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Harriet Jacob's Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead” (Power 1), Aristotle knew the importance of education; especially literacy. Literacy is what stood between the slaves and the slaves owners. However, some of the enslaved were fortunate enough to possess more intelligence than their owners knew. Harriet Jacobs is one of the few that shared the knowledge of literacy and she knew the power that this held. She used this as her driving force to push through all of the hardships a slave had to endure on a daily basis. Jacobs account in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl truly depict the power of literacy. As a young girl Jacobs learns of her fate to come. “When I was six years old, my mother died; and then, for the first time, I learned, by the talk around me, that I was a slave” (Jacobs 10). Jacobs blesses her first mistress, Margaret Horniblow, for teaching her to read and spell. From this early age Jacobs begins to see that language and reality are intertwined. Through this interconnected thinking Jacobs discovers how to decode both the word and the world. This causes bitterness towards her mistress Margaret, when she teaches her the bible. “My mistress had taught me the percepts of God’s word: ‘Thou shalt …show more content…

Because she associates the slave’s humanity with defiant or subversive speech, resistant behavior, and the ethics of reciprocal relationships, as well as with writing and individual autonomy, Jacobs affirms the humanity of the collectivity of slaves as well as the successful fugitive and literate narrator” (Mullen

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Sexuality Studies

    • 1698 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The issue of slavery in America is a vastly documented phenomenon that captivates the interest of nearly everyone with a slight interest in history. It is a dark and fascinating subject yet still an overlooked part of our young nation’s history. Though there are countless books and articles written on the topic, few provide such compelling and brutally truthful accounts of the hardships endured by slaves as Harriett Jacobs in Incidents of a Slave Girl. Within this novel, she attempts to describe her situation under the laws dictating her life as a slave. She writes as to persuade the reader not to judge her as she tells them all she has bared in her life. As a young girl when she became a slave, she was subject to harassment, particularly by sexual means, more so than her male equals. Through the course of her book, Jacobs describes her predicament and attempts to survive and surpass it.…

    • 1698 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    She highlights how her ‘easy life’ as a slave did not make things any better for her. She and other slaves were still stripped of their basic human rights. Jacobs does not…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After her mother died, Jacobs’ kind mistress died soon after and when she did Jacobs had hoped she would be set free from being a slave. Although, that her wish was not granted by her kind mistress’ will. “After a…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Harriet Jacobs waited until it was late at night before she decided to sneak away from the plantation house.. Her family members were very afraid for her . They felt that she would be caught , then they found that one of the white neighbors would hide Harriet. She was locked in a small chamber above the white neighbor’s bed chamber for the several months after that . Flint looked for her intensily. Harriet was then taken to a new hiding place in the swamp. Then to another hiding place, in a small space hidden between the ceiling and roof in her grandmother’s old shed . Harriet becomes very sickin the winter but she recovers. She spent seven years hidden away in the small space with only room to crawl.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The second part of a slave narrative is the life as a slave (Turner). This is the majority of Harriet Ann Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, being from about Chapters II to XVI. She begins by describing how cruel her new master, Dr. Flint was: “[he] was an epicure. The cook never sent a dinner to his table without fear and trembling; for if there happened to be a dish not to his liking, he would either order her to be whipped, or compel her to eat every mouthful of it in his presence” (Jacobs, 22). By the age of fifteen, Dr. Flint would harass her more often and follow her closely; she was constantly reminded by him that she was nothing but his property. All of the doctor’s attention on Jacobs resulted in the mistress becoming…

    • 151 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harriet Jacobs was a slave who was able to escape, and she describes her life as a slave and towards the end the start of her new life in the North in a brief narrative. In the beginning she describes her master and his vile actions, which are against her morals. She describes how sometimes he has a bad temper, but other times tries to be gentle, and states that she prefers his “stormy side.” She also describes her mistress who instead of helping her against the masters’ unruly behavior only feels jealousy and anger. In the account, she describes her master who was unrelenting in his quest to make her submit to him, and often followed her around. Harriet also scribes that she was always treated kindly until she came upon Dr. Flint. During the narrative, Harriet was locked in a shed that…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When I hear the word slavery, the only thing that comes to my head is cruelty. I could not even imagine how a human can threat another one like animals, as if they were and inferior or less because of the skin color. The idea of being able to read a book that was written by someone that lived during this years of brutality amazed me. Harriet Jacobs was taught how to read and write by her mothers mistress, this was not common for many of the slaves, and it is the reason why she used the name “Linda” to talk about herself during her stories, because if by any chance her master knew that she could read and write, she would have had the punishment of being whipped and put in jail. During the first chapters of her book we could notice that not all her years as a slave were miserable. In fact the first six years of her life were happy, because she didn’t know she was a slave, once she grew up her innocence started to fade, her days started to turn dark and sad. As described in her book the living conditions were like hell on earth. Slavery not only affected the slaves, it also completely destroyed moral…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Harriet Jacobs is the author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. During the civil war, when she published it, Harriet had to have her character as another name, so that there was no chance of her getting caught since Dr. Flint was still after her. Before she helped any other slaves, even her self, she does every thing she can just to help her children first. Harriet knew that the only way to let slaves know all that she went through in her experiences was to write an autobiography. Jacobs didn't think that the book was enough, so besides the job of taking care of her children, she also helped slaves by starting organizations.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Christian religion, by nature itself, cries out against the state of slavery”(Abraham Lincoln ).In the book Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl the slaves were trying to see a path to freedom by the religion they wanted to forget the dark path of slavery, and eventually they found a path to freedom with religion. Harriet jacobs talks about how slavery and church was connected and her thoughts when she saw what was going on. She saw that the slaveholders were using religion to trick the slaves into obeying their masters and not killing them. Slaves used it as hope and to free their pain of slavery.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Harriet Jacobs "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", domestic melodrama occurs when Linda Brent struggles to protect herself from her master and is torn between her desire to run away from him and her need to protect her children. Dr. Flint refuses to sell Linda to Mr. Sands; Dr. Flint banishes Linda to his plantation; Aunt Martha tries to talk her out of running away; Linda discovers that her children will soon be broken in as field hands. Linda runs away from the plantation and goes into hiding, leaving her previous life behind and taking the first step away from…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a young girl, Harriet Jacobs was fortunate, or as fortunate as a child slave could be. Her first mistress was nicer than most common masters since she taught Harriet how to read and write until the age of 12, when her mistress died. She stated at one point that she was happy to work for her because, “No toilsome or disagreeable duties were imposed upon me. My mistress was so kind to me that I was always glad to do her bidding” (Jacobs 15). Literate slaves, though uncommon, did exist, however marginalized and suppressed their existence might have been. Harriet’s ability to articulate her experiences stemmed from her desire to have her story told. Harriet’s life was relatively easy-going compared to the lives of other slaves. She mentioned at the beginning of her autobiography how she didn’t know…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment.” Due to her childhood, Jacobs was able to learn a sense of freedom and independence that many slaves never experienced. Those moments of freedom would be one which Jacobs would later seek after in her older age. After the death of her Mother and Mistress, Jacobs was put under the care of Dr. Flints daughter, but directly responded to the doctor himself. Although Jacobs was favorited by her master, he would constantly “…remind[ed] me that I belonged to him and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to him.”…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Harriet Jacobs

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One of the other symbols that Jacobs uses in her story about being a slave to men, is the relationship between her and Dr. Flint. He is rude and hypocritical towards her, and all of his other victims. He symoblizes everything that has to do with slavery. He is the main reason for all the pain towards her in this piece, and he shows no sympathy for any of it whatsoever.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This narrative begins with the childhood of Frederick Douglass and ends with his adventures as an abolitionist. He gives insight into his personal recollections of his first awareness of what it meant to be a slave, from his own experiences and his experience as a witness to the brutality of one human being upon another human being. He allows readers through his words to have a front row seat to the world of slavery and the main objective of slavery supporters to dehumanize and oppress another race and culture. The goal of his prose is to raise awareness of the cruelty of man upon the backs of blacks, which subsequently he hoped would end…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dehumanizing Slaves

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Dehumanization of the Enslave: Frederick Douglass The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays