Slave Girl

In her slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs makes the case that “[slavery] is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” (Jacobs #) According to female slave narratives like Incidents and The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, it is worse to be a female slave because, in addition to the brutalities endured by all slaves, enslaved women are also victims of a sexist and patriarchal society where they are victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as bear the added anguish of becoming mothers and knowingly raising children into this horrific system of bondage. Slave narratives are often autobiographical and detail the narrator's path from slavery to freedom. These types of narratives
After dinner, and after the lights went out at nine o'clock, Jacobs explains that their master “entered every cabin, to see that men and their wives had gone to bed together, lest the men, from over-fatigue, should fall asleep in the chimney corner, and remain there till the morning horn called them to their daily task” (185). She continues to explain that “[women] were considered of no value, unless they continually increase their owner's stock. They are put on par with animals” (185). So not only are enslaved women dehumanized, but they are considered to be on the same level as animals who can provide a slave owner with two main services: labour and food; and considering the jobs that enslaved women would hold consisted of household duties, such as working in the kitchen, these menial duties normally consisted of preparing and cooking food, or providing food and nutrition as a wet nurse. Holly Blackford, author of “Figures of Orality”, an essay on the characters of the master, mistress and slave mother in Jacobs' Incidents, makes an interesting case for Jacobs' narrative, arguing that there is a reoccurring motif throughout the novel involving a woman's sexuality and food. She states that “[the] status of the female slave in the food economy
In this passage, Brent, or Jacobs' appeals to the white female reader, explaining the rights and privileges she has as a white woman. In comparison to Brent and other enslaved women, the white woman has everything that allows her to remain the epitome of femininity; the perfect ideal of womanhood. Among these rights and privileges is the right to remain virtuous and innocent, as well as to marry whomever she chooses. Mary Prince’s narrative, although related by Prince, is not written by her. Therefore, much of the story narrated by Prince was heavily edited, and for the most part, the editing was crucial in making Prince appear innocent and so instances of extra-marital affairs would have been omitted from her narrative. The same is seen in the seventh chapter of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl:
There was in the neighborhood a young colored carpenter; a free born man. We had been well acquainted in childhood, and frequently met together afterwards. We became mutually attached, and he proposed to marry me. I loved him with all the ardor of a young girl's first love. But when I reflected that I was a slave, and that the laws gave no sanction to the marriage of such, my heart sank within me. My lover wanted to buy me; but I knew that Dr. Flint was too wilful and arbitrary a man to consent to that arrangement.