Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Essay

Words: 1137

Pages: 5

Open Document

What is one to feel when their looks, feelings, thoughts and almost every feature but the skin of their color are the same as the people who only classify them as property or a lesser being? Harriet Jacobs writes “Moreover, they thought he had spoiled his children, by teaching them to feel that they were human beings. This was blasphemous doctrine for a slave to teach; presumptuous in him, and dangerous to the masters” as if the thoughts of an African American to qualify himself as an human being were obscene. The autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the short stories Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line by Charles W. Chesnutt show the dismal and horrid lives African American people living in the times of 1861 for Jacobs and 1899 for Chesnutt had to live. While writing for a different audience, the characters of the stories were used to show the lives they lived at these times.
The Audience for the two authors may have been different but its main reason was to attract the attention of the white audience in the north. Jacobs used her autobiography to attract the attention of white audiences, mainly the middle-class northern women, in a way of showing the many evils slavery. Jacobs writes in first person a story of her life and occasionally breaks away and talks directly to the reader in ways such as “Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous …show more content…
The autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the short stories Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line by Charles W. Chesnutt show the dismal and horrid lives African American people living in the times of 1861 for Jacobs and 1899 for Chesnutt had to live. It is intended for the reader to feel a certain way or have many opinions on how to writers made it feel when

Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl Essay

“INCIDENTSIN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE Girl” WHAT SLAVES ARE TAUGHT TO THINK OF THE NORTH? This particular chapter evokes many things within the reader. However it mainly provokes sorrowful emotions within the reader. It also gave the reader a sense of knowledge and understanding. That is the knowledge of the cruel and inhumane treatment that the slaves had to withstand. I became knowledgeable to the extent to which being ignorant can be a hindrance and a dangerous treat to ones life In chapter 8…

Words 519 - Pages 3

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Feminism Essay

nineteenth century fought for the abolition of slavery around the world. The slave narrative became a powerful feminist tool in the nineteenth century. Black and white women are fictionalized and objectified in the slave narrative. White women are idealized as pure, angelic, and chaste while black woman are idealized as exotic and contained an uncontrollable, savage sexuality. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl, brought the sexual oppression of captive black women into the public and…

Words 1369 - Pages 6

Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Grigoryan, Meri Prof. Morris Afro. Amer. 20 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, describes how women are exclusively degraded under slavery. Jacobs also shows how strong a woman's bond can be with other women. Whether it was the motherhood of her grandmother or the friendship of Mrs. Bruce. Friendships between women cut across class and race lines. Jacobs uses alternative names for all the characters including…

Words 1850 - Pages 8

African American History Essay

Garret Hawthorne HIS 14 FALL 2012 Essay Assignment Due: November 29, 2012 An analysis of the book Harriet Jacobs autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl reveals, in my opinion, that it is an accurate representation of the antebellum South under a slave system based on other published works such as Soujourner Truth, Address to the Womens’ Right’s Convention Akron, Ohio 1851 and Benjamin Drew, Narratives of Escaped Slaves 1855. The accounts described by Harriet Jacobs are consistent…

Words 1112 - Pages 5

AFAS 306essay

women during the time of slavery. Autobiographies of African American woman is still important today as it was back then, however the act of writing during the time of slavery is what shapes the way these women have and are writing today. In this essay I will discuss how the act of writing became a form of reclamation for African American women such as Harriet Jacobs, Ida B. Wells, and Margaret Walker. These African American women are each extremely passionate about standing up for their race and…

Words 1587 - Pages 7

American Slavery Essay

Government and economic reasons. The South wanted to keep slavery because it was the main source of income for the entire nation. Not only were slaves struggling to fight for their freedom, but women were as well. Women had a fractional amount of freedom compared to the average American man, and were set on defending their equality rights. This essay will discuss these points and analyze how these events progressed America to be the country of freedom that we know today. Though Northerners have…

Words 1824 - Pages 8

Resistance To African Americans Analysis

to adapt to life in America. How they were able to make the most of the cheap food that was available to them and attempt to negotiate a place for themselves and their…

Words 1827 - Pages 8

Human Trafficking Research Paper

creating pornography. For example, in the movie A nation without Women the men made Kalki their sex slave. When Kalki moved in Ramsharan’s house she became their sex slave and their maid. The four sons and father abused her by having sex with her whenever they wanted to have sex. In the movie A Nation without Women also mention a million baby girls are either murder or abandoned. Just imagine the the girls that are a .Women are seen as powerless and if I man wanted to do something to a woman they could…

Words 1226 - Pages 5

The Little Red Riding Hood Research Paper

Should there be no male companion the female lead should remain in home and not stray away unless they wish to be involved in a horrendous incident such as being eaten by a wolf, which is seen in “The Little Red Riding Hood” written by Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm. In some cases; which are rarely seen, if a woman does not possess these humbling/submissive attributes she is forces to obtain…

Words 1085 - Pages 5

Frederick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs Essay

Slavery is a destructive force that steals away the lives of everyone trapped under its umbrella; Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs each understood that and even while ensnared they never lost their ideas of freedom. During this essay I will describe each of their ideas of freedom and assess the differences of them and the white Americans of the nineteenth century. Fredrick Douglass described his freedom as independence of his wages and education. For Harriet Jacobs, her meaning of freedom was…

Words 963 - Pages 4