English Essay: "Harriet Jacobs - Incedents in the life of a slave girl"
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Topic: English120 essays
For many people, hardship in life is something that is unavoidable. These hardships are usually an extreme drain, not only one’s physical body, but also to their mental state of mind. Constant reminders of your subhuman lot in life can make a very weakened, suppressed individual that accepts this and realizes they can do nothing to change it; or, it can make a person that much more diligent about finding a way out of their entrapment. This is the case for two very interesting people that have gone before us and chosen to document these struggles for all of us that come along behind them. Harriet Jacobs and Olaudah Equiano are the two people of which I speak.
Looking at the life of Harriet Jacobs, you initially see a slave girl that grew up thinking that she was just an extended family member in her master’s house. She realized that there was a difference between her and her mistress’ children, because of her darkened skin color. There were also different expectations upon her, than that of the master’s children, that made her wonder as to why these differences were. But it would not be until later that she truly understood the reality of the enslaving system in which she was born to. After time went by, this understanding became more and more apparent to her and the realization that she was in fact, a slave of her master. It was not until she became under the authority of Mr. Flint, that this became very clear to her. Through her experiences at his plantation, she began a thought process that was to ultimately become her liberating freedom. It is this thought of freedom that became her lifeblood for living each day and allowing her to be strong minded against Mr. Flint. I believe that it was this ability of hers to take this curse upon her life and be able to turn it into a drive and motivation to do something about it. The physical beatings and verbal harassment of her awful master would become the fuel for her future in the free world. If Mr. Flint had realized that his efforts of abusiveness and condemnation upon her would have turned on him in such a manner, he probably would not have gone through the great lengths that he did to control her every thought and action. This was in fact his undoing.
Early on in her initial conversations with Mr. Flint, she came to the understanding that her humanity, that she thought belonged to her, really was taken by her master in the attempt of making her more subject to his desires. On one of the occasions that he saw fit to invite her to his office, he asked her concerning her affection to lover of hers, "So you want to be married, do you?" After answering honestly and replying with a "yes", he asked her abruptly, "Do you love this nigger?" To which she replied with another "yes". This so infuriated him that her struck her. After recovering from the shock she said, "Yes, sir; but your treatment drove me to it." We now are seeing that no matter the punishment he brings upon her, all it did for her was drive her passion to be free of this enslaved mindset of the south. To recharge her desire to not only get out this bondage herself, but I think even more so, for that of all her "brothers" and "sisters" of whose race she was apart of.
Later in her stay at this plantation, a sequence of events happened that further aided her desire to change the "status quo" of southern plantation owners and there use of slaves as a way of cheap labor. It was on an afternoon after she had given birth to her second child that Mr. Flint paid her a visit. He questioned her concerning having been visited by a man wishing to purchase her, "So it seems you are trying to get up another intrigue. Your new paramour came to me, and offered to buy you; but you may be assured there lives no human being that can take you out of your slavery." After saying this he became enflamed at her and, knowing that he could not get away with killing her, grabbed up her oldest son and threw him across the room. This was one of the worst outrages against her and this time had harmed her little boy as his way of venting his anger. These, along with all the other numerous accounts of hostility and violence against her, are all events in her life that determined for her that change must be made. She would do everything in her power to make sure that did not allow her children to be brought up in this cruel, inhuman lifestyle that she grew up in.
It is interesting that all theses sort of things can take place in what is often called the "Southern bliss" way of life. "It’s all in the southern charm," they would say concerning the way things were done back then. Although it’s true that there were slaves that did not live as badly as Harriet Jacobs’ slave narrative depicts, many a slave did endure similar hardships.
Just as Harriet Jacob endured many a hardship through her slavery, this is another that stands out in literature as one who took his hardships used them as a catalyst to better himself. This man is Olaudah Equiano(or as his close friends would have known him, Gustavus Vassa). He is a man who, and many are still debating this, chose to turn his "slavery experiences" into monetary profit. I think it would be fair to say that Mr. Olaudah did not have the same slave experience, as did Mrs. Jacobs. His was more of a so-called prisoner of war that of being born into a local slave culture and grow up with those of his same ethnic background. Whether it is true that he was born in Africa or not, is to me not as important as what he did to better himself because of it. In his dedication at the beginning of the entire narrative, he states the following:
"Permit me, with the greatest deference and respect, to lay at your feet the following genuine narrative; the chief design of which is to excite in your august assemblies a sense of compassion for the miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen."
His desire, whether pure or not, to share this untold story of the "Slave-Trade" system, shows his desire to cause some type of reform and persuade people to think about these issues in a way that would enlighten those not aware of these happenings.
Due to the debate over how much of his "Slave-Trade" narratives are accurate or not, I find myself focusing rather on the belief that extends beyond those issues. That no matter what your circumstance, be it that one is born into slavery, or traded into slavery, if that person is determined to come out the other side a better person because of it, then the hardships were not in vain. By him taking all his experiences of traveling around much of the seas and of his dealings in the different war conflicts between French and the Indians, and sharing it with other readers through the means of documenting it in a book, then we’re the better off for it.
Dover Publications - Book cover & review
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