Response Paper on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl According to the encyclopedia Merriam Webster, slavery is a condition in which one human being is owned by another. However, we can define slavery as an institution and holocaust that has been set in place by insecure and greedy individuals with inhuman desire to physically and morally use and abuse other human beings to acquire wealth and status in the society. In her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs autobiographically writes about her family and friends’ slavery journeys as well as hers in the South of America. Going through Jacobs’s memoir helped me see slavery from a slave’s perspective, but it made me question religion and the capacity of slaves to measure immorality. It is more than pleasant and cheerful to read the story of a slave girl written by the slave girl in question.
A perfect example of this is when Mrs. Auld is told that if Douglass learns he will no longer be useful as a slave, at this time in the book she began to turn very mean and cruel towards her slaves and treating them more like property instead of being somewhat generous as before. Frederick’s family was forced to struggle through the hard times, and had to live a very unusual life, for example: Frederick’s mother was sold to another slave family so it was very hard for Frederick to see his mother, and eventually she passed away when Frederick was seven, although he didn’t seem very effected. Frederick also ends up proving that Covey was extremely two faced by bring up a very valid point, which was owning slaves was unnatural and unchristian like. As for Frederick’s Grandmother, that truly opened his eyes as to how these slave owners really feel about you, regardless as for what you do. She served her masters for years and then when she grew too old to serve them they just tossed her out like a piece of trash and left her for dead.
Equiano was kidnapped with his sister when he was eleven-years-old and sold into slavery. Hurrem was also captured when Tartar raiders took Rogatin and given as a gift to Suleiman on the occasion of his accession to the throne. They both overcame their slave status and became well known to others. Equiano purchased his freedom with money from his owner and Hurrem became Suleigman’s legal wife. They were very fortunate compared to other slaves in that time.
Is Oroonoko a story about race and slavery, or is it primarily a story about social class? Support your answer with reference to, and close reading of, the text. Oroonoko is a short story, which is believed to be an anti-slavery act but it is not believed that write Behn was against slavery, is one of how an African price and his wife tragically fall into slavery and brought to a place named Surinam as slaves. The story describes how the couple are promised freedom several times yet constantly let down. Narrated by a British woman, who later flees during a revolt continues to tell of the account she has received first hand of how the prince and his wife were separated by slavery but yet, were brought back together as a result of it.
Phillis Wheatley’s Second Chance Many of us have heard the horrific stories of the slaves during 1700-1820, but what many have not heard is the story of those who were lucky enough to get a second chance. No matter the circumstances behind it; for Phyllis Wheatley her second chance came when she was around the age of seven years old when she was sold to John and Susanne Wheatley of Boston July 11, 1761. Wheatley’s biological name and definite age, sadly enough was never known but her birth date is suspected of being around 1753-1755. Wheatley later becomes known as the Slave Poet of Colonial American, in which will never be forgotten. She was transported to America from her homeland of Gambia, Africa on a ship titled, The Phillis; were her name is thought to have derived from.
Her parents were both slaves, but her grandmother had been emancipated and owned her own home, earning a living as a baker. When Jacobs was six years old, her mother died, and she was sent to the home of her mother's mistress, Margaret Horniblow. Horniblow taught the young Jacobs to read, spell, and sew; she died when Jacobs was eleven or twelve and willed Jacobs to Mary Matilda Norcom, Horniblow's threeyear-old niece. While living in the Norcom household, Jacobs suffered the sexual harassment of Dr. James
There are books about the past that allow people to realize the horrible times there have been in the United States. For example, slave narratives. Linda Brent’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a true slave narrative because in her novel, she talks about the hardships during slavery and rebellious experiences of several slaves. Olney states that a slave narrative must include examples of hardships people came across during slavery (Olney 1). In her novel, Brent states that many slaves, including herself, would have preferred to die then to keep living through slavery.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2012 defines role as a function or part performed especially in a particular operation or process (Merriam Webster, 2012). Resistance may be defined as the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument (Merriam-Webster, 2012) and enslavement means the state of being a slave. Essentially, this essay will look at the function or part women played in trying to prevent or their refusal to accept their state of being slaves. Enslaved women went to great extents to secure their freedom. They contributed to the liberation of their families and the wider enslaved community.
Reportedly, on August 20th, approximately twenty slaves aboard a Dutch vessel landed in Jamestown and were then sold or traded into servitude in exchange for other resources; the first slave trade made in the Americas. Two centuries later in the mid 19th century, Harriet Jacobs, an African American woman born into slavery in the South, accounts for her experiences as a slave and the hardships she was forced to face in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The purpose of her writings was to appeal to an audience of white northern women, in hopes of motivating them to participate in the abolitionist movement against slavery. Jacobs emphasizes her point by emotional and physical means, speaking of the hardships she had to face because of her masters, and her separation from her family. The basic description about the life of a slave is that it was very brutal and slaves were treated as property as opposed to normal people, and weren’t even provided the basic rights that someone should be given.
This shows the theme separation of families because Meena was taken from her village when she was a little girl and put away inside a building. The owners of the brothel locked her in and kept a close eye on her. Without warning, Meena was taken away from her family’s arms and put into a strange and overwhelming environment. Another theme that is prevalent in this narrative is dehumanization. This happened a lot in American slavery when the slaves were treated as less than human and more like objects by their masters and overseers.