In the narrative Incidents in the Life of a Save Girl the author Harriet Jacobs assumed the pseudonym Linda Brent, and wrote what has become one of the most powerful narratives of slavery from a female perspective. Jacobs was so determined to let the world know her dehumanizing experiences as a slave girl. In doing so, Jacobs’ female-oriented view limited her examination of slavery, because she was so fixated on herself as a slave girl that her narrative was more about her experience rather than slavery as a whole. Jacobs explained to the reader that slavery was far more terrible for women because not only did they endure the horrors and brutalities as enslaved men, women bore the added horror of being separated from their children. She also
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When she is fourteen or fifteen, her owner, or his sons, or the overseer, or perhaps all of them, begin to bribe her with presents. If these fail to accomplish their …show more content…
And while Douglas’ narrative revolves around the fight for freedom for any and all slaves, Jacobs’ narrative revolves around herself and her family’s freedom. Jacobs view of slavery is limited so much that compared to Douglas’ narrative where he is not emotionally attached to his family and writes for slavery as a whole, Jacobs’ narrative was very lost, and more personal because she wanted to save her children. Speaking to the women of the north Jacobs’ states “But, O, ye happy women, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely!” From this quote Jacobs is focused mainly on the free white women and telling them that slave girls have a different set of choices from them, and none of them are particularly appealing. She says how their virginity was kept away from any man as a child and how they have their own homes to live freely in protected by the law, meanwhile the slave girls get raped as children, have no property what so ever to call theirs that is protected by the law, and how overall that slavery for women is one of the worse things to ever happen. She writes to the
When she is fourteen or fifteen, her owner, or his sons, or the overseer, or perhaps all of them, begin to bribe her with presents. If these fail to accomplish their …show more content…
And while Douglas’ narrative revolves around the fight for freedom for any and all slaves, Jacobs’ narrative revolves around herself and her family’s freedom. Jacobs view of slavery is limited so much that compared to Douglas’ narrative where he is not emotionally attached to his family and writes for slavery as a whole, Jacobs’ narrative was very lost, and more personal because she wanted to save her children. Speaking to the women of the north Jacobs’ states “But, O, ye happy women, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely!” From this quote Jacobs is focused mainly on the free white women and telling them that slave girls have a different set of choices from them, and none of them are particularly appealing. She says how their virginity was kept away from any man as a child and how they have their own homes to live freely in protected by the law, meanwhile the slave girls get raped as children, have no property what so ever to call theirs that is protected by the law, and how overall that slavery for women is one of the worse things to ever happen. She writes to the