Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Essay

Harriet Jacobs managed to escape from slavery and by risking her life, she made a writing regarding her challenges as a fugitive in the North and a house servant in the South. Harriet's work entitled "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" explicates the real accounts of the horrifying slavery held for women and the untold evils that have been kept away from the public. Despite the fact that Harriet mainly authored about suppression owing to race, she also described how men put women under captivity regardless of their color which was largely stimulated by the patriarchal society that existed in the 19th century. Interestingly, this type of bondage was not only imposed on women by their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands but also by fellow women who accepted it and created cages which held the slaves in captivity. …show more content…
The attributes were divided into four virtues including domesticity, submissiveness, purity, and piety. Linda Brent, the main character meets a significant number of women in her entire life but they do not fit the mold of a true woman. There are several women characters that help Linda escape but according to the stated values, they fail to qualify however much they try to create a true women picture. By this, Harriet shows that it is impossible for a woman to meet the expected ideals. In fact, Harriet celebrates the features that deny all women traits of a true womanhood who help her escape the ordeal. For instance, Linda's grandmother is religious, which makes Linda fear, respect and love her. However, her grandmother lacks submissiveness hence disqualifying her from being a true woman. The grandmother advises Linda to submit to her master as a slave. On the other hand, Aunt Martha seems to be pure due to her strong religious convictions that would not allow her to even get involved in love