Patrick Bauer
11/9/15
HIST-105-519
Harriet Jacobs Essay
In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Jacobs’ tells of the many trails and hard experiences that the average slave goes through from day to day. From malicious punishments to extreme acts of hatred we see the treatment that African-Americans were subject to as they spent their lives in servitude to the slaveholders. These actions of the southern slaveholders are personified in this book by the first person account of Jacobs’ as the slave-girl Linda who she uses to help us better understand and imagine the hardships that she and other slaves had to fight through.
The many accounts of Linda experiences paint a vivid picture of what African-Americans life …show more content…
While northerners didn’t particularly approve of the institution of slavery when it came to blacks actually being in the north they weren’t totally welcomed with open arms. “Yet when victims make their escape from this wild beast of Slavery, northerners consent to act the part of bloodhounds, and hunt the poor fugitive back into his den, ‘full of dead men 's bones, and all uncleanness.’” (Jacobs 56) The perception that freedom awaits in the north for blacks had been manipulated here by white slave owners who are attempting at creating this undesirable image of the north. The fact is that even with this manipulation blacks would rather take a chance on going north because the notion of truly being free from the rule of any person weighs so heavy on their mind. This whole conflict between blacks and the institution of slavery which is controlled by white landowners can be concluded with a talk about the reasons why the Civil War broke out. While I feel like slavery was a part of the equation don’t think it was the sole reason for the war. A mixture of economic relations and pride poses an interesting cause for war. Both differed greatly in the area of how they produced goods with one being free paid labor and the other forcible labor. This difference I believe created a feeling of pride in the north and south that they had to protect and keep going. To me this very pride is what added to the mix of the opinion on the institution of slavery to create two sides that were ready to take down the other in the name of proving that they and their views would overcome the other
11/9/15
HIST-105-519
Harriet Jacobs Essay
In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Jacobs’ tells of the many trails and hard experiences that the average slave goes through from day to day. From malicious punishments to extreme acts of hatred we see the treatment that African-Americans were subject to as they spent their lives in servitude to the slaveholders. These actions of the southern slaveholders are personified in this book by the first person account of Jacobs’ as the slave-girl Linda who she uses to help us better understand and imagine the hardships that she and other slaves had to fight through.
The many accounts of Linda experiences paint a vivid picture of what African-Americans life …show more content…
While northerners didn’t particularly approve of the institution of slavery when it came to blacks actually being in the north they weren’t totally welcomed with open arms. “Yet when victims make their escape from this wild beast of Slavery, northerners consent to act the part of bloodhounds, and hunt the poor fugitive back into his den, ‘full of dead men 's bones, and all uncleanness.’” (Jacobs 56) The perception that freedom awaits in the north for blacks had been manipulated here by white slave owners who are attempting at creating this undesirable image of the north. The fact is that even with this manipulation blacks would rather take a chance on going north because the notion of truly being free from the rule of any person weighs so heavy on their mind. This whole conflict between blacks and the institution of slavery which is controlled by white landowners can be concluded with a talk about the reasons why the Civil War broke out. While I feel like slavery was a part of the equation don’t think it was the sole reason for the war. A mixture of economic relations and pride poses an interesting cause for war. Both differed greatly in the area of how they produced goods with one being free paid labor and the other forcible labor. This difference I believe created a feeling of pride in the north and south that they had to protect and keep going. To me this very pride is what added to the mix of the opinion on the institution of slavery to create two sides that were ready to take down the other in the name of proving that they and their views would overcome the other