Throughout history, mulattoes have been highly glorified and fetishized. Slave masters enjoyed having mulattoes in their homes to not only flaunt their wealth and status, but also because they were captivated by their charming beauty. Many masters would cheat on their wives with mulattoes and they, the mulattoes, would in turn end up pregnant. Whether or not the pregnant mulatto was thrown out of the house was up to how strong the master and his wife’s marriage was and the wife’s overall authoritative status in the household. In Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the reader is introduced to Linda Brent, a mulatto who has been a slave for most of her life. She eventually gains freedom by the end of story, but it comes at a painstaking price. She was horribly abused by her master, Dr. Flint, for most of her life and becomes pregnant by him as a young teen. In an attempt to escape from him, she decides that getting pregnant by another white man, named Mr. Sands, is the best suitable means of breaking free. Jacobs depicts whiteness and
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I had a fine head of hair … He cut every hair close to my head, storming and swearing all the time. I replied to some of his abuse, and he struck me. Some months before, he pitched me down stairs in a fit of passion and the injury I received was so serious that I was unable to turn myself in bed for many days (Jacobs 240).
Furthermore, Brent was unable to gain freedom without the help of a white people. Although she asked for Mr. Sands to help, and he agreed to one day, he did not save her and her children. Brent’s freedom was paid for by an unnamed gentleman, but only thanks to Mrs. Bruce. “Mrs. Bruce employed a gentleman in New York to enter into negotiations with Mr. Dodge. He proposed to pay three hundred dollars down, if Mr. Dodge would sell me…” (259). If it was not for Mrs. Bruce and the gentleman, Brent would have never gained her
I had a fine head of hair … He cut every hair close to my head, storming and swearing all the time. I replied to some of his abuse, and he struck me. Some months before, he pitched me down stairs in a fit of passion and the injury I received was so serious that I was unable to turn myself in bed for many days (Jacobs 240).
Furthermore, Brent was unable to gain freedom without the help of a white people. Although she asked for Mr. Sands to help, and he agreed to one day, he did not save her and her children. Brent’s freedom was paid for by an unnamed gentleman, but only thanks to Mrs. Bruce. “Mrs. Bruce employed a gentleman in New York to enter into negotiations with Mr. Dodge. He proposed to pay three hundred dollars down, if Mr. Dodge would sell me…” (259). If it was not for Mrs. Bruce and the gentleman, Brent would have never gained her