Incidents In The Life A Slave Girl Analysis

The extent of the horrors of slavery in the history of The United States and the reality and values of white supremacy which fueled the terrible acts against fellow human beings right to life was in turn fueled by extreme ignorance and lack of moral conviction. In reading Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl, the reader receives true insight into just how extreme and sick minded slave owners really were. Readers can see just how horrific slaves were treated, how they were considered by their “masters” to be nothing but animals, sometimes even less than that sometimes. White Supremacy is just an idea, ideas are nothing tangible but they have the power to destroy and oppress. By looking at Runaway slave ads armed with information and documents …show more content…
This ad was written in such a nonchalant manner, owning slaves, and the fatal and ignorant idea of white supremacy was normal behavior. “These runaway slave ads were naturalized and part of the ‘normative gaze’. Society saw blacks as less than human and regarded such ads as ordinary.” (Sanchez “Setting the Background”) Harry was even described in a manner livestock would be described. This made me immediately think of a quote from Unchained Memories from the slave woman Sarah Francis Shaw Graves where she states, “Times don’t change, just the livestock”.
There is definitely much being hidden in this ad. There is a back story that is being hidden. In Jacob’s book, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, after our protagonist decided to run away from her master and his cruel abuse of her and her family, there are many threats made but also many lies told indicating to Linda that if she would only return she would not be held as a slave, which, knowing Dr. Flint and his jealous and vengeful acts against Linda we can safely assume were lies. “She has been very ungrateful for all my kindness, but I forgive her and want to act the part of a friend towards her. I have no wish to hold her as a slave.” (Jacobs 197) The runaway slave ad …show more content…
We are taught about slavery in school growing up but our attention is not brought to the horrors of slavery. Instead, it is treated like a skeleton in the closet of our history. It 's there but we avoid the subject. Jacobs’s novel is important. Not only does it show the strength and courage and hard life of a truly amazing and inspirational woman but it educates us and gives us a glimpse on what slave like was like and how slave owners really were. It gives us insight into the unique suffering of slave women who were “superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs and sufferings and mortifications peculiarly their own” (Jacobs 119). Though Jacobs claims that “no pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery.” (Jacobs 79), I feel Jacobs has. In her description she simply explained what happened she told the truth behind a human injustice. True ethnocentrism and any notion of superiority cannot be overcome until it is discussed and until people are educated on the