She sets herself at the same spectrum of social hierarchy as the slaves because she feels so attached to helping them, that she is suffering right along them, not in the same way, but she is still suffering. This exemplifies the fact that slavery affects more than just the lives of slaves.
Although Kemble was a slaveholder’s wife, she didn’t act like Mrs. Flint, but instead tried to help her slaves by talking to them and making sure they were being treated in the best way possible. She describes a situation where the slave “affirmed that she had been flogged for what she told me, none of the whole company in the room denying it, or contradicting her. I left the room, because I was so disgusted and indignant, that I could hardly restrain my …show more content…
The slave girl exclaims to Mrs. Kemble that she had no time to keep the children in the infirmary clean. Soon enough Kemble’s husband finds out and flogs the slave girl as punishment for not only confiding in Mrs. Kemble, but for not keeping up for her work as well. Kemble feels helpless and disgusted by what happened because she is also guilty for helping the girl in the first place. She ends by saying that expressing her feelings to her husband would end with “no single good result,” such as being responsible for another beaten slave, or being in a fight with her husband. This is an example of how she never openly felt empathy for the slaves because of her husband; she was forced to hide her true feelings and instead live as a submissive slaveholder’s wife much like the wives Jacobs and Larson mention. Catherine Clinton also touches on this subject in her article "Fanny Kemble 's Journal: A Woman Confronts Slavery on a Georgia Plantation" when she states, “Kemble was not only a writer concerned with the inhumanity of slave owners toward slaves, but also a woman struggling against the patriarchal prerogatives within her society” (74). For example, Kemble’s role as a wife disallowed her to stand up to her husband for the slaves because he was
Although Kemble was a slaveholder’s wife, she didn’t act like Mrs. Flint, but instead tried to help her slaves by talking to them and making sure they were being treated in the best way possible. She describes a situation where the slave “affirmed that she had been flogged for what she told me, none of the whole company in the room denying it, or contradicting her. I left the room, because I was so disgusted and indignant, that I could hardly restrain my …show more content…
The slave girl exclaims to Mrs. Kemble that she had no time to keep the children in the infirmary clean. Soon enough Kemble’s husband finds out and flogs the slave girl as punishment for not only confiding in Mrs. Kemble, but for not keeping up for her work as well. Kemble feels helpless and disgusted by what happened because she is also guilty for helping the girl in the first place. She ends by saying that expressing her feelings to her husband would end with “no single good result,” such as being responsible for another beaten slave, or being in a fight with her husband. This is an example of how she never openly felt empathy for the slaves because of her husband; she was forced to hide her true feelings and instead live as a submissive slaveholder’s wife much like the wives Jacobs and Larson mention. Catherine Clinton also touches on this subject in her article "Fanny Kemble 's Journal: A Woman Confronts Slavery on a Georgia Plantation" when she states, “Kemble was not only a writer concerned with the inhumanity of slave owners toward slaves, but also a woman struggling against the patriarchal prerogatives within her society” (74). For example, Kemble’s role as a wife disallowed her to stand up to her husband for the slaves because he was