Religion In Harriet Jacobs's Life

Throughout Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, the reader is given much insight into Jacobs’ personal thoughts and feelings on matters such as slavery, sin, education, and importantly, religion. Jacobs’s understanding of God and religion goes through an evolution shaped by her own encounters and circumstances as well as of those she held dear. In many instances, Harriet was heavily influenced by her grandmother, a caretaker to the girl for the better part of her young life. Though she learned from both good and bad, Harriet never rebuked her religion. Instead, she recognized the taint of slavery and believed in her own way. One of the most defining recollections of Harriet’s tale is at the beginning, where she mentions that she “was born a slave; but I [sic] never knew it till [sic] six years of happy childhood had passed away” (HJ 1). This one simple sentence allows readers to conjecture that before Harriet was six years old, she lived the life of a normal child. Harriet’s first mistress brought her up with the word of the Lord, teaching her the precepts like the Golden Rule. Soon, however, Harriet came to realize …show more content…
Harriet’s grandmother had spent a greater deal of time under the teachings of the slave church than had Harriet, and possibly came to believe that it was God’s will for slaves to be content in captive servitude. When Benjamin could not sit with the foul institution, grandmother revealed that her faith and patience did not come from her own goodness, but from the goodness of the Lord who helped her bear her burdens (HJ 27). Benjamin counters grandmother’s beliefs with the revelation that in the midst of toil and despair, a slave “forgets there is a God, a heaven…every thing [sic] in his struggle to get beyond the reach of the bloodhounds” (HJ