Differences From Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

Slavery has always been one of the most debated subjects in history. It was first introduced to America when the Europeans brought over the first African slaves to Virginia, in the early 1600s, to work on the production of crops. Some would say that slavery began in days when pirates first came about, where they would offer the people they took capture for sale. Although, others could argue that it went back as far as the Roman times, where people were work for the emperor. The main difference is that the slavery in the South was an obvious race issue where white people owned black people, which then turned even more racial after the ideas of Civil Rights. Depending on the person, slavery has different definitions. One is ‘excessive dependence …show more content…
When you are born into a particular lifestyle you accept it to be the only way that you know. In excepts from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, the author tells about her emotional and physical struggles as a slave child born into slavery into maturity. Jacobs informs her readers that for slaves, everyday routines rested on the gender of the slave. An enslaved man of right age was useful for labor work within unbearable conditions as the scolding Southern heat, and enslaved women have been obligated to do love ones work like sew and giving care to their master 's kids. For the majority of the time, young enslaved girl are made to do trivial things in the household, like fetching drinks and food for their masters, and cleansing up after meals; however, as they mature, their responsibilities also grows larger. There was no respect given to any slave and therefore kinship was found challenging to keep hold of because of the insensitive and heartless treatment of, or lack of, the masters. The most devastating day for slaves, was Hiring Day, because slave merchants would invite traders to come to the plantations to purchase slaves to sell to different slaveholders. Many enslaved men and women soon found slavery as a normal way of life as it went on for so long, but this was not the same for a decent-looking young slave girl over the age of fourteen. These girls would be the entertainers for these traders, as the girls would be forced to please them in any way they wished. This demoralization would test the willpower and self-control of young slave girls, as well as some enslaved men and women that were powerless to stop it. During this time many slaves had turned to religion as a strength mechanism and also as a path to freedom in respect to looking forward to the afterlife. Although, when slaves had been violated by their masters, they thought that God