Summary Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Anne Jacobs

In the narrative of Incidents in the life of a slave girl, Harriet Anne Jacobs accounts for all the treacherous moments she experience as being a chattel. She sympathized for all slaves especially those who were women. Women, as she implied, where comparably worthless to a men in the eyes of a plantation owner. They were given smaller portions of food to live off of and constantly separated from their children who they bore and raised. If a women was to have a beautiful face, Jacobs stated, that was to be both a curse and a blessing. This was due to the fact that as a slave women, sometimes they were looked upon by their master or their overseer through eyes of lustfulness. If the women was to be beautiful, then it was nearly impossible for …show more content…
I believe the slaves clung on to their religious beliefs as a coping mechanism of their bondage. Through this they were able to express how they feel while shouting and singing to their God for strength. Their tremendous faith in hopes of a better life or them passing to a better place kept them going throughout the week. Furthermore, I also believe that the love for their children helped. Knowing that they have a responsibility to care and protect a product that they created gave the slaves a sense of purpose of living. This is displayed through Jacob, her sole motivation for hiding and running away was to accomplish the goal of freedom and a better life for her children. Running away was the most prominent thing slaves did to fight against the chains of bondage. They did this in hopes to go to the North which was labeled “free states. Slaves often thought that the north would afford them several opportunities and that would be treated …show more content…
Blacks where treated inferior of whites in almost all aspects. For example, Jacobs went to a place to eat with her employer and she saw firsthand point of view of the unequal treatment coloreds received. The waiting staff would only wait on the whites. In order for Jacobs to have tea, her employer had to give Jacobs her tea and ask for another. Jacobs stated that a waiter said, “I’m not paid to wait on no nigger”. These statements and actions where shocking to Jacobs, especially since the blacks where expected to pay just as much as whites.
Although there was unfair treatments of the blacks, the north proved to show that America was not a slaveholding republic. Jacobs received help and encounter many people who despised the practice of slavery in America. In fact, her employer sought out to help Jacobs escape slavery by shielding her when Jacobs master came to the north looking for her. She later went out of her way to secure Jacobs freedom. This within itself exemplifies how that not all of America believed in slave