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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
Harriet Jacobs wrote the
story of her life of enslavement, mistreatment, confinement and eventual
freedom shortly after the end of the Civil War. This 5 page paper
argues that Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl was intended to be
read as a slave narrative and, as such to provide a historical
documentation of what the reality of slavery entailed - at least for a
young woman. It is also a political manifesto in that it argues that
the realities of slavery were not much different from the Northern
social norms of segregation. No additional sources are listed.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_KTlfslve.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
A Slave Girl was intended to be read as a slave narrative and, as such to provide a historical documentation of what the reality of slavery entailed - at least
for a young woman. It is also a political manifesto in that it argues that the realities of slavery were not much different from the Northern social norms of
segregation. Her story is at once a confession and a history of a child taught a set of family values and morals and how these had to be set
aside in order to maintain a modicum of self-worth and dignity under the constraints (legal and social) of slavery. Because she is a slave, virtue is criminalized.
The chapter "Still in Prison" uses imagery that addresses the irony of Jacobs freedom as a prisoner in her grandmothers garret. She was imprisoned, "yet the laws allowed him
(her owner) to be out in the free air, while I, guiltless of crime, was pent up here, as the only means of avoiding the cruelties the laws allowed him
to inflict upon me!" (121). Her actions to protect herself, her moral beliefs and her family against Flints rape attempts can be deemed criminal by Flint. Following the
birth of her child, she describes his outburst in legal terminology: "Then he launched out upon his usual themes, - my crimes against him, and my ingratitude for his forbearance.
The laws were laid down to me anew, and I was dismissed" (61). By this it can be seen that she, at least in part, is directing her narrative
toward the legal system as it emerged from the Civil War, hoping to influence it toward change. She attempts to do so by providing a description that has
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