Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl free essay sample

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author Harriet Jacobs (also the main character in book), paints a very powerful, and emotion picture of what the institution of Slavery was like for the slave and master in America, and the toll that it took on the human soul. Before reading this book, I was given a list of questions to ponder on while reading. These questions ranged from, compare and contrast survival techniques used by two characters in the book, to was this work difficult to read and understand? After reading the book, I feel that I have a good grasp on the answer to the different questions, and will answer them now. The two characters that I will compare and contrast their survival techniques are Harriet Jacobs, also known as Linda in the book, and her Uncle Benjamin. Linda once said that Benjamin had â€Å"a spirit too bold and daring for a slave† (p. 18). This is very evident in the technique Benjamin uses to survive while being a slave. During one event in the book, Benjamin’s master called for him, and he did not obey his master’s order quickly enough. When Benjamin finally came, â€Å"his master was angry, and began to punish him by whipping him† (p. 19). Benjamin and his master fought and Benjamin threw his master to the ground. At this time in our country it was illegal for a slave to put his hands on his master, and â€Å"that in court his word would not be taken against any white man’s† (p. 93). Benjamin did not care about any laws, because he felt like he should have the benefits of what a free man had during this time. Benjamin felt that he had every right to hit his master, because his master hit him first, and Benjamin was just trying to defend his self. Even if that meant he could be punished by death, Benjamin did not care, because he had too much pride, and also he wanted his freedom. This is where Linda and her Uncle differ. I am not saying, that Linda did not want her freedom, she did. Linda did not understand why she and her fellow brothers and sister had to be a slave. Linda also realizes that she could not solve her problems by getting in physical fights with her master. She knew that she needed to be more cunning than that. Linda knew that if she put her hands on her master, there was nothing anybody could do for her because she would be guilty by the definition of the law at the time. She knew that throwing her master to the ground, could get her in a lot of trouble, and was completely opposite f Benjamin in this regard. When Linda was physically punish by her master for the first time she did not hit him back. She sprung back to her feet and exclaimed, â€Å"you have struck me for answering you honestly. How I despise you! † (p. 36). Linda knew how to play the game. After she got hit, she kept that anger bottled up inside of her, and used it to motivate her. She realized that her master was not her friend and that he will always be the enemy. Another question that I was supposed to answer in this paper was how did men and women experience the institution of slavery differently from each other. The male slaves in the book were whipped more than the women. They also sent male slaves to jail for extended amounts of time. At one point in the book, Linda master sent Benjamin to jail for so long that the â€Å"long confinement had made his face too pale, his form too thin† (p. 23). I can not imagine being locked up in a jail and deprived of sunshine so long that my face turned pale. It had to be terrible for male slaves back then. With that being said, â€Å"slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women† (p. 66). Female slaves on top of being punished with a hard crack of a whip, they had to fear the master trying to rape them and that is something the men did not have to worry about. Linda said that her master â€Å"began to whisper foul words in my ear† (pg. 26), when she was only fifteen years old. Her master was trying to lay the foundation down, so when he felt like taking advantage of her body (rape) he would have already broken her down. Linda could never get away from her master advances; My master met me at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to him, and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to him. If I went out for a breath of fresh air, after a day of unwearied toil, his footsteps dogged me. If I knelt by my mother’s grave, his dark shadow fell on me even there (p. 27). These unwanted advances took a toll on the minds of female slaves. No matter what they did, they could never get away from their master. It had to be a very terrible experience that only female slaves had to deal with. Also, if the female slaves in the book had any children, they had to worry about the master selling their children anytime they wanted to because the children belong to the masters and not the slave parents. I am not saying that male slaves did not care about their children, but women carry their children in their stomachs for nine months, and will always have a greater connection with their children than their father. While reading this book, my heart want out to the female slaves that had to adore such hardships in there life. I could not and will never understand completely what it would be like to have my body taken anytime and my children snatched away from me whenever the master wanted too. It was hard for slaves to make their life meaningful under such harsh conditions, but they did. Many slaves including Linda’s grandmother kept her sprites high by keeping her faith in God. Linda grandmother strived to show Linda that it was â€Å"the will of God: that He had seen fit to place us under such circumstances; and though it seemed hard, we ought to pray for contentment† (p. 17). Linda grandmother always believed that God put her here in this situation for a reason. These slaves did not own anything. They could not own anything because they were property themselves. All they knew in life was slavery. They knew that their great-grandparents were slaves, their grandparents, and parents were slaves also. Master could take anything and everything from them at a drop of a hat, but the one thing that their master could not take from them was their faith in God, and that is why so many slaves put everything thing they had into God. They hoped that one day all of the pain would stop, and they would be seated next to God in heaven, because there had to be a better place for them, than hell on earth. There are two aspects of slavery, which I believe Jacobs to identify as the worst. The two aspects are sexual abuse and having your kids taken away from you. Jacobs says that the sexual abuse starts around the time when a female slave turns fifteen or sixteen years old. She says that the master and his sons, and overseer start to fill the female slave’s minds with evil thoughts. Talking about sex to a female that is so young is criminally wrong, but the master was trying to undo all of the right, that the slave parents instilled in their child. The master hoped that if he filled her mind with nasty thoughts, she would more easily be swayed to give up her body. Jacobs also felt that when slave masters sold their female slave children it also was a terrible experience. In the book, Jacobs describes the experience of seeing a female slave have all eight of her children sold on the slave market in the same day. Linda said that the female slave, who kids were sold at the market, did not have the will to live anymore. Who can blame her for felling like this? This female slave did not only have one of her children sold, but all eight. This has to be a very traumatic experience in a female slave’s life. The women that I have spoken with say that they would rather kill their own children rather then their master sell them into slavery. I can not understand why anybody would ever want to love or be love by somebody under those circumstances. To me, there is no point to ever having children if you were a slave. Another question that I was asked to answer after reading this book was, what impact did the system of slavery have on the self-image and actions of both blacks and whites? There is a passage in the book that explains the impact perfectly: The slave holder’s sons are, of course, vitiated, even while boys, by the unclean influences every where around them. Nor do the master’s daughters always escape. Severe retributions sometimes come upon him for the wrongs he does to the daughters of the slaves. The white daughters early hear their parents quarrelling about some female slave. Their curiosity is excited, and they soon learn the cause. They are attended by the young slave girls whom their father has corrupted; and they hear such talk as should never meet youthful ears, or any other ears. They know that the women slaves are subject to their father’s authority in all things; and in some cases they exercise the same authority over the men slaves (p. 46). The whole system of slavery was a perpetual cycle for both blacks, and whites. The son’s of the master did as his father did, and verbally and sexually abuse the slaves. And the daughter did as the mother did and hate the slaves, especially female slaves, for being the eye of affection for both the master and son. Jealous, greed, and passion filled both races lives at the time, and the people that got hurt the most were the young children, both white and black. It was so much hatred going around from both parties that I do not know how everybody did not just kill each other. I really enjoyed reading this true life book about the institution of slavery. Most often slaves are described in my different history classes I have taken over the years as just that, slaves, when in fact these slaves were human beings. I feel that everybody should read this book, because it paints a vivid picture of the human side of slavery. With that being said, I feel that this book was difficult to read at times, seeing that it was a first person narrative. To often the author would switch points of views speaking and I would be confused. I still would not go as far as saying that I would want the book to be written from a different perspective, because I feel that we as readers would loss some of the up close and personal feel of the book. I also do not feel that the words of the book should be modernized. I feel that when the author used the language of â€Å"back in the day†, you could connect to it more. It actually added to the mental images that I have in my mind. It helped me understand what they were going through more, hearing them talk how they talked back in the day.