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Harriet Jacobs

Amber McCool, Vicki Nguyen, H’Linh Siu

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Historical Record

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Life As A Slave
● Her early life
○ Harriet Jacobs was born a slave but did not know until she was 6 years old
○ She loved her first mistress and believed she was kind
○ Once that mistress died she was sold to another master
● Once she was 15 years old
○ Jacobs states that she realized once she was 15 that her master began to ‘ruin her
innocence’
○ He began sexualizing her and constantly telling her that she was his property
○ She felt that she had no place to run and nothing to protect her so she had to listen
to him
○ Jacobs explains how this is just the way of life as a slave, stating “resistance is
hopeless”

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Master and Slave Relationship
● In her early childhood, Jacobs had a kind mistress who promised her mother to
take care of her. She taught Jacobs how to read and write
● In Harriet Jacob’s slave narrative, she describes her relationship with her 2nd
master through telling how she was his property
○ He corrupted her through sexually abusing her while she was entering adolescence
○ He constantly watched over her
○ Everyday he would remind her that she “belonged to him”and swearing that he would “compel her
to submit to him”
○ This changed her previously innocent and happy attitude about life into one which was filled with
fear and sadness
● Masters often had children from slaves
○ Masters would often rape the slaves and have children with them
○ They would then be ashamed of the children and work them just like the other slaves
■ It was not to be discussed
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○ The children may also be killed or sent away where so no one would know
Master and Slave Relationship cont.
● To the masters, owning slaves and treating them as property was a way of life
● The need for power and free work consumed them so much that they convinced
themselves that a race was so inferior to them that they are worthless enough to
be dehumanized
○ Jacobs explains the normality of the unjust situation in her slave narrative in the quote, “Yet few
slaveholders seem to be aware of the widespread moral ruin occasioned by this wicked system.
Their talk is of blighted cotton crops — not of the blight on their children’s souls”

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Resistance to slavery
● In Harriet Jacob’s slave narrative, she expresses her discontent and disgust for
slavery and the way that she was treated.
● She especially shares her opinion on the life as a female slave
○ Beauty is a curse because the beautiful girls would be prayed upon and sexually assaulted and the
wives of the masters would be jealous and treat them even worse
○ “If God has bestowed beauty upon her [a female slave], it will prove her greatest curse.”
● “No pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption
produced by slavery.”
● She also states that she thought of him with hatred and disgust and in her soul she
was against the way she was treated.

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“My soul revolted against the mean tyranny. But where

“ could I turn for protection? No matter whether the


slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress.
In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her
from insult, from violence, or even from death”

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Literary Piece

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Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Ethos “You may believe what I say, for I write only
whereof that I know. I was twenty-one
years in that cage of obscene birds. I can
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observation that slavery is a curse to the
whites as well as to the black. “

“I once saw two beautiful children playing together.


One was a fair white child; the other was her
slave, and also her sister. When I saw them
embracing each other, and heard their joyous
laughter, I turned sadly away from the lovely sight. I
foresaw the inevitable blight that would fall on “The secrets of slavery are concealed
the little slave’s heart. I knew how soon her laughter like those of the Inquisition. My master
would be changed to sighs.” was, to my knowledge, the father of
eleven slaves. But did the mothers dare
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to tell who was the father of their
children? Did the other slaves dare to
PATHOS LoGos allude to it, except in whispers among
themselves? No, indeed! They knew too
well the terrible consequences. . . .”

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Ethos
She provided credibility as she states that she’s speaking through experience and
observations, and also reassuring that she is only speaking of things she know.

● Her testimonies are based on her own struggles that she had to go through also considering the fact that
she’s well educated from when she was young.

She also was unbiased in the topic of slavery.

● She not only focused on Blacks as a victim of slavery but also including the white man and their wives as
victims, describing slavery as a “curse” to whites as well as the blacks.

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Pathos
Harriet Jacobs has created a sense of pathos, emotions, through her narrative by
explaining her experiences.

● She creates a sense of emotion when she speaks about how much she had
appreciated her grandmother for all the things she did to take care of her
when no one else could.
● She connects with the audience with her diction and descriptions.

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Logos
● In Harriet Jacobs narrative, she explains how there are known secrets throughout
the slave community that are not talked about because there are consequences
○ Specifically when there are children of slaves from the masters
○ It is known by the community that the children are of the master but it is seldom discussed because
the masters would punish the slaves
● She also tells us how it is normal for masters to dehumanize their slaves and abuse
them
○ She gives us examples from her point of view and her experience
● Also Jacobs explains in her narrative that although she revolts inside the sexual
abuse done to her, there is nothing she can do to stop it because she is trying to
survive
○ She knows that if she fights back then there will be extreme consequences
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Use of religious texts, poetry, formal and educated diction, etc.
“ My mistress had taught me the precepts of God’s: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” “Whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.” But I was her slave, and I suppose she did not recognize me as her neighbor.“

By referencing back to this particular verse in the bible, she was able to show the contradiction that was
shown in the morals of the white men. She was pointing out a flaw that leaves the reader to think whether the
laws of the bible applies to slaves as well or was it only through the white man’s eyes.

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Abolitionist Treatise

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Serves The Cause of Abolitionism
Harriets Testimony
● “ He told me I was his property, that I must be subject to his will in all things, My soul revolted against
the mean tyranny, But where could I turn for protection?. “
She mentioned that throughout her struggles, there were no laws to protect her and in a sense it’s
calling out for change

● ”there is no shadow of law to protect her from the insult, from violence, or even from death;all these
are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men. The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless,
has no other feelings towards her but those of jealousy and rage. The degradation, the wrongs, the
vices, that grow out of slavery, are more than I can describe. They are greater than you would
willingly believe…”
She voiced out that slavery is an indescribable tragedy that oppresses slave women, it makes them
to be a victim to the wrath of masters wives.

● that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the black. It makes the white fathers cruel and
sensual, the sons violent and licentious. It contaminates the daughters and makes the wives
wretched.”
Slavery didn’t only affect the african americans but also the Whites. It made both race a victim to the
corrupted system.

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Shock Values

“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. I have
myself seen the master of such a household whose head was bowed down in shame,
for it was known in the neighborhood that his daughter had selected one of the meanest
slaves on his plantation to be the father of his first grandchild. She did not make her
advances to her equals nor even to her father’s more intelligent servants. She selected
the most brutalized, over whom her authority could be exercised with less fear of
exposure. Her father,half frantic with rage, sought to revenge himself on the offending
black man, but his daughter, foreseeing the storm that would arrive, had given him free
papers and sent him out of states.
In such cases the infant is smothered or sent where it is never seen by any who
know its history.”

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Establishes a Specific Portrayal of Slaveholders
Throughout her life, Harriet Jacobs described the different mistresses and masters she served.

Childhood - In her childhood life from her autobiography, the mistress that she served showed her
great kindness in looking after her from the ages of 6 to 12 after the death of her mother.

Girlhood - Around the age of 14-15 she started experiencing sexual abuse. Her master gave her a
constant reminder that she was property. He was cruel and unmerciful.

Although her mistress from her early life showed kindness, in the end she didn’t even free Harriet and
this makes her no different than any other slaveholders who simply view slaves as property.

Through her autobiography and testimonies, she wrote about the behaviors of slaveholder that
were corrupted by the slave system.
● “The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless, has no other feelings towards her but those of jealousy and
rage.”
● “It makes the white fathers cruel and sensual, the sons violent and licentious. It contaminates the daughters and
makes the wives wretched.”

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[Auto]biography

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1. Biographical elements
In the excerpt from Harriet Jacobs narrative, biographical elements that are
shown;

1. First person point of view


Ex; I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy
childhood had passed away.
2. Develops an understanding of the places, times, events, and other people
when the person lived

Ex. (Father) My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent


and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line
were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head
workman.

Ex. (Mistress) While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell;
and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I bless
her memory. 20
1. Biographical
elements
3. Tells the story in a style and tone that the reader/listener can relate to the person
and believe in their humanness
○ “I was sent to spend a week with my grandmother. I was now old enough
to begin to think of the future; and again and again I asked myself what
they would do with me.”
The use of biographical elements in this narrative becomes important because it gives
into her point of view and her experiences.

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2.
Quest for
Freedom &
Identity ● Harriet Jacobs speaks about her experiences growing up. In her narrative
she states that with in the years she was a slave, she didn’t know that she
was one until she was six years old.

● She found love in many people during her childhood as a slave.


○ “She lived with her grandmother in much of her younger years and
was cared for by her mistress. My mistress was so kind to me that I
was always glad to do her bidding, and proud to labor for her as much
as my young years would permit. I would sit by her side for hours,
sewing diligently, with a heart as free from care as that of any
free-born white child.”

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2. Quest for Identity &
Freedom
● In her teen years of being a slave, she experienced many wrongings within society.
○ “My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I could not
remain ignorant of their import [meaning]. I tried to treat them with indifference or
contempt. . . He tried his utmost to corrupt the pure principles my grandmother
had instilled.”
○ “I was twenty-one years in that cage of obscene birds. I can testify from my own
experience and observation that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the
blacks. It makes the white fathers cruel and sensual, the sons violent and
licentious. It contaminates the daughters and makes the wives wretched. And as
for the colored race, it needs an abler pen than mine to describe the extremity of
their sufferings, the depth of their degradation.”

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