Slavery: A wicked topic that we don't fully understand

            Two weeks ago, in my American Government and Society Honors class, we were all asked to read one of two books or both of them if we had time.  One of the books was an autobiography of Frederick Douglass, titled, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself.  The second book was another autobiography, but of Harriet Jacobs (pen name Linda Brent), titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself.

            Both of these books are slave narratives and both take place through the 1820s-1840s.  I didn’t have time to read both, so I chose to read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  Reading this book, I learned a lot that I didn’t really know at all before.  Of course, I knew that slaves were treated badly and I knew that women and girl slaves were used for sexual pleasure for their masters at times, but I never realized exactly how bad things were for some slaves.  Reading from an actual account of what Harriet Jacobs went through, I saw through her eyes and words, what life was like for her and how terrible and hard it was for her.  

“Northerners know nothing at all about Slavery.  They think it is perpetual bondage only.  They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, SLAVERY; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown.” – A Woman of North Carolina

            We don’t know how seriously terrible slavery was.  We know it was bad, sure.  But do we really know HOW bad it was?  Do we put ourselves in their shoes and try to imagine what it would be like if it were us who was in slavery?

“Only by experience can anyone realize how deep, and dark and foul is that pit of abominations.” - Harriet Jacobs talking about slavery

            After almost seven years of hiding in a tiny garret above her grandmother’s home, Harriet Jacobs took a step other slaves dared to dream in 1842; she secretly boarded a boat in Edenton, N.C., bound for Philadelphia, New York and, eventually, freedom.  Her flight, and the events leading up to it, are documented in her heart wrenching autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself.

            Jacobs wrote this book in the 1850s but it wasn’t published until 1861, three years before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln, declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the Confederate states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”  Even though Jacobs is living in the North in 1861, life is still a bit of a struggle for her.  Her book was written so she could try 

“…to convince the people of the Free States what slavery really is.” – Harriet Jacobs

During this time, it was unusual for slaves to read and write, so self-publishing a first-hand account of slavery’s atrocities was extraordinary.

The first thing that caught my attention was the first paragraph of the preface. 

“Reader be assured this narrative is no fiction.  I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true.  I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts.”

 

Jacobs starts her autobiography with these boldly stated instructions to her mostly white readers.  Jacob knows that many white northerners would be unwilling to accept her story, so she asserted her authority over her narrative from the start.  It sounds as if Jacobs is commanding her readers to “be assured,” establishing an active and confident narrative voice.  Also, Jacobs is about to make her sexual transgressions public, and she cannot trust genteel readers to be sympathetic.  Therefore, she lets her audience know that whatever their interpretation of her story, she will remain firmly in control of it.

”When he told me that I was made for his use, made to obey his command in everything; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his, never before had my puny arm felt half so strong.”

I love this part.  She realizes that although Dr. Flint has complete and legal authority over her, she still has the power to resist him.  His prodding causes her to erupt into the rebelliousness that defines her character and directs the course of her future.  She has longed to take control of her own destiny and she knows that she will never be able to bear slavery passively, and notes that the “war of [her] life had begun.”  She realizes that although Flint owns her body, she can remain spiritually free.

I think it is important that she has realized this.  She’s not letting her spirit stay in bondage to Dr. Flint.  Even though he has abused her sexually and mentally, she doesn’t make those unfortunate events define who she is.  She believes that she can still make it out of slavery and she has the will power to do it.

            If you have never read this book, then I highly suggest you put it on the top of your list of books to read right now.  It is an amazing piece of literature that provides an eye opener to how horrible slavery really was.