Harriet Jacobs and the Fight for Freedom

Lacy J. Rowan 

6th March, 2017 

American Literature 

Essay #2- Arguments about Slavery 

Harriet Jacobs and the Fight for Freedom 

In Frederick Douglass' speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” he asks the question of who is entitled to liberty. I believe that Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" answers the question of weather or not man is entitled to liberty though her own personal experience being a slave. 

Jacobs is able to provide a perspective of life as a slave by using pathos and personal stories told from her own perspective. She is able to describe how it feels to be both a free and owned person because she didn’t know she was a slave until she was six years old. She is also able to use pathos to make the reader empathize with her experience as a slave. Furthermore, she describes the dehumanization that occurred with the slavery. Slave owners viewed them as commodities rather than real people. She writes "These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend" (924). During this time period, a main argument for why slavery should not be abolished was that they were an economic system. Plantation owners made lots of money off of the work of slaves who would never receive a reward for their efforts, granted a decent place to sleep. The exploitation of slaves is an embarrassing mark on our history today, but at the time it was a highly debated topic. Jacobs' writing brings to light just how inhumanly slaves were treated and the hardships they went through. 

Jacobs writes about her personal experiences and how even the things we would see as an inherent right, were off limits to her. Because to add to the dehumanization of slaves, she was also not allowed to be with the man she loved. He was free but even if they were allowed to marry, he wouldn’t be able to legally claim her as his own. Not only did the law prevent them from being together, but the man who ran the plantation, Mr. Flint had taken a liking to Jacobs and often pursued her. At one point, he asked if she loved the man and when she responded yes, he said "I supposed you thought more of yourself; that you felt above the insults of such puppies" to which Jacobs responded "If he is a puppy I am a puppy, for we are both of the negro race. It is right and honorable for us to love each other" (926). Not only were slaves not treated as human, they weren't even referred to as human, only adding to the humiliation. Slave owners thought that slaves were not like caucasians, and therefore didn’t feel love like they did. A relationship between two slaves was seen as a commodity than a loving relationship. Mr. Flint suggested that she marry one of his slaves, to which she objected, showing that not even love is sacred in slavery. Not only did Jacobs not return Flint's feelings and grew to hate him, his wife, Mrs. Flint didn’t care much for Harriet Jacobs due to all the attention she was getting from her husband. Although Jacobs wasn’t allowed to marry her true love and she urged him to go to the free states and leave her behind, she held on to the hope that things may get better. There were ways to escape this horrific reality she was in, but none such methods have worked. Both her father and grandmother had tried frivolously to buy her. Jacobs write that her father's "strongest wish was to purchase his children" (922). To think that people had to purchase the children that they produced, is quite baffling. The fact that her father couldnt even buy his children, just shows how much they were treated as objects rather than people. Jacobs is able to illustrate that life as an African American was not a fair one at the time. Even though her father and grandmother worked hard to try and save her from a life of slavery, they still proved unsuccessful. They had tried to help give her a better life. But it was to no avail. Nevertheless, she tried to maintain a positive attitude and hope that there may come a day where her freedom is granted. 

While Harriet Jacobs was able to maintain a positive outlook considering her current situation, the effects of slavery and the treatment she received from others began to take its toll. Though Mr. Flint's relentless and seemingly endless pursuit of Jacobs, he tried to break down her spirits. To take that last spark of hope away from her. She writes "For years, my master had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated by my grandmother, and the good mistress of my childhood" (929). Mr. Flint's attempts to corrupt Jacobs did not prove fruitless. Although she remained fairly positive and realized that she was better off than other slaves, she was still affected by the hardships of slavery. She writes "The influences of slavery had the same effect on me that they had on other young girls; they had made me prematurely knowing, concerning the evil ways of the world (929). Mr. Flint's relentless pursuits of Jacobs was an example of a bigger underlying problem. In this time, sexual assault was not only tolerated, but a benefit to a slaveholder. If a woman in his custody had a baby, that baby is a slave they don’t have to pay for. Another great example of the objectification of slaves. Perhaps the awareness of the evil in the world made her more likely to welcome the good. Shortly after her lover leaves to go to the free states, Jacobs begins conversing with another man. He knows her grandmother and is a free, white, unmarried man. Although Jacobs was only fifteen, he expressed great interest in her and wished to help her. Over time, they were able to converse more and more often and she began to fall for the man with whom she ended up having two children with while still in slavery. 

Although Jacobs' spirit was at times broken, she maintained her strength through her drive to protect her children. She was able to escape from the Flint plantation and hide in her grandmothers house. There was a narrow crawl space beneath the roof of her house and Jacobs remained there for a speculated seven years. While in the crawl space, she was able to overhear conversations being had of plans to capture escaped slaves as well as speculations about Jacobs' hiding location. She writes that it was mostly believed that she was in the free states and that no one suspected her grandmother's house. She was able to hear and see her children every one in a while, but could not so much as speak to them. They also didn't know where their mother was and Dr. Flint and his family often tried to bribe them for information they did not have about their mother. After several years, she learns that Dr. Flint is dead. Jacobs writes that she thought herself to be a better Christian saying that "I cannot say, with truth, that the news of my old masters death softened my feelings towards him. There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury. The man was odious to me while he lived, and his memory is odious to me now" (937). Even with the passing of Dr. Flint, Jacobs was not free, and although she held the resentment for him, she wanted nothing more than a life for her and her children. After some time, She is sold through a friend of her lover. She becomes a free woman from this sale, as do her children. She writes "A human being sold in the free city of New York! The bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the nineteenth century of the Christian religion" (940). Even at the time of writing where she was free and slavery was not yet abolished, she predicted that one day it might be. That one day slavery will be a stain on American history and an unbelievable one at that. Fredrick Douglass' speech about who is entitled to freedom is supported by Harriet Jacobs' writing as it shows the lack of freedom, personal liberty, and objectification that the slaves experienced. 

Works Cited 

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. Vol. B. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 920-42. Print.