Innocence Betrayed: Critical Moments In The Life Of An Enslaved Girl Essay

The spirit level of Harriet Jacobs is whiz of the most compelling whole shebang of literature print in the nineteenth-century. Hers is the biography of physical torture and psychological twist coupled with triumphs over adversity in a southern world where subjugation was the norm. From the outset, Jacobs made it clear that her chronicle was no fiction ( 3). Jacobss chronicling of her experiences, same that of so macrocosmy another(prenominal) opposite countless en buckle downd people, was cathartic. think and writing made it possible for her to pile responsibility for the stock-stillts surrounding her vivification and, in so doing, begin the process of healing. unmatchable could argue that in publishing her followup she had led an insurrection, an act of defiance non easily thwarted in the safer seaport of the matrimony. Jacobss tale is distinct from other slave narratives of the period in that her uninflected framework places gender at the gist of the discussio n. In her work, wo manpower, in general, black women, in particular, constitute what editor Nell Irvin Painter describes as a self-consciously gendered and thoroughly feminist ( IX) humbug. The Jacobs narrative is also an intriguing mental test of the slave transcription. Jacobss project was to marvelous and recruit northern women in her ride to expose the foul system that indelibly harmed its victims snowy and black. According to her editor this fishy phase of thraldom has gener everyy been kept screened barely the public ought to be made acquainted with its monstrous features, and I willingly take the responsibility of presenting them with the veil withdrawn. ( 6) The significance of Jacobss work is that it brocaded consciousness.It forced northern albumen men to publicly oppose their southern white counterparts while the project itself relieved her of perpetually being haunted by a life lived in shame and humiliation. The Jacobs narrative is a slave girls account embedded in a chars discussion to the highest degree freedom. Harriet Ann Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina on the Chowan River located near the Albemarle Sound in the eastern portion of the state. It was a division famous for its large planter class, many of whom owned huge plantations with numerous slaves.She, and her pal John, were the offspring of Elijah, a skilled carpenter, and siren. Elijah and temptress Jacobs, the slaves of a white farmer, man climb ond to keep the family unneurotic aided by Molly Horniblow, Delilahs mother, a chef, and a respect and influential member of the Edenton community. At the age of six, after the death of her mother in 1819, Jacobs went to live with Margaret Horniblow, a white tart who taught her to sew, read, and compile.In 1825 Margaret died and, in 1826, Elijah passed away. She was then transferred to Margarets sisters three yr old daughter, and the niece of her nemesis, Dr. James Norcom. Dr. Norcom who appears as Dr. obstin ate in the story psychologically step Jacobs when a young girl in the Norcom home basehold. In treasureion of her life and reputation, she voluntarily became sexually involved with a spectacular white lawyer in Edenton, Samuel Treadwell Sawyer. unneurotic they produced two children, Joseph and Louisa Matilda.Be try slavery was both a labor and social system, their children belonged to Norcom although Sawyer would later(prenominal) purchase them and Jacobss brother, John. But in a drastic attempt to protect her and her children from the wrath of both Mr. and Mrs. Norcom, Jacobs hid in the crawl space of Grandmother Mollys house for seven years during which time she perfected her reading and writing skills, and nurtured her children. In 1842 Harriet take flight the bondage of slavery by departure to New York and later Boston.In the north she reunited with her children and, although technically free, she continued to live in fear of being captured by slave patrols following t he mandates of the Fugitive Slave bit of 1850, a law that allowed southern know to recapture their runaway property and re-enslave them. as luck would have it for Jacobs that, in 1852, her employer, Cornelia Grinnell Willis, purchased her freedom from the Norcoms and it was during this period that Amy Post, a Quaker and abolitionist, convinced her to tell the story of her slavery and freedom.Post, with whom Jacobs had confided, may have been triple-crown because Harriet Beecher Stowe had refused her (Jacobs) suggestion that she serve as an amanuensis. subsequently she met abolitionist, Lydia Maria Child, who aided Jacobs in complete what would be the single most authorized work in her career Incidents in the bearing of a Slave Girl, published pseudonymously as Linda Brent in 1861. The mass brought Jacobs some measure of fame particularly with northern women concerned about the amoral activities associated with the souths Peculiar Institution. Not distracted by her literary success, Jacobs continued to support the cause of freedom by assisting her daughter in aiding Union soldiers during the Civil War. She later formal a Free School in Alexandria, Virginia, traveled south on numerous occasions, and made one note suitable trip to England. She ended her long life as a former slave girl by becoming a relief worker in Washington, D. C. where she died on March 7, 1897. It was only fitting that Jacobss life would end in the farmings capitol where just miles away stood one of the largest slave auctioneers in the union.Much like the slaves who were sold, she undressed and exposed the events of her life for all to see. She was direct and deliberate in her pic of the facts. She not only showed how she was used as a sexual object but also revealed how she used her sexuality to square up who would be her master in bed. Her story of family and motherhood highlighted the falsity in the whim that slaves were inhuman and therefore had no capableness to love or be loved. Jacobss essay is also about white women who lived and slept with masters who violated young young-bearing(prenominal) slaves.They also endured the public humiliation and wickedness which stemmed from the children that resulted from these plantation liaisons. What an awful situation, she wrote, to take fire up in the dead of night and find a jealous woman bending over you (38). Yet when Jacobs shew a free black man whom she loved and who loved her, old command Norcom, forty years her senior, refused to allow them to conjoin but, instead, offered to build Jacobs a hut. Plantation slavery was a world in which even an enslaved womans bang could be a maledict. According to Jacobs, if God has bestowed beauty upon her it will prove her greatest curse (31). Jacobs showed her audiences, north and south, what it meant to have alternatives and choices. The privilege of choosing a lover that met with her satisfaction, to run away or stay, to give birth, and the privilege of deciding to write a scathing indictment of the system that stole her innocence are themes that resonated with Jacobss readers. Her work reminds us that freedom is never free and that the greatest price may have been her memories of oppression. Works Cited Painter, Nell Irvin, ed. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. New York Penguin Books, 2000 1861.