In her narrative, Jacobs recounts many "incidents" in her life before she finally obtains freedom. Although she may have left out some of the story, her mistreatment and the mistreatment of others of her race and gender is clear. In Chapter 14, she sums up the crux of her messages when she writes:
"Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Super added to the burden common to all, they have wrongs and sufferings and mortification's peculiarly their own."
The biggest obstacle that Jacobs had to triumph over in her life involved Dr. Flint and his merciless, undesirable sexual molestation of her. Jacobs' narrative centers on the sexual debasement that she as well as many other women slaves had to bear.
She is saying that whether of not they are whipped, starved or worked to death, all female slaves suffer the horrible mental anguish of rape and sexual harassment, as well as the loss of their children. The shame for young girls and women who have been sexually victimized by white men were as difficult to bear as any kind of physical torment and torture, and perhaps even more so. Her message is that the slavery of the American South was a true abomination....to God and to the human beings that He made....All of them.
Cindy I completely agree with you that her quote is the key in understanding why she wrote the piece. In this quote it is evidently clear that Jacobs wrote, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl so that she could tell her story.
ReplyDeleteThere are things that Linda (Harriet) and other slave women can only know, things that men will not be able to understand. Only God knows the things these women went through. No other "male" character could understand. I thinkg that's perhaps why they so relied on God. He is the High King who sees, knows and understands ALL. He was the only "male" figure these women could turn to and find strength in.
I agree with this in some ways. I also feel that Jacobs believes that women had it harder as slaves because she was a woman and a slave. It is kind of a "walk in their shoes type of deal." I am sure that they had it harder in some ways; however, I believe firmly that men still had to take the brunt. Men have this instinct to want to protect and provide, and slave men could do neither. Outside, day after day, I believe that they were just as mentally, physically, and emotionally beaten down by this system as women. Women may have had to deal with the sexual side of these things, but what about the men who had to watch their wives, daughters, sisters or mothers be molested and raped by their masters. What would it do to them? I'm not lessening the intense and repulsive acts that some masters committed. However, I am disagreeing with Jacobs on the grounds that she was never a male slave and, therefore, could not have started to understand what they went though. I believe that slavery was equally as hard and painful on men as it is on women, but they each suffered in their own ways. And in any case, we don't know that some masters did not sexually molest little boys or some women did not force the captive men to have sex with them.
ReplyDeleteSo, in essence, I'm not disagreeing with Linda, but she cannot understand the psyche of men, and men cannot understand the psyche of women (believe me, they try and can't). She cannot, in my opinion, make a claim like that, for what she went through was horrific, but she cannot speak for all men and all women.
I sort of agree with Bethany on this issue because in actuality slave men and slave women experienced different things. The only thing I have to say is that even if slave men were "forced" to have sex with their mistresses, I doubt very seriously that a slave man, who was unmarried, would have a big problem with sleeping with a white woman. In all honesty, I think they could have looked at it as a privilege or treat, being allowed to become intimate with a person they would otherwise be hanged for if they even touched her. Grant it, if these slaves were Christians, they may feel otherwise. But honestly I think it would have been easier for them to just go ahead and do it with the women if they wanted them to.
ReplyDeleteBethany & Emily,
ReplyDeleteI agree in this respect. Being a slave, male or female had its own set of issues. It is correct to say that one cannot know for the other. I think that White men were really the only ones with the power. Women of both colors were pretty helpless, and so were black men.
I believe that slavery did destroy the black family. I believe that it did humiliate and dehumanize the relationship between man and wife, and even fathers and brothers who saw their women treated this way. How could they feel like men when all they felt was what women felt...helpless. That is what a woman who is overpowered feels, and the black man was overpowered.
To this day we are all, black and white, still suffering from the repercussions from slavery.