Harriet Jacobs’ narrative demonstrates the life of a female slave. She is able to recount her life since she was a young woman. The narration highlights events that affected the narrator positively and negatively. These events vary from her escape from her cruel masters to how she ended up crippled for life. People are able to understand the dynamics of the tribulations and challenges that female slaves and slaves in general faced during her time. Frederick Douglas’s narrative demonstrates the life of a slave from a male’s point of view. His narrative is less personal compared to Harriet’s narrative. This is with regard to narrating his feelings at the time of his servitude. Rather, his narrative is a mixture of personal experiences and messages whose aim was to catalyze the freedom of blacks in the society. This is in terms of gaining physical and mental freedom. For instance, his narrative focused on encouraging literacy and embracing true Christianity as opposed to self-approving Christianity that the slave owners practiced.
Both narratives highlight how owning slaves corrupted the nature of the slave owners. Frederick demonstrates this by narrating how his lady owner started out as a kind person. She even volunteered to teach him how to read during his early days in her household. However, this changed with time to a point she would order for her slaves to be whipped until they bled. Harriet’s narrative also demonstrates this through the story of Mr. Sands. He fathered Harriet’s children. It was her hope that he would buy their freedom and free them from servitude. However, she later observed that freeing them was not his intention. She concluded that he could easily sell them if he were to encounter financial problems. This showed that owning slaves trampled even on the basic characteristics of humanity like caring for ones offspring.
The two narratives highlighted the plight of female slaves. Frederick’s narrative highlighted the victimization of women by introducing vivid images of abused female bodies. Such characters include Mary, Henny, Henrietta and Aunt Hester. He enables the readers to visualize bodies of emaciated and mangled bodies. Harriet’s narrative is able to recount the plight of women more vividly compared to Frederick’s narration. For instance, her aunt Nancy was continuously forced to sleep on the floor while pregnant. This resulted in the birth of still babies. Female slaves’ plight was further demonstrated by the sexual harassment they had to endure from their male masters. This was normally followed by separation from their children who were sold as slaves at a young age. On top of that, female slaves had to endure physical beatings that were also subjected to their male counterparts.
Frederick was able to speak about issues from a logical point of view. In this context, logical reflects thinking in a rational manner that was not entangled with any emotional bias. For instance, he was able to figure out that Christianity did not support the brutality of slave owners. This is opposed to what the slave owners believed. He was also able to conclude that it is the ungoverned institution of owning slaves that corrupted slave owners and their behaviors. Harriet was unable to separate issues in her narrative. She squarely blamed slave owners for their cruelty without considering the environment that influenced their behaviors. She absorbed issues surrounding her literally without criticizing them rationally as Frederick did in his narrative.
Frederick and Harriet had relatively easy childhoods. Harriet was born into slavery. However, her parents were well of. Frederick was also born into slavery. He was separated from his mother soon after being born. He had an easy childhood as he performed simple household duties while he was young. He had contact with his aunt Nancy while growing up. Harriet has a lot of contact with her second mother Martha. She also keeps in touch with her children irregularly during her life as a slave. Her upbringing influenced her adult life as she learnt how to read and write while young. She also developed a sense of identity while young.
Frederick and Harriet encountered kind and cruel masters while in servitude. Hugh Auld allowed Frederick to enjoy a degree of freedom. This was mainly because he lived in an urban area where cruelty to slaves was viewed negatively. However, the narrative points out that he eventually turns on Frederick and treats him cruelly. Frederick was considered to be a rebellious slave by Thomas Auld. He rented out Frederick to a master who dealt with breaking the will of slaves. To this end, Frederick is beaten repeatedly to a point where his ambition of freeing himself from slavery is lost. Harriet was inherited by cruel masters who caused her great pain. She was harassed sexually by her male master while still young. She was also forced into hiding for several years where she ended up crippled because of remaining still in an uncomfortable position for a long period of time. She also served kind masters like the Bruce’s family who bought her from the Flints.
Frederick was whipped multiple times while he was a slave. He also had to be jailed after his plans to escape were discovered. He also had to live as a fugitive and drop his mother’s name for security reasons. All these events made him suffer and even break his ambitions and dreams. However, his drive to attain freedom and lead other slaves into freedom enabled him to bounce back whenever he was beat and broken. Harriet suffered from mental torture that was imposed on her. She was able to survive by choosing the form of pain she could take. She had strength to cope with pain that she encountered in her own choices. Such decisions include having an affair with Mr. Sands and confinement that resulted in her getting crippled.
I agree with the statement which states that slavery is bad for men, but it is far more terrible for women. Jacobs did point that male slaves had a rough time being slaves. However, women had a rougher time compared to them. This is true considering issues to do with sexual issues. It was easy for Whites in various positions to abuse young girls and women sexually. This sexual vulnerability is what made it harder for women to be slaves. This was especially hard for young girls who were raped mercilessly by Whites in their environment.
Women also faced rough times during pregnancy. They were not excused from performing their duties because of their pregnancy. In fact, a significant number of them were tortured by their mistresses. This was because the masters were responsible for their pregnancies. This did not stand well with their mistresses who took out their frustrations by torturing them. The women were also separated from their children. Their masters chose to sell their children into slavery. This created a mental toll on the female slaves. All these tribulations were an addition to the customary whipping and overworking that all slaves underwent.
Works cited
Douglass, Frederick, and Houston A. Baker. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1982. Print.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.
