Comparative Evaluation in Slave Life: Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass
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This paper is a comparative evaluation I did between the autobiographical experiences of two former slaves, Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, were both written during the same time period (the former in 1861, the latter in1856). These two books are compelling works of African American Literature. They are depressing but at the same time hopeful, discouraging but uplifting. Both authors go into many aspects concerning the brutality of slavery, but I have thoroughly reviewed and am about to go over only a few in this analysis. Some of the more pertinent issues are a slaves childhood, the effect of gender on a slaves life, the different types of work the two slaves did, the time period they lived in and the effect of the region the two slaves lived in.
The childhood of a slave can be both fair and cruel. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs childhoods couldnt be more opposite. When Harriet was growing up in her “comfortable home” as she calls it, she was completely shielded from slavery. Her Father was an extremely good and accomplished carpenter and he was allowed to provide for his family, minus a percentage that went to his mistress. Harriet, or Linda Brent as she refers to herself in the book, is completely unaware of her inherent bondage into slavery. Not until she is six, when her mother dies and when she takes her place at the side of her mistress, does she realize the reality of slavery. Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, didnt have such a blissful childhood. He was born a mulatto, or a child with a parent of each race (usually this came from the white master raping his black slave). Because of his
heritage Douglass was moved away from his mothers master and, obviously, away from his mother. This was due to the fact that it was so apparent at the time that when a slave
had a fair child, or mulatto, the father was almost always the master of that slave. This usually enrages the slave owners wife; and the slave owner usually sells the child away to appease her. This awful tradition is the reason why Frederick only saw his mother 4 or 5 times before she died. He was not allowed to attend the funeral nor did he ever own a picture of her. Also, growing up, Harriets mistress and Douglass master were also quite different towards them. Harriets mistress was her mothers mistress, and a very kind hearted women. She promised Harriets mother that her children would be released at her death, which turned out not to be true but the fact that she said it was a bold statement at the time. When Frederick was growing up, before he moved to Baltimore, his life was awful. He constantly heard slaves being whipped and tortured, it seems more so often than Jacobs, for seemingly harmless problems and mistakes. He was provided with one shirt that dropped down to his knees, and some slave children had no cloths at all. Families slept on rock hard concrete floors and only some had blankets. When reviewing the circumstances of each individuals childhood, I think Harriet just got very lucky in her early childhood and her years up until she was twelve. I say this because Jacobs is constantly speaking of other plantations through her book that are very near her own masters estate. She speaks of a man named Mr. Litch, who was extremely cruel to his slaves, along with other neighboring slaveholders who were equally cruel to their slaves. Although Jacobs childhood was seemingly content, her teen and adult years were full of harassment and ridicule.
Harriets Childhood was obviously pretty good, especially for a slave girl. But it was her teen years and her years as an early adult that really affected her mentally and emotionally.
Jacobs put an extreme amount of weight on her argument that women slaves have it far worse than male slaves, and I fully agree with her argument. Throughout Douglass entire book, he never really says anything about gender affecting the ways slaves are treated, at least not pertaining to him. One would think that male slaves would get harsher physical punishments than female slaves would, but that is not the case. Take an example out of Douglass book from Chapter 6. This is during the time period when Douglass is living at Baltimore with Hugh and Sophia Auld. In this particular part of his autobiography, Douglass comments on how well the Masters treat their slaves in the city, with the exception of his Masters neighbor. This man owned two slaves, both women, who he beat so severely that Douglass says, “His heart must be harder than stone, that could look upon these unmoved”. The one slave, Mary was beaten so badly, Douglass describes her as “mangled and emaciated”. There are many other references to the beating of women slaves throughout both autobiographies. Female slaves had another kind of fear imbedded in them by their masters that male slaves could not feel, and that is sexual exploitation and the loss of their children. When Harriet reaches the age of 15, Dr. Flint makes his first sexual advance towards her. Dr. Flint, who was much her senior, makes sexual advances towards Linda, but Linda never bows down to his will. She is repeatedly yelled at and verbally disciplined, however never physically disciplined. It states in Chapter 5 of Incidents that Dr. Flint would at first act very violent towards her, being forceful towards her and acting as if she should subject to his every whim, especially sexual whims. If this method did not work, he treated her in a very calm manner, almost lovingly, to try to manipulate her into fornicating with him. However, no matter how many times he tried, he could never get her to submit to his will. After exhausting those two methods, he would then resource to a third method. In this attempt, he got Linda to watch over his baby daughter, or Lindas actual mistress, while she was asleep. This would require Linda to sleep in the same room as Emily, the daughter. Once Dr. Flint got her to do this, he then planned to move his daughters bed into his own bedroom; this would be so Linda and Dr. Flint could be in the same room at night and so he could have his way with her. However, Mrs. Flint was in an adjoining room where she could watch Linda all the time, including in the middle of the night. Because of Lindas jealous mistress nothing came out of this predicament, however Linda did start to fear her mistress hatred for her. Because Dr. Flint took a sexual liking to Linda, she saw in Linda all of her marital problems rolled up into one, and this caused her to treat Linda with the utmost indecency, and with a complete disregard for the truth.