Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs - 1757 Words

During the 1800s, slaves received treatment comparable to that of livestock. They were mere possessions of white men stripped of almost every last bit of humanity in them. African-Americans were constricted to this state of mind by their owners vicious treatment, but also the practice of keeping them uneducated. Keeping the slaves illiterate hindered them from understanding the world around them. Slave owners knew this. The slaves who were able to read and write always rebelled more against their masters. Frederick Douglass, author of A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, were prime examples. Both slaves had been taught how read and write at a young†¦show more content†¦Douglass never received another beating throughout his last four years of slavery after that incident. Harriet Jacobs on the contrary to Douglass, had no idea she was a slave until she was six years old. Her first mistress t reated her very well, almost as if she were white. She was taught how to read and write. The majority of Jacobs family, excluding her father, served the family of her first mistress very well, and the family returned the favor by treating their slaves with a little bit of dignity. Her mistress also taught her the Bible. This teaching allowed for Jacobs to know the rights and wrongs being done to her and other slaves. Harriet picked up on the conversations around her after her mother died, and she figured out she was a slave from the discussions. After her first mistress died, Jacobs was put on the auction block for sale as a farm tool. A man named Dr. Flint purchased her and her brother. Jacobs depicted a gruesome scene of the auction block: These God-breathing machines are no moreÂ…than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend. (Jacobs, p.11) Jacobs real father was such a skilled craftsmen that he had more feelings of a freed slave than most others, and in the r aising of his children, this thought pattern reflected especially William. This proved to make things rougher for both Jacobs and her brother William with their new master. JacobsShow MoreRelatedEssay about Fredrick Douglas And Harriet Jacobs1717 Words   |  7 Pagesthem from understanding the world around them. Slave owners knew this. The slaves who were able to read and write always rebelled more against their masters. Frederick Douglass, author of A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, were prime examples. Both slaves had been taught how read and write at a young age, and both gained their freedom by escaping to the northern states. What they had learned also helped themRead MoreHarriet Jacobs Vs. Douglas1263 Words   |  6 PagesTamera Buckner Ashley Morgan ENG 1013 D3 25 2/21/2016 Harriet Jacobs vs Fredrick Douglas Slavery was one of the most tragic memories known for in the black race. Slavery is the process at which an African American is purchased by a Caucasian who is used for exhausting labor work such as picking cotton, or tending to house work and being restricted from freedom. All of the slaves were used and abused physically, mentally, and emotionally. In some cases abuse was the death of many of those slavesRead MoreSlavery : A Prominent Source Of The American Economy907 Words   |  4 Pagesslavery and other citizens who were anti-slavery. Slave speeches such as Henry Brown, Harriet Jacobs, and also abolitionist such as William Lloyd Garrison and Fredrick Douglas; made it clear that the existence of slavery brands republicanism as a sham, humanity as a base pretense, and also Christianity as a lie. These three arguments were presented in Fredrick Douglass’s speech in Rochester, New York in July 1852. Fredrick Douglass was a slave who rose to become a voice for the African Am ericans in theRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1779 Words   |  8 Pagesbooks Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, and stories from the anthology Spider Woman’s Web, recount the stories of individuals who succeeded in obtaining their right to human dignity. Their journey to freedom occurred while simultaneously having to fight prejudicial obstacles, laws, and punishments inflicted by discriminatory societies as well as individual people. Harriet Jacobs recounted her personal experiences under the pseudonym Linda Brent inRead MoreThe Rich Cultural Practices Of Africa966 Words   |  4 Pagesreceived the name Gustavas Vassa by his captive against his will. As he went from master to master, they named him whatever they chose, as if he was a pet, going from Olaudah to Jacob to Michael to Gustavus. When Equiano’s master told him he would be called Gustavus Vassa, he refused and told his master his name was Jacob, he recalls the scene from his childhood while he was on board a slave ship, â€Å"When I refused to answer to my new name, which at first I did, it gained me many a cuff; so at lengthRead MoreThe Path to Aboliton 1312 Words   |  5 Pagesof these accounts allowed African Americans to show the world their mastery of language and the ability to write their own history. One example of such a writer was Fredrick Douglass. He was one of the most famous leaders of the abolitionist movement. After he escaped slavery, he published his story, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, which sold over 30,000 copies between 1845 and 1860. Douglass’s decent into the most brutal conditions of slavery were described in his work as well as hisRead MoreSlavery And The Slavery Of Slavery Essay1742 Words   |  7 Pagestime periods and regions; in 1739, you have the Stono Rebellion, people used laws to argue their cases of injustice, such as Emanuel Pieterson and Dorothy Angola, who fought for the freedom of their child and David Walker, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacob who used literature to speak against the institution of slavery. Another aspect was that freedom had a different definition in the north and in the south. Northern freedmen and women had often better opportunities and often we able to use educationRead MoreIncidents During The Life O f A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1818 Words   |  8 PagesSlave Girl Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is an Autobiography from the point of view of a southern slave. She has named herself Linda Brent in the book to keep her identity anonymous. The book takes place in between 1820-1840 in which slavery was still legal and common throughout the United States south. The book begins in an unnamed town in the south in which the protagonist was raised in as a slave. Harriet Jacobs wrote the book to shine light on how slaves were treatedRead MoreIn 1619, The First Group Of African Slaves Was Brought1675 Words   |  7 Pageshuman. This cruel treatment and fickle system eventually sparked a new movement called the abolitionist movement. Fighting for the rights of slaves as well as the eventual complete abolition of slavery, many abolitionist writers like Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs told powerful stories of their struggles in slavery and gave strong imagery of this cruel empire. While slavery was becoming a heated issue, women also started to demand equality with man and more rights. In a man’s world, women wereRead MoreCultural Analysis Of Cesar Jacobs s Cultural Analysis2073 Words   |  9 PagesRaul Rios Professor Peters English 2327 30 April 2016 Harriett Jacobs: Cultural Analysis Cultural analysis can be associated with a person’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or region. An easy way to examine a person’s cultural analysis is to simply pull up a text book and or a website about the person and find very good information about the person. Yet when it comes to famous writers of history, their cultural analysis can be determined through their marvelous and significant