Click for larger image and other viewsLife [Kindle Edition] Review
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Rare firsthand account of a slave girl
By Michael A Neuland
Harriet Jacobs book The Life of a Slave Girl is unique in the literature of slaves directly from the pen of an articulate slave. One has a poignant sense of fashion can retell the story of their enslavement from a passage she writes in the preface to his book.
"... I sincerely wish to awaken women from the North to
making sense of the condition of two million women in the South
still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them much worse.
I want to add my testimony to the feathers can convince people
Free States what Slavery really is. Only by experience can any
realize what a deep, dark, and foul is that pit of abominations. "
Her story raises emotions of the feelings of a mother who struggles to keep her family together, and it shines a light on the cruelties of slavery. The political sentiment of the time between the elites of the northern states was increasingly becoming antislavery. The political aspect of Jacob's writing is not the writings of the abolitionists, highly stylized famous or prominent blacks such as Frederick Douglass using reason and religion to condemn slavery. Jacob writing is visceral and realistic. His powerful argument against slavery pulls on the heartstrings of any decent human being sympathetic. In essence, the story of Jacob is one that resonates with people of all socioeconomic levels. It's no mystery why the hearts and minds of people are stirred to action after one reads Jacob's disturbing accounts of sexual depravity, mental anguish, and destruction of the family unit, she endured as a slave . His first person narrative account is what makes his book as a great force of political sentiment in the genre of slave narrative. Since there were so few slave narratives in circulation at that time, it was easy for Jacob's book to engender such political sentimentalism.
Jacob ability to arouse aesthetic sentimentality in her audience was a bit tricky because of the sexual decisions she had to do in your life. The decision to have a sexual relationship with a neighbor cause Single White to escape the depraved advances of her owner could be interpreted as Jacob is more interested in autonomy and less interested in chastity. Jacob has made it clear to his audience that it was his position in life that led her to do what their white readers an option considered unconventional. Jacob's situation as a slave made you choose freedom over trying to protect her chastity more vigorously. Since slavery was almost all of their freedom and individuality, which was willing to change her chastity for the freedom of choice. Jacob's virginity was one of the few things that I was able to retain ownership. After entering the details of why she made her choice still felt it necessary to apologize to her "Victoria" audience for its decision. This act, for his part was really one of the few options that had the ability to do while in captivity of slavery. Thus, once Jacob's white audience understood the dreadfully marginal position she occupied in society, most of them would feel compassion for her. This would make her audience more inclined to accept the choice she felt was necessary for their own welfare. Jacob decision on who would give her sexual being, was that the only way to maintain a semblance of individuality.
This was required reading for a postgraduate course in Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy and literature.
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