Slavery and the Life of Harriet Jacobs Essay -- Slavery Essays

knuckle downry and the Life of Harriet JacobsIt is intumesce known that break ones backry was a horrible event in the history of the United States. However, what isnt as well known is the actual severity of slavery. The experiences of slave women presented by Angela Davis and the theories of black women presented by Patricia Hill Collins are evident in the life of Harriet Jacobs and image the severity of slavery for black women. The history of slave women offered by Davis suggests that coercive labor overshadowed every other aspect of womens existence (Davis 5). This is quite spare through examination of the life of Harriet Jacobs. All slaves were forced to do big(p) labor and were subject to cruel remarks by whites, in this sense they were genderless, but women endured much more foul treatment. Harriet Jacobs was forced to listen to the sexual berate from her master, Dr. Flint, as well as receive jealous scorn from her mistress, Mrs. Flint. stock-still worsened than the v erbal abuse was the physical, sexual abuse imposed on slave women. Naming or not naming the father of a child, taking as a wife a woman who had children by unnamed fathers, and giving a newborn child the name of a father were all considered by Herbert Gutman to be everyday choices in slave communities (Davis 15). Not world able to name a father must have made slave women feel great pain from being a genderless tool and great isolation by forcing them to take portion out of bastard children on their own. However, the worst comes when the child is old enough to formulate and, in most cases, is auctioned off. By auctioning off a slave womans children slave masters not only dehumanized slave women but gave special pain to slave women by taking their loved children away. Slave... ...brother. These past cardinal points all serve as examples of the severity of slavery for women. The U.S. slave arranging has placed African American women at a disadvantage for hundreds of years. It s awe-inspiring to think this kind of thing could ever be allowed to happen. Even worse is to the reality that it wouldnt be that way if people truly believed in equality. Women were possess in every aspect, not merely free labor. Their minds, bodies, and souls were pushed to the limits and Harriet Jacobs is an example of this being true.Works CitedCollins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York, NY Routledge, 2000Davis, Angela. The legacy Of Slavery Standards For A New Womanhood. Jacobs, Harriet, and Yellin, Jean. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press