Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will from Africa.
We didn't land on Plymouth Rock - that rock landed on us. Besides the virtual extermination of the native Indian population it is the brutal and dreadful treatment of Afro-American slaves in the 19th century which depicts some of the darkest and saddest chapters in the history of the United States. Still today the vestiges of slavery can be felt. They are considered two of the most influential, and groundbreaking works of the Antebellum Period, which bear witness to slavery in the United States.
Boesenberg , shall be compared, discussed and analysed in this paper. Twins are widely thought of being almost the same. The first part of the paper briefly introduces some important similarities of the two narratives.
In a second part focus will be given to distinctive features of these texts: family ties, gender difference, sexual exploitation, and manhood and womanhood.
At first glance, the narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, and their experiences described during their lives in slavery seem to have a lot in common. Both narratives present similar problems and convey similar messages to the audience. Both authors lived during the same decade and had to endure slavery in regions of the South, Maryland and South Carolina, respectively, where slavery was asserted in the most radical and merciless manner.
At first they did not feel very comfortable writing or talking about their experiences as slaves to a largely white auditorium, but they eventually became leaders in the abolitionist movement. Like many other slaves, Douglass and Jacobs had to suffer from the early loss of their mothers. This happened at the age of six or seven, at which time they first began to realize their status as slaves.
During their later childhood years, for example, they shared a common experience, namely a beneficial relationship with a kind mistress who taught them to read and write. At the time this was a privilege, rarely falling to the lot of a slave cf. Jacobs 8. As we shall see later on in chapter three, literacy was to become one of the determining factors for both their physical and intellectual emancipation. Moreover, literacy eventually played a very important role in their decision to escape.
Nevertheless, most of the experiences and incidents portrayed in their narratives can be viewed as representative of the nineteenth century Afro American slave. Some of the most important distinguishing features shall be discussed in the following chapters.
Even in the most hopeless moments in her narrative Jacobs describes that she always enjoyed, and was supported by the presence of a caring family around her. Her aunts, uncles, cousins, her grandmother, and especially her children gave her strength and stamina at all times, and her family was a main concern throughout the entire narrative. Two of the most influential writers on the slave narrative topic were the autobiographical authors Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.
Since Douglas and Jacobs were both born in a similar time period, there are many similarities found in their works. The two authors have similar ideas when portraying their struggles with forced ignorance.
Their writing also contains parallels with the corrupting power of slavery for the slave owners, as well as the parallels in pointing out the hypocrisies of using the bible to defend slavery. These similarities can be explained in part due to Douglass and Jacobs following the same basic slave narrative outline to maintain the shared goal of abolishing slavery in the United States. When describing how they overcame the struggles of forced ignorance, Douglass and Jacobs approaches have strikingly similar methods.
Douglass writes how he. Get Access. Read More. Essay on Out of the Silence Words 6 Pages past we can better determine the path of the future. Was there really a separate North and South?
It pains me to tell you of it; but I have promised to tell you the truth, and I will do it honestly, let it cost me what it may. I will not try to screen myself behind the plea of compulsion from a master; for it was not so.
Neither can I plead ignorance or thoughtlessness. For years, my master had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated by my grandmother, and the good mistress of my childhood. The influences of slavery had had the same effect on me that they had on other young girls; they had made me prematurely knowing, concerning the evil ways of the world.
I know what I did, and I did it with deliberate calculation. But, O, ye happy women, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely!
This is her apologia ; if she had had the protection and sheltering from inappropriately adult ideas and actions that her era accorded to a free young girl, if she had had the prospect of marriage, as a free woman would have had, she contends, her actions would probably have been different.
She would not have been the victim of attempted seduction, first by the slave owner, and then by Sands. In the opinion of some, publicizing the revolting sexual underbelly of the slave system was the main purpose of her autobiography, Andrews. She also expresses apologies, which fall with strange inappropriateness on a modern, liberated, ear. Today, we would acknowledge the terrible inequality in power and free agency that existed in her life.
Here is an example of her persistent remorsefulness concerning her own behavior. Now, how could I look them in the face? My self-respect was gone! I had resolved that I would be virtuous, though I was a slave. I will brave it till I die.
He is himself the likely product of such an involuntary sexual exploitation Douglass 2. Perhaps this deters him from dwelling on this issue more. Frederick Douglass is also guilty of something that could be construed as wrong or improper; he fought his slave master, and drew blood from him.
However, he has no shame or doubts over this, and in fact regards the incident as critical to his later salvation from bondage. He certainly makes no apology! Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free. The gratification afforded by the triumph was a full compensation for whatever else might follow, even death itself.
He only can understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who has himself repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom.
My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact. I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing me. From this time I was never again what might be called fairly whipped, though I remained a slave four years afterwards.
I had several fights, but was never whipped. Finally, Douglass ends his narrative in triumph; of self-emancipation, of increased status as an abolitionist, and as a married man. He has won his way to the free state of Massachusetts, he has become the associate of persons such as William Lloyd Garrison, the publisher of the Liberator , and he is legally married to someone he admires and cherishes Douglass He is a person of some note, and taken seriously by the anti-slavery movement n.
He is working for himself, and keeping the fruits of his labors Douglass Jacobs, on the other hand, ends her narrative on a note of poignant longing. She acknowledges how far she has come, and how much she has accomplished, but she points out with bitter accuracy the remaining deficits in her life.
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