unwritten self

A detailed Summary of unwritten self

Harriet Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl uses clear detail and straightforward language, except when talking about her sexual history, to fully describe what it is like to be a slave. Jacobs says that Northerners only think of slavery as perpetual bondage; they don't know the depth of degradation there is to that word. She believes that no one could truly understand how slavery really is unless they have gone through it. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl do not only tell about the physical pains and hard labor that she went through. It mostly concentrates on the emotional viewpoints on it and what it did to shape who she is. When writing her story, Jacobs had a clear motive. Her motive was one of a political taking. She writes through her experiences and sufferings to make it clear to people, mainly the Northerners, and more specifically white women in the North, how slavery really is. She does not want sympathy, however, she does want "to arouse the women in the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women of the South, still in bondage" (460). Jacobs wants people to take action in antislavery efforts. Jacobs in telling her story uses many techniques to make it effective. So

In the story, Jacobs tells of how slavery not only made slaves unhappy, but also made the owners unhappy, especially the wives of the slave owners. The master's wife was jealous of Harriet because the master wanted Harriet sexually. Jacobs apologizes for her sexual behavior with her master, but she says that slave women should not be judged by the same standard as others. Jacobs uses sarcasm when saying "Pity me, and pardon me, o virtuous reader..." (490) to show how ashamed she is and show that it deeply bothers her. She also uses it to let the readers know that they have done things in their life that they are not proud of either, so why judge her on what she had done. Besides using sarcasm, Jacobs also uses standard abolitionist rhetoric and overwrought sentimental style, and also a combination of both.

me of the techniques that she uses are dealing with the use of her language, her selections of incidents and details, and her method of addressing an audience.

Jacobs swore to herself that she would never engage in sexual acts with her master, however, she broke her promise to herself. By confessing to it, Jacobs shows how evil slavery was, whereby it could make a person give up their own integrity by choice and go against something they believe. This is something that a person has to live with for the rest of their lives, and this shows how degrading slavery is.

rather not told her story, but she believes it is important to in order to try to help people get involved in antislavery efforts. Her story is mainly for political reasons. She brings up many important issues concerning slavery, even forbidden topics that some people, mainly white people, would rather not bring up. For instance, the topic of sexual abuse of slave women is a topic that was not usually publicly discussed. Jacobs is troubled and ashamed of her sexual history, however, she talks about it in a way that politicizes it. She presents it as a public political concern; this was not usual in conventional nineteenth century polite discourse. She wants to cover all ground and issues concerning slavery.

Jacobs wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in a way that showed her evolution from a child to a poorly educated slave girl/ young adult to a well-established free black woman. As she grew older from a child to a young lady things started to change and things started to get harder. Jacobs wanted to show how her life got more difficult as the years went by. She also wanted to show Northerners that slaves aren't property, they are human beings just like them and go through changes like they do.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Harriet Jacobs, Throughout Jacobs, Slave Girl, Linda Brent, Maybe Jacobs, Jacobs Northerners, women north, Incidents Life, Life Slave, telling story, incidents life slave, life slave girl, life slave, slave girl, harriet jacobs, incidents life, lack education, sexual history, slave women, white women, slavery unless gone, white women north, sexual abuse slave,

Approximate Word count = 1762
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous