In her essay, "Loopholes of Resistance," Michelle Burnham argues that "Aunt Marthy's garret does not offer a retreat from the oppressive conditions of slavery - as, one might argue, the communal life in Aunt Marthy's house does - so much as it enacts a repetition of them...[Thus] Harriet Jacobs escapes reigning discourses in structures only in the very process of affirming them" (289). In order to support this, one must first agree that Aunt Marthy's house provides a retreat from slavery. I do not. Burnham seems to view the life inside Aunt Marthy's house as one outside of and apart from slavery where family structure can exist, the mind can find some rest, comfort can be given, and a sense of peace and humanity can be achieved. In contrast, Burnham views the garret as a physical embodiment of the horrors of slavery, a place where family can only dream about being together, the mind is subjected to psychological warfare, comfort is non-existent, and only the fear and apprehension of inhumanity can be found. It is true that Aunt Marthy's house paints and entirely different, much less severe, picture of slavery than that of the garret, but still, it is a picture of slavery differing onl

Having explored the inevitable fate of a slave, there is but one assumption left - that the only outlet to freedom for a slave is freedom itself. However, like the previous false retreats I discussed, freedom is in the eye of the beholder and no matter which way you look at it, in Linda's society, the beholder will always be the slaveholder. Let us explore the only ways in which a slave can achieve freedom - escape, sale, and death. If one escapes, then is he truly free? He may seem to be, but lurking behind will always be the slaveholder waiting and sneering. How can one be sold and still claim to be free? A price has been put on his life. Someone somewhere is lurking behind enjoying the benefits of this sale and let us not forget that there is no guarantee that a contract entered into by a slave will be binding. Finally, we encounter death. Yes, for the deceased the life of slavery has ended, but it is the life of slavery has ended his life. The slaveowner may have financially lost, but to his own ethics, he has won. No home, even Aunt Marthy's, no matter how much love it holds, can offer retreat from the horrors of slavery until those horrors cease to exist.

Because it offers them the possibility of community and identity, many slaves find themselves strongly attached to religion. They cannot build a family structure and they cannot be identified by family name, but through the church, they can build a community and identify themselves as Christians. This comfort becomes virtually non-existent for it too is controlled by the slaveowners who "came to the conclusion that it would be well to give the slaves enough of religious instruction to keep them from murdering their masters" (57). The fact that one person could have the ability to control the amo

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Approximate Word count = 1202
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)