Virtue

A detailed Summary of Virtue

Imagine living where the only thing you believed in was threatened by everyday life. This was a reality in Harriet Jacob's' "Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl," it shows a cruel, inside description of slavery. In this essay Jacobs changes the perception of the suffering from the concentrated work they had to do, to the emotional struggle they had to endure. In Jacob's' essay she concentrates on how the role of slavery stands to uphold womanly virtues and honor for a female slave.

In Jacobs' essay, she feels that her innocence and virtue are her only possessions. She feels that without these, she is just another female slave with no hope. She refers to this by saying "I want to keep myself pure: and, under the most adverse circumstance, I tried hard to preserve my self respect..."(489). The reason Jacobs feels so strongly about her beliefs is because she has nothing else. She lives he life everyday with no meaning but to serve her master. Jacobs feels that if she is able to keep her innocence and virtue she has something in her life to take pride in.

Another reason Jacobs felt so strong about her beliefs was because her grandmother was a big influence in her innocence. She feels that her grandmother takes great prid

Although she feels bad about her relationship with Mr. Sands, she believes it was justified. She blames the state of slavery as being too great an enemy to fight. She says "Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it was to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another."(490). In this statement she is trying to get her reader to understand the hardships that she has had to deal with. She also feels if she had the chance to be a free woman she would not degrade herself so low. As a reader you believe that her actions are justified by the situation in which she had to deal with. She also felt there was no other way of escaping danger of having her master overcame her.

The Southerners also felt that the slaves had no right to any family ties of their own. They felt the woman were created to wait upon the master's family, and take care of the mistress' children; not their own. A mother was always worrying about losing one of her children to a slave trader. Sometimes a mother would lose as many as three children on New Year's Day, which is the biggest day of selling slaves in the south. Jacobs comments on this by saying "She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother's instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother's agonies." In this Jacob's is trying to give the reader an insight on how a slave feels. By doing this she is also trying to give the woman slave a more human image, not just a piece of property.

In Jacobs' essay she shows the emotional struggle and the shame the slaves deal with. She also shows how the role of a female slave effects their beliefs. She is able to involve the reader into the story by directly addressing them. Another way Jacobs' writing differs is she concentrates more on the emotional struggle slaves had to deal with, instead of the physical punishment the were forced to endure. With this emotional standpoint she is able to bring a more realistic look. In this essay, Jacobs is also able to bring a more detailed look at slavery, that her audience can relate to.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1498
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English