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In Harriet Ann Jacobs’ book titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,
Seven Years Concealed, the reader is drawn into a woman’s world of slavery and
is given a first hand narrative of a mother’s struggle to escape the oppression
of slavery with her children. Not only does Jacobs present to her audience the
hardship of being a mother under the conditions of slavery, but she also relates
to her readers the dreadful experience of being looked upon as a sexual object
by her master. Jacobs’ having to endure these unfortunate circumstances devotes
her entire life to obtaining freedom for herself and her children, which can be
seen through her thoughts and actions.
Jacobs’ first act of trying to gain freedom is seen in her reasoning for
wanting to begin a relationship with Mr. Sands. Jacobs would rather be able to
give herself to Mr. Sands than to have her master Mr. Flint take advantage of
her. In her choosing to get involved with Mr. Sands she has as she states,
“triumphed over her tyrant even in this small way” because she had the freedom
of choice (1970). Also, another plus for Jacobs’ involvement with Mr. Sands is
the fact that she felt confident that he would buy her children’s freedom along
with hers if she were to be sold as a result of her actions to despise Mr.
Flint.
A while after the incident with Mr. Sands and Mr. Flint, Jacobs’ is asked to
come to Mr. Flint’s plantation to work on wedding preparations for his bride to
be. During Jacobs’ stay at the plantation with her daughter she addresses to
the reader this powerful statement, “When I lay down beside my child, I felt how
much easier it would be to see her die than to see her master beat her about”
(1972). It is obvious that Jacobs would rather have her child be free in death
than to have to live the life that Jacobs has witnessed and knows all to well.
This scene emphasizes Jacobs’ overwhelming desire for her children to be free.
In Jacobs’ desperation to be free, especially from Mr. Flint’s sexual
harassment she hid within her grandmother’s nine foot long by seven feet wide
attic for seven years just so that she could experience freedom. The concept of
freedom meant so much to her that she claims, “Yet I would have chosen this,
rather than my lot as a slave, though white people considered it an easy one”
(1978). Again, here her determination for freedom is shown. Even though her
slave life wasn’t full of horrid beatings and other such nightmares she would
rather live in the dark among rats and red insects that would bore into her skin
through the cold winters and the hot summers in a crawl space. A space so
amazingly small that she couldn’t even sit up in it without her head bumping the
ceiling.
After suffering those seven years within the attic Jacobs’ finally makes her
way North to live a free life, but has the fear of possibly being made to go
back to her master because of the Fugitive Slave Law that was enforced during
this time. This fear of having to return back to Mr. Flint’s family becomes a
reality when Mr. Dodge comes to claim her as his property, but Mrs. Bruce,
intervenes and buys Jacobs’ freedom. Jacobs is enraged at the idea of being
bought—thought of as mere property, especially when she is given her own bill of
sale. Jacobs referring to this bill of sale declares that “Future generations
will learn from it that women were articles of traffic” (1984). Jacobs goes on
to further express her disgust of being thought of as an item of purchase when
she asserts, “I despise the miscreant who demanded payment for what never
rightfully belonged to him or his” (1984). This exhibits the strong belief that
Jacobs’ life; her right to freedom has been stolen from her. She should not
have to buy something, which already rightfully belongs to her as a human
being—not an item of purchase.
In the ending of Jacobs’ narrative she makes a distinction between her
desire
for freedom over marriage by telling the reader that, “my story ends with
freedom; not in the usual way with marriage” (1985). Jacobs prefers freedom and
independence to marriage, which is understandable considering the way that women
were treated during the 1860s. This was a time when the highest calling for a
woman was motherhood and it was believed that a woman’s world, her whole life,
was her home.
Through Jacobs’ long lived strain for freedom it is evident that the human
need
for the freedom to govern one’s own life is something that she will not stop at
any lengths for—not even living in an attic for seven years. Her determination
is something that should be admired along with the way she effectively brought
to her intended audience of free white womens' attention the sexual
exploitation of female slaves. |
