Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass are both former slaves that wrote narratives to describe the hardships they faced. Although the two were both enslaved, they faced very different circumstances. While Douglass survived many beatings and tragic circumstances, he eventually found a way to escape from slavery and experience various freedoms. He learned to read and write and was able to share the experiences he faced. In, The Narrative of the Life of a Slave, by Frederick Douglass, he shares those many hardships that he and other slaves had to face while living with their owners. Jacobs on the other hand captures the experience from a women’s perspective. In her narratives, she mentioned having to sleep with various men for the sake of survival. After suffering from countless rapes and unbearable circumstances, Jacobs had made an escape. In her passage, “The Loophole of Retreat,” she had to hide in a small room for seven years. She describes the intense circumstances she faced such as having to sleep in the cold, suffering from insects, minimal exposure to light or air, and nothing to occupy her mind. She addressed the fact that critics may feel that she has no right to say sleeping in that small room was difficult when other females of her kind were suffering from far worse. Jacobs says that as bad as her circumstance was, it was far worse for women that have not escaped. She suggests that after all she had been through, it was worth it because there is nothing worse than the circumstances enslaved women faced.

Part 2

• Slavery as we read about it in textbooks no longer exists and it has transcended into human trafficking. In this practice, people are turned into possessions and are given a value.
• Slavery today has developed into six main forms. Domestic servitude, sex trafficking, forced labor, bonded labor, forced marriage and child labor. An estimated 20.9 million people are trapped in one of these forms.
• While there are no laws today that protect slave owners and people involved in this industry, there are only minimal forces employed to put an end to these acts.

1. Slave narrative not only provide revolutionary new ideas to thousands of slaves, but also to support the white abolition with a both material and spiritual weapon. Both narrators pursue literature as eagerly as the pursuit of freedom. Douglas and Jacobs are self-taught. They knew very early of the importance of learning to read. They use literature as a weapon to fight white slavery authority. As on the way of pursuing literacy, their level of knowledge and moral values have been significantly improved, which further urge them to have the ability to come forward as a weapon and white authority to fight. From writing and deep thinking, the two authors gain control of their own. They both have deliberately avoided elaborating some of the events: To protect black and white abolitionists, Douglas refuses to disclose details of his escape; Taking into social ethics and controversies, Jacobs deliberately concealed experiences of her sexual assault.

Different from “Douglas’ Narrative”, in her writing, Harriet Jacobs uses lots words depict her pursuit of becoming a mother, family and a normal woman.  Because of her gender, she not only suffers the same torture as a male slave, but also suffer sexual abuse from her white slaveholder and the entire male dominant world. Therefore, she cherished more family members of the mutual dependence and support of female friends. Her successful escape was largely dependent on the help of her grandmother and female friends. She was taken away by a good white woman, and after seven years she was hidden in her grandmother’s house. The help of her friends and family helped her escape from the slave-owner’s pursuit and eventually fled to the north.

2.

Base on my research, according to Australian rights group “Released in October 18, 2013 the global slavery index shows that about 30 million people worldwide suffer from slavery, was sold to a brothel or forced to become a victim of his debt do toil, even born enslaved.” According to the investigation, there are phenomena of slavery of the 162 countries surveyed, but India enslaved population accounted for almost half of the world, from the mines and kilns to brothel enslaved worker commercial sexual exploitation, slavery is widespread in the country.

According to the 2013 global slavery index, there are 10 countries in the population accounted for 3/4 of the world’s population.

In addition to India, China enslaved enslave the population is 2 million 900 thousand, followed by Pakistan (2 million 100 thousand), Nigeria (701 thousand), Ethiopia (651 thousand), Russia (516 thousand), Thailand (473 thousand), Congo (gold) (462 thousand), Burma (384 thousand), Bangladesh (343 thousand).

While reading Harriet Jacob’s narrative I realized not only the brilliance in which she writes, but the true sincerity in her beliefs. Harriet gives us a different perspective on slavery, telling readers that the message isn’t simply to sympathize with her over her hardships, but also bring light to another incredulous issue in gender inequality. “If slavery had been abolished, I, also, could have married the man of my choice; I could have had a home shielded by the laws; and I should have been spared the painful task of confessing what I am now about to relate; but all my prospects had been blighted by slavery.”(1) The difference between what Harriet and Douglas wrote are that Douglas was more focused on the disparity between whites and African Americans. He offers us an insight into the true life of a man who suffered and fought for his freedom against all the people who believed in slavery. Harriet’s main focus was on gender inequality and offers her take on how to close the gap on this disheartening issue. She wasn’t interested in fame and you could tell by the way she writes how genuine she is in what she is saying.

In “The Loophole of Retreat”, we are told a story of a slave who explains how even though his situation was bad he was thankful because he knows how much worse it could’ve been. Instead of being subject to a white master who would beat him and torture him, he was simply in hiding in a shed that was added to his house. Every slave story you read is unique in its own way and you learn something new.

Part 2:

1. “There are an estimated 20.9 Million people trapped in some form of slavery today. It’s sometimes called “Modern-Day Slavery” and sometimes “Human Trafficking.” At all times it is slavery at its core.”
2. “Migration: Millions are on the move from impoverished rural areas to cities, and from poorer countries to wealthier ones, in search of work. Traffickers are able to trick them by posing as legitimate labor recruiters. Migrants are especially vulnerable—they are often very far from home, don’t speak the local language, have no funds to return home, and have no friends or family to rely on.”
3. “Modern slavery is a multibillion-dollar industry with estimates of up to $35 billion generated annually”

(Part.1) Harriet Jacob’s narrative shares a riveting tale of her experience as a female slave and highlights the terrors of the impoverishment of women rights at the hands of men. Harriet Jacobs employs her experiences of helplessness as a tool to coax the audience to identify with her not as a slave, but as a fellow woman. In the context of her narrative, she added more misfortune as what she had been through as female slave and the purpose of her own writing was not only to reveal the suffering of slaves, but also to convey the extreme gender inequality of 19^th century U.S.A. While Douglass is more focus on the analysis of the discrepancy between white supremacy and African American and plug in contrary statement in the end of the paragraph. Instead of the purpose of fame and famous as a writer, Harriet choose to riveting story of female suffering at the hand of maters and reach out the female audiences.

Here is the excerpt from the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, “But I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse.” (1) In the purpose of her writing, she provides both insightful fact as a female slave and motivate awaken the female rights in the period of the time.

(Part. 2)            Even the slavery abolition movement has positive outcome throughout United States in 1865. Three things that I learned from the subject of slavery is the significance of education, humanity and woman influence in ending slavery.

With white masters intentionally remain the slaves uneducated and blocked the personal information from slaves. It has reminding me of China Government blocked certain websites such as Facebook, Youtube…etc domestically so the government can remain their folk ignorance so they can be easily controlled and managed.

About the humanity, we see men selfishly fulfill their own desire of abused women sexually, but Harriet still hold the strength of raised her child in an underprivileged situation and contribute her own power as writing to influence the society as a whole.

Harriet Ann Jacobson has elegantly use her own power as a woman to break the glass ceiling thru the gender and race. Her work eventually demonstrated the empower of woman rights movement, promote the equivalent opportunity for education between race and gender and set up the stepping stone for ending the slavery abolition.

Harriet Jacobs’ experience as a slave is undoubtedly filled with agony. As a female slave, she has been subject to dehumanization by being sexually exploited. A major difference between Jacobs and Douglass is that Jacobs has a familial bond. Her attachment to her children is a strong motivation to endure pain and to gain the courage to go into hiding. Her narrative is a direct message to readers to understand her anguish: “Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave…” Harriet Jacobs’ diction in Incidents in The Life of a Slave Girl is more emotional in contrast to Douglass’ narrative. Readers can discern that Jacobs’ tone is bitter and at times, scorns the freedom of non-slaves: “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!” On the other hand, Douglass’ narrative is more detached emotionally; he describes the events that he has undergone, but he does not emphasize his feelings to a great extent. Harriet Jacobs induces empathy from the readers in a blatant disrespect for slave-owners, whereas Douglass incorporates rationale and detail to show how he has fought against the injustice of slavery.

1. There is no evidence that individuals are still legally shackled in our contemporary world. However, there are definitely individuals who are being forced to work. “ILO’s report estimates that 20.9 million people are victims of forced labor.”
2. North Korea’s modern slavery is the most prominent with more than 1 million individuals out of its 25 million population.
3. Child labor, forced marriage, and forced prostitution are just a few of the many types of contemporary slavery. Unfortunately, these illegal practices are not easy to investigate.

I. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, “The Loophole of Retreat” by Harriet Jacobs and “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” by Frederick Douglass are two of the most important works in a slave narrative genre. Both authors write about their own life and the reader can observe more similarities than differences. However, Douglas focuses in differences between the dark slave and a light slave. He describes his difficulties and suffering being a mulatto. Jacobs is writing from the female perspective. She was emotionally and sexually abused, while Douglas was physically abused. Jacobs describes how was the life as a female slave. She was brutally molested by her white master. The violence against her was double because she was black and female. Jacobs highlights the importance of family values. She is concerned not only in her freedom, she wants all the family to be free with her. On contrary, Douglas mentions his mother only in the first chapter of his narrative, showing very little emotions.
II. Slavery even today exists in one or different forms, almost in all countries. The following are examples of modern slavery:
1. Thousands of people are trafficked and forced to work on fishing boats, where they can be kept for years without ever seeing the shore. Those who are caught trying to escape can be killed and thrown overboard.
2. Many children are forced to beg on the streets by criminals. They are sent out on the streets and have a daily quota of money to bring back to their masters. If they return shorthanded, the penalties are swift and harsh, from being chained in total isolation to violent beatings.
3. Taking advantage of the high demand for organ transplants, organized gangs have taken to trafficking children to sell their organs on the black market.

Part 1

From Harriet Jacobs’ slave narrative, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” depicts some aspects of what a black woman had to deal with back in slavery. Although it is well known that the slaves were treated inhumanely, but to read through what life was like at that time makes the readers feel unease about what occurred during that time. The excerpt does not only show a glimpse of what slavery was like, but it also demonstrates a successful example of an escaped slave. Men in slavery, as Frederick Douglas showed, are treated heartlessly and inhumanely. But born as a woman in slavery, Jacobs shows that sexual oppression exercised by white slave master over their women slaves. This narrative differs from Douglass’ from the way it shows perspectives from different gender roles they played back in slavery. A black male was usually used to be on the farm, and did all the labor, while the women, did their own jobs and were treated as sexual items by the white slave masters. One of the differences between the two slavery narrative is that Douglass chose to use non-fiction, and Jacobs chose to replace actual names of people on her journey to escape in order to not get them discovered and get punished. These two narratives depict a clear first-person resource to communicate to the audience what it was like for the slaves back in the day in age.

Part 2

Although slavery is illegal anywhere, yet, there are still various forms of slavery everywhere in the world today. It is estimated around 27 million people are still enslaved till this day. The slaves are forced to work without pay and are under the threat of violence both mentally and physically. Contemporary slavery does not consist only adults, but also children. Children take a very large part in contemporary slavery, especially in prostitution. It is said that the average age a teen enters the American sex trade is around twelve to fourteen years of age. With some of the leaders in the world who are taking initiative fighting against human trafficking, and there has been researched estimated that there is a possibility of ending slavery within twenty-five years.

As I read the two excerpts by Harriet Jacobs, I noticed a commonality of Fredrick Douglass’s slave narrative from the perspective of a female slave. Both are runaways, who happened to suffer to different capacities, traumatic experiences nonetheless. Harriet Jacobs, just like Douglass is faced with paranoia, not knowing who to trust or who to confide to. She also has a level consciousness of her surroundings and that women in the north had certain privileges which she could only imagine of when she was in the south. Eager to depict the horrors more so than relay a sob story, she consistently requests her reader to not assume she is comparing her life to others, or saying she is suffering more than others. She also apologizes for acts such as having relations with the white men in hope for a better life for her children. But it’s clear that she didn’t do it out of ignorance, rather with the assumption that due to his sympathy for slavery, it might potentially ease the strife she faces on a daily basis. In terms of reinforcing the idea of slavery, she talks on behalf of all the other slave girls who are raised in both a misogynistic and segregated region. The girls are perceived as maids and child bearers, to be hated by the wives of the husbands. They had no means of protecting their innocence or preserving the choice to lay with the man of their dreams. Worst of all, when they gave birth, the child was taken away after a certain time frame, so they aren’t given much time to form a bond with their kin, just like Fredrick lacked with his mother.

Part 2:

Though slavery of the black race has been abolished and made illegal. Other means still exist. Girls, barely around the age of  adolescence before even beginning their menstrual cycle are being married to men their father’s age for various reasons. Despite, the justifications that can be used to mitigate the outrage, it’s still an unethical traditional practice that occurs in many third world countries and tribes. There’s also child labor, which is taking children at a young age to do work in hazardous conditions to lower costs of paying a well able-to-do man. This occurs in many countries that are involved in outsourcing. Interestingly enough, sex trafficking is still prevalent today, but what’s more shocking is the fact that it isn’t limited to just women and girls as many presume, it also includes, boys, men and children alike. It’s typically done by the culprit luring the victim to enter a vehicle, an individual walking alone in an alley and being taken away, in some countries, parents selling off their daughter’s in exchange for money. All of which occur on a daily basis with little to no repercussion. Similar to how species evolve and adapt to their environments, slavery is evolved into various segments as above mentioned for profit.

I have always known that slavery is wrong and that it was abolished later than it should have been. Harriet Jacobs’ narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, as well as Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, made me realize that what I had imagined was nothing compared to how horrible life was for slaves. Although Jacobs hid in the garret uncomfortably for seven years, and was oppressed by her old master, she seemed to have had life easier than most. In the narrative, she said “Christmas was approaching. Grandmother brought me materials, and I busied myself making some new garments and little playthings for my children”. She had never been worked tirelessly, always been kindly treated, she was around her children, she was also under the care of her kind grandmother while others such as Douglas, have been brutally beaten and rarely had the chance to feel loved by family. Douglas and Jacobs, as well as most slaves, were similar in that their masters all broke or attempted to break their minds and spirits. However, they are also similar in that they did not give up hope, and continued to strive and endure hardship in order to gain their freedom.  

Hearing both stories made me question my faith in humanity because how can one person inflict such pain upon another? Not all slaveholders were entirely malicious, but even the gentle ones were eventually taught to treat the slaves with such cruelty as if they were not people, but animals and property. To me, people such as slaveholders are either sociopaths or psychopaths because no sane person would be able to whip another person until they have pools of blood beneath them.

Part 2

Upon research, I learned that modern slavery may not be the same form of slavery as it was before, but it consists of many human rights violations. I learned that if someone is being forced to work, someone that is being controlled or owned by another person, or someone that is being dehumanized, it is considered modern slavery. Human trafficking  and sexual exploitation are probably one of the more severe forms of slavery. One issue that I read about was a woman who held two Korean students captive District Attorney, “The siblings also endured physical and emotional abuse and were forced to work after school at Queens supermarkets and turn over all the money to Park — who told them that they owed her the $10 an hour they made because their mother wasn’t sending her anything to support them”. I learned that the reason that the kids were saved was because of my old high school assistant principal because this very incident happened in my neighborhood.

Your assignment this week has two parts:

1. First, read the two short excerpts from Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl that I have linked to on our “Readings” page. In a brief (250 word) post to our blog, comment on the two excerpts. What does Harriet Jacobs’ narrative add to our understanding of the experience of slavery? How does this narrative connect to or differ from Douglass’? (As you read the second excerpt, “The Loophole of Retreat,” keep in mind that Jacobs remained in this hiding place for seven years!)

2. Although slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, slavery in various forms continues to be an important Human Rights issue even in our own day. Spend some time exploring the topic of contemporary slavery on the internet, and share on the blog three important things that you learn about this subject.