1) Harriet Jacobs, with herself as a prime example, makes it clear to me the lengths some slaves were willing to go to in order to avoid the egregious ownership and back breaking work that comes with it. She made it clear multiple times in “The Loophole of Retreat” excerpt. Assuming the worst of cases, in which a runaway or slave in hiding was caught? One cannot even begin to imagine what sort of punishment they may face. However, those slaves knew the consequences, but still took the risk knowing that any ounce of freedom is almost always likely to be better than what they go through every day as a slave. Jacobs’ message differs from Douglass’ ever so slightly. They both paint a clear picture of their time as slaves, but Jacobs describes how the owners would taint the mind of slaves. Slavery definitely took a psychological toll on Douglass, but many of his troubles came from slavery and its physicality. Jacobs told how her owners deliberately made several efforts to damage the minds of all of their slaves. That they know their place in society and that they know what it is like in the outside world. The result would be completely broken slaves; they know what they’re missing, yet they know how unachievable it may be. Tired, depressed, and continuously dragged lower, work becomes all they know and all they will ever do.

2) Although slavery has been illegal for some time now, it is important that the social definition is understood aside from the dictionary definition. A slave is not just one who is owned by a master, a person who’s superior has complete control over him or her, regardless of pay (as little as that may be), can still be considered a slave.

The most shocking stat may be that it is estimated that at least 21 million people are considered enslaved, today.

As many slaves in the world are undocumented, immigrants or not, it is very easy for them to remain in forced bondage. Whether paying back an insurmountable loan with work, or being forced into labor by threat these people have no recourse with the law and nowhere to turn. So, they remain as slaves until this day.

In her work, Harriet Jacobs gives us a glimpse about the horrors of slavery from her own experience. As she explains, the principles and lessons that she was taught by her grandmother were tainted by her cruel slave master. Jacobs says “. . . For years, my master had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated by my grandmother, and the good mistress of my childhood.” Her words relate to the horrible mental impact slavery had on people, in which Frederick Douglass was also able to portray to us. The slave masters did not spare even the child slaves from the many abuses of slavery. Adults and children were beaten, whipped, raped and so on. The physical effects are obvious, but like Douglass, Jacobs points out how these things had a lasting mental impact on the young slaves.

From my research, I found that modern day slavery in America and around the world still exists today. As pointed out in an article from ACLU, Some forms of this include, but are not limited to:

-Forced labor, by mental and physical threat (very common in the United States)

-Human trafficking, in which humans are traded for the primary purpose for sexual slavery

-Child labor, in which children are forced to work long hours in horrible conditions for very little pay. This often comprises any kind of formal education the child is able to receive and puts them at risk for many diseases

Part I

I never really read so deeply into slavery, and only had a very basic understanding of what occurred before the civil war took place. After reading both Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglass’ narratives on slavery, I was very interested to read about some of the similarities, and differences between the two of them as slaves. After reading both excerpts I learnt so much about the treatment of slaves that I was unaware about before. I think that there is so much to say just about the fact that Harriet Jacobs’ narrative is published under the name “Linda Brent”, and not her own name. It is very challenging to write, or tell stories about being sexually oppressed. I am sure there were other reasons for her publishing her narrative under another name, but that would be my reason if I were her. During slavery a lot of women were abused sexually, whereas men were more physically abused with backbreaking labor. One of the key differences between Douglass’ narrative, and Jacobs’s was that Douglass’ and Jacobs’ narratives are basically the male, and female versions of what life was like as a slave. From reading both excerpts it can be seen that Douglas had a more aggressive personality, and really broke out of slavery, and eventually had a loud voice in the abolition of slavery, whereas Jacobs was a little less aggressive in her pursuit to end slavery. At the end of the day they both had the same ultimate goal.

Part II

1. One form of Contemporary Slavery, also known as modern slavery, is Sex trafficking, when an adult engages in a commercial sex act. It is horrible to think of somebody having to perform sexual acts against their will

2. According to the US department of state there are one million children that are exploited by the global sex trade every year. The average age of these children is 12-14 years old. It is sickening to think that such young children are caught up in this.

3. The International Center for Research on Women estimated that over 51 million girls under the age of 18 were forcibly married. Forced and early marriage are most common in impoverished states in Africa, South Asia as well as the former Soviet republics. However, there are still cases of forced and early marriage in more affluent North American and European countries.

My most significant takeaway from both of the Jacobs excerpts as well as Douglass’ story is that slavery, while on the outside looks like a means of free labor through physical strength, is really a means of absolute control through both physical AND mental control. For instance, take the quote from The Loophole of Retreat, “Dr. Flint, did you bring my mother home? I want to see her. The doctor stamped his foot at him in a rage, and exclaimed, Get out of the way, you little damned rascal! If you don’t, I’ll cut off your head. Benny ran terrified into the house, saying, You can’t put me in jail again. I don’t belong to you now.” Jacobs’ son Benny is apparently no longer Dr. Flint’s possession, but the man is still able to inflict great fear on Benny with the threat of violence. Now Benny must constantly fear his own words and critique every thought that comes to his mind for his own good! Flint is not even his master anymore, the Doctor is able to exert this kind of control just because he is a southern white man. This kind of absolute control is mimicked in Douglass’ narrative when he talks about the slave breaker. The slave breaker would slither out to the fields on his stomach in an attempt to catch one of his slaves slacking off or conversing with one another. By doing this, he is able to instill a constant fear into the slaves and this is absolute rule. Once again, these slaves are forced to critique their own thoughts in order to protect themselves.

Part 2:

1. Indentured servitude, a form of slavery where someone is held to work due to financial obligations, while illegal, is still prevalent in some parts of the world.
2. The U.S. department of State describes human trafficking as modern slavery
3. Child labor, depending on the circumstances, can be considered slavery and is prevalent in other parts of the world.

1. While reading the two excerpts from Harriet Jacobs I saw a relationship between them and the Frederick Douglas narrative when speaking about being a child of slavery. In Harriet Jacobs excerpts it focus more on the time when she was a slave and the things she did in order to protect her children and to try and give them a better future. In Frederick Douglas narrative he empathizes with the slave owner in the understand on to why they get rid of the child that was conceived with the slave, but in Harriet because of this reason she goes to great lengths to try and protect her children from that specific fate. Something that always surprises me when reading these narratives from the perspective of the slave is how hard they are to judge their supposed misconducts while yet lessening that of the slave owners. “With all these thoughts revolving in my mind, and seeing no other way of escaping the doom I so much dreaded, I made a headlong plunge. Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader!” is a quote that stands out to me, because although she is a slave and is put in situation that are completely unthinkable to put another human being, she decides to take advantage of a situation that could favor her but it require doing something that she is not proud of and because of this she instead asks for forgiveness from the reader ashamed for what she is confessing to. She does later explain how because she was a slave she viewed as necessary because no law was there to protect her but it is quite incredible that she believes that it is necessary to ask for forgiveness for an drastic action that she took in order to try and protect her children.
2. Although slavery has been made illegal in our laws for many years it still exists and it is very much known through out our world. One misconception that I found to be quite important is that we believe slavery is more a third world or foreign problem when in reality it is a very prominent problem here with in our own country. The average of a young prostitute is 14 years old and they young girls are forced into these jobs because of circumstance as well and physical and psychological threats. A second thing that I learned from this is that the laws that we currently have in place do nothing to very little to try and help this young women, in reality these laws instead of helping and assisting the young girls, punish and ruin any chance they would have had to try and leave the vicious cycle of slavery. The last thing I learned from this subject is that we have this view of slavery of just being someone who is forced to do manual labor and although that still exists in the world such as in african in the Blood Diamonds mining fields or Dubai with the people who work for no pay, Slavery is much more than just that such as sex trafficking and forced marriage. It is important to not just make the act of slavery illegal but t reform our laws to try and assist all that fall victim to these forms of slavery instead of punishing and further ensuring them into their captures grasps.

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.