The two narratives “The Loophole of Retreat” and “From the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” written by Harriet Jacobs resonate deeply with me and generations of Jacobs’ female readers. Her stories add important and dynamic increments to my understanding of the American slavery system from the standpoint of a woman slave. Jacobs successfully emphasizes the dreadful living conditions of African Americans in the 19th century as well as the inconceivably inhumane relationship between female slaves and their white male masters. Whereas Frederick Douglass reveals the petrifying conditions of those living and working on plantations under the barbaric tortures of their masters, Jacobs focuses more on the many challenges of slaves in their pursuit of freedom. Even though the two kinds of slaves were in two utterly polar contexts, either with or without freedom they both experienced horrifying situations. The image of “dripping blood” from the torturing scene of Douglass’s aunt was just as obsessing and haunting as Jacob’s bed (In “The Loophole of Retreat) which was “never occupied by anything but rats, mice and shingles.“ More interestingly, both elaborate on the separation of black mothers from their own children at birth if their babies were the offspring of their own masters. Nonetheless, the two authors demonstrates distinctive literary styles. While Douglass’s stories are well-known for heroic elements, those of Jacobs express a softer sentiment as she aims to relate her experience with women of differing races and classes.
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• According to U.S. Department of State, China is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. A significant portion of this human slave business are women and children from neighboring Asian countries, including Vietnam, Burma and Laos.
• According to Gvnet.com, in my country Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of young women of sixteen to eighteen years of age, in trying to escape poverty, are being lured to foreign marriages with men of various shapes and sizes. Most of the victims were poor, unemployed and uneducated, according to the Vietnamese Prime Minister.
• In the U.K, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is an Act of the Parliament which is designed to limit the activities relating to human trafficking and slavery. I find this very interesting in a sense that modern slavery, unlike that of the 19th century in America, takes many different forms. For example, in businesses’ supply chains, slavery emerges in the form of labors exploitation. Thus, a key component to the U.K.’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 lies in its ability to prevent businesses from using human slave and human trafficking as an implement to cut cost.