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.