Monthly Archives: March 2021

Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl although sets the same tone with how they view slavery as Narritive of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, Harriet Jacobs had vastly different experiences. Jacobs unlike Douglas was not only subjected to physical abuse due to manual labor but also subjected to sexual abuse due to her gender. Jacob describes her experience in an extremely harsh way that hiding and living practically lying down for seven years in a hole with no light nor air is far better than going back to live with her master. Another way Jacobs differed with Douglas is how Jacobs had a kid, Benny. For the years she was hiding in her small dark hole, the laughter of her children is what kept her going, what gave her the power to stay hidden. However combined with Douglas’ experiences, it truly paints a picture, an egregious one for me about what being a slave really was like. Being a slave is not just about white men owning African Americans, but also the mentaly and physically tormenting them for decades, even after the Emancipation Proclamation which was suppose to set them free.

The first important thing I found about modern slavery is how broad the definition is, I knew forced labor and sexual exploitation is considered slavery but I didn’t know that forced marriages is also under the umbrella of slavery. Being someone who is an Asian American immigrant, I have heard multiple stories throughout my life whether it was my own family lineage or my friends family lineage about how common forced marriages were. I would have never guessed that it was considered a form of slavery. Another interesting fact I came to learn is that 1 in 4 people trapped in a form of modern slavery are children, most of them are force to do labor and even join children militias across the world. The last thing I found is that, slavery is not only prevalent in developing countries, but even in first world countries too, like many of countries in Europe. It’s a such a big problem that modern slavery in developed countries made an esitmate of almost 50 billion dollars in 2014.

• First,  what does Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl add to our understanding of the experience of slavery? How does this narrative connect to or differ from Douglass’? (As you read Jacobs’ description of her attic hiding spot, which she refers to as a “loophole of retreat,”  keep in mind that she remained in this hiding place for seven years!

• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl gives us as understanding of domestic violence and sexual assaults which female slaves faced from their masters and discusses how her innocence and principles were shattered at a very young age. Douglass talks about his discovery of finding himself and how his self worth through slavery. Although they were both slaves and went through difficulties, their experiences were completely different. While, Douglass went through many different masters, Jacob escaped from her master and went into a hideout which she refers to as a “loophole of retreat” where she was stuck for seven years, without being able to properly stand, and insects and rats would continuously walk all over her. Although it was extremely terrible situation, she expressed that she would rather be there than be a slave, perhaps, it was a place that gave her a sense of identity.

• Second, please address the following prompt:  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 three important things that you learn about this subject.

I believe it is very important to know that modern day slavery still exists today and we must all be educated about it so that we can abolish it by taking strong actions. In China, Uyghurs Muslims are forcefully taken into a labor camp where they been sterilizing Uyghurs women and committing a mass genocide. Although China had been claiming that it is completely untrue, recently they admitted that it’s a “re-education centers” for Uyghurs. The reason why Ugyhurs muslims have been targeted is because according to the Chinese Communist party they hold “extremist views” and are targeting innocent citizens for their religion.

#1 “If a slave is unwilling to go with his new master, he is whipped, or locked up in jail, until he consents to go, and promises not to run away during the year.Should he chance to change his mind, thinking it justifiable to violate an extorted promise, woe unto him if he is caught! The whip is used till the blood flows at his feet; and his stiffened limbs are put in chains, to be dragged in the field for days and days!” When I read to here, I know that the slavery not because you are women, you will have better life than men. I think this is similar with Fredrick Douglas, they both write both how the slavery have a miserable life. How the people treat slavery between women and men.

#2 After I read this topic, I know that people must have their value to change the life of yourself. Second being a slavery you really miserable during that time period, so people have to work together to against this, and get your own freedom. lastly, I think people are really no heart to treat these people as slavery, people did not really treat slavery as people, so I think these are really important thing to let people know what happened during slavery time.

Actually, I’m not surprised by Harriet Jacobs’ experience of slavery. As a woman who is a vulnerable group, she couldn’t fight with her owner like Frederick Douglass, she would also take more damage than a male slave. In “Life of a Slave Girl“, she was not only beaten and sexually assaulted by Dr. Flint but also envied by the mistress. To run away from Dr. Flint, she lived in a loophole for 7 years. Ironically, after she escaped and living in New York which is a Free State, she finally got freedom was sold herself. “A human being sold in the free city of New York”! “But much as I love freedom, I do not like to look upon it”. So I think Jacobs suffered more than Douglass physically. Jacobs modeled her narrative on the sentimental or domestic novel, her narrative very details, it didn’t use too many adjectives to shared her experience living in the little loophole.

I had read an essay “‘Sea Slaves’ Catch Dinner for America’s Pets” in New York Times. The first thing I learned is contemporary slavery still existed today, and it’s not that far away from us. The second thing is contemporary slavery is normal in many developing countries because it can bring so many benefits and save a lot of the salaries. The third thing is freedom is not given, it is won.

After reading Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of a Slave, and seeing the scene in which Mr. Covey and Douglass fight, where Douglass walks away relatively unharmed, while Mr. Covey, the slave master, is very bruised and bloodied, left a lasting impact on me. Especially more so upon reading Douglass’  new sense of empowerment, as he describes as being “the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood…however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.” This realization of Douglass’ true strength and inward freedom were revolutionary; Douglass realized he had the power to be free. This realization carries heavy implications of the condition of the other enslaved African Americans, because Douglass’ freedom came about after his migration from having the mentality of a slave, to a mentality of free man. This shows that all the other slaves were both mentally and physically enslaved, and if they were to abolish their slavery mentality, the abolition of physical slavery would soon follow. This is especially evident in how Douglass said that he was no longer a slave in fact, but a slave in form. This completely captures Douglass’ transformation being enslaved mentally, which resulted in his acceptance of his slave status, to being a free man mentally, which ultimately led to his freedom.

The passage I have chosen to do my analysis on is chapter 7, specifically the part where Fredrick Douglas is talking about the time he read “ The Columbian Orator”. This passage stood out to me the most because it was the first time I felt genuine anger from him. Up until this chapter, he has spoken about his life very nonchalantly. When he talks about the passing of his mother he said it as almost with no emotions and that it felt just like any other stranger passing to him. But in this passage, something switches, his words no longer are passive. He is writing with passion, the hatred for his life circumstances. The way he speaks of white men by calling them wicked and mean like he hasn’t before shocked me. “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead;” says Fredrick Douglas, this is also a strong imagery for me too. He has opened up a Pandora’s box of his own, he taught himself how to read and write and it is bringing him pain. He describes how the book opened his eyes on what slavery really was tormented him. He even wishes that he was still as ignorant as his fellow slaves because now he can see the bigger picture whereas before he was just blindly following his master’s orders. But at the same time as it is demoralizing, it also fueled a fire in him.He realizes that there are other parts of the world where there are people under similar circumstances as he is and because they were literate, it made them free. It made him more curious and wanting to learn more about “abolition” and how that can be achieved. The book also gave him the courage and confidence to set his plans to escape in motion.

One passage that had a strong impression on me was Chapter ten especially when Douglas talks about how Mr. Covey broke him in. “I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of this discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed upon me; and behold I transformed into a brute.” This quote stuck out to me because I feel like Douglas isn’t even describing a human being. It almost feels like he is being tamed as an animal and now he must only listen to Mr. Covey. I felt sickened reading this part of the passage of because how he isn’t being treated as a human being anymore. I’m sure that many slaves in the South during this time had similar experiences to Douglas and I feel more aware reading this about the way they were treated. Douglas’s diction and syntax here I feel is extremely powerful especially when he says ‘I was broken in body, soul and spirit’. I feel like Mr. Covey had crushed Douglas physically and mentally with these words and Douglas doesn’t even feel himself anymore. One question I would have is Why did this people think that this was ok? Many of these men in the South were Christian, why don’t they feel any decency towards African Americans?