In “Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl” Harriet Jacobs talks about the life of oppression and tension during her childhood. It’s a narration full of distress and breathtaking happenings that surround the little girl from when she was six years old. Growing up, Jacobs is forced to deal with the  sudden passing of her mother. She mourns her mother and learns about women in slavery at a very young age. She highlights that she knew about slavery from her mother’s death when she heard other people whispering about slavery.  Later on Jacobs experiences even more traumatic events as her friends died and a little later her father who was her only hope died. Slavery was proving to be harsh and punishing to the slaves. After the death of her father the reality of slavery appeared to her and her brother Willie. They confronted each other as they tried to figure out their entire life in slavery. For example, food was not adequate and one was prevented from visiting relatives like grandmothers who had something for the children to take. The slaves were treated worse than dogs and Jacobs came across a slave groaning in pain as he was being whipped by his master. This was a traumatic experience for her as a young girl. The narration depicts the condition of a female child in the hands of slavery and the abuse she had to go through.

The Seneca Falls declaration of 1848 was brought about in efforts to fight for the rights of women in slavery. It aimed at discussing the religious, civil and social rights and conditions of women and female children. The role of women in society was to be revisited and strict policies were developed. The event brought about a heated talk about the rights of women in voting and though many elites disregarded the issue but attendees such as Fredrick Douglas proposed the universal suffrage to be followed and on that day the women signed the documents that demanded their rights be granted. The convention was geared towards moral, civil and social rights where revolutionary ideas were brought out and the struggle for the rights of women to vote began.

Fredrick Douglass on the other hand speaks eloquently and strongly about the age of slavery and his experience before escaping from slavery. He spoke to the people about the oppressive nature of slavery and the masters. He called the government that supported slavery oppressive, unreasonable and unjust to humanity. He said that oppression made the bright men mad and that it was not the right thing for any state to do. He talked about the fathers of the citizens’ dream of having a place equal to everyone and the manner in which a few greedy people killed this dream.

Looking at the three narratives, it is clear that the Jacobs narrative was more directed at women’s place in society and was from a personal experience of slavery while growing up similar to the case of Fredrick and the Seneca Falls declaration. In Jacobs’s narrative the slavery was real from a young age which other documents aren’t able to relate to on a first hand basis. To promote her arguments Jacobs’s narrative should include styles such as painting real pictures of the old days and also use of other first hand experiences involved in those days.