I'm too tired to come up with something witty

In her piece,Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs concentrates on the abomination of slavery as a whole, but more specifically on it’s affect on women of all colors. Haled as a superb example of early feminist literature, and rightly so in my opinion, this autobiographical work illustrates the harshness and often cruelties of life as a piece of merchandise, only as good as the amount of crops they can harvest and lustful pleasure they can bring. From what I’ve gathered by reading the passages provided, she seems to have an intense urge to not only expose these basic truths to the whole of the world, she aims to encourage other women, regardless of color, to speak out about their own knowledge and experiences with such atrocities. Harriet uses simple yet eloquent diction in her piece, insuring that the reader is both comprehending her message and being captivated by its fluency, both of which she succeeds tremendously at. She utilizes tact when addressing potentially controversial and offensive subject, treading lightly but confidently on the issues of ‘feminine purity’ (which the biography in the beginning of this packet touches upon briefly) and its applicability to the ‘sub-human’ negro women, the destruction of family ties when confronted with slavery, and the lack of integrity and morality that exists in a relationship between the owner and it’s property.

Frederick Douglass, though no less effective in his messages and writing abilities, chose a much different approach to his piece, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Where Jacobs used the devices of pathos and flowing diction, Douglass instead employed bluntness and imagery as his weapons of choice. Lines such as ’he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor’ invoke vivid and disturbing images from the reader, leaving little room to interpret this narratives purpose. He, too, challenged the horrors of slavery and the devastating effect they have on its participants, though concentrating his focus on another group. Mulattos, he cited, had it worse than perhaps any other type of slave, for they suffer the intense hatred of their mistresses, are often sold by there own fathers, and are permanently separated from their mothers. He also addresses issues of human cruelties, abuses of power by an oppressor, and the utter powerlessness that must have been felt amongst the oppressed. He is not tentative in his approach as one would expect from a fugitive slave in this era, but is direct and explicit in his recollection of prior events. He holds absolutely nothing back, allowing his audience to feel the full brunt of his message and empathize with him on a level that would not have been possible, had he chosen to tell the watered-down version of things.

Both narratives are equally fascinating and effective, both portraying a unique perspective of life as a slave. These memoirs give us a glimpse into the horrors of dehumanization and the effects it has on the mind and soul, as told by the often kicked ’lions’ of history. They offer us a side of a story rarely told, giving a voice to the millions who were never given one, to those who were permanently silenced in life. Together, they encompass issues that have long since ceased in their relevancy, as well as those that are still very much an issue today. Both offer valuable lessons in terms of the capacity for human brutality, lessons which the younger generation of today would still benefit greatly to learn.

Questions

1) Caucasian authors vouch for their African-American counterparts not only to benefit themselves, but to further a message they themselves believe in. The vast majority of these authors were abolitionists and slave sympathizers, who, I’m sure, made it their own personal goal to assist in the discontinuance of slavery in any way they could. Wendell Phillips and Lydia Maria Child were both American abolitionists and Native American rights activists, adamant in the progression of humanity and justice.

2) These Caucasians assist in the establishment of ethos in two ways. The first would be to gather another perspective on such an issue, making sure that the piece does not lopsidedly favor one race over the other. The other, more important purpose for their input is to settle the concerns of the whites, who may not be entirely comfortable reading a piece by their inferior. Another white assuring them that the accounts in the narrative are indeed true and safe for their delicate eyes to read helps to quell these fears.

3) The primary audience at the time of publication would, of course, be Caucasians. Black literacy rates in the times before the civil war were dismal at best, atrocious at worst. As the majority of the population of blacks were slaves, and it was illegal in most southern states to teach a slave how to read, these slave narrative authors obviously couldn’t count on their peers as an audience. Besides, they wielded little, if any, power to change the issues they were addressing. Liberal whites were targeted because they held the key to the slaves’ freedoms in their hands; they were the ones who needed influencing, who could decide the fate of each and every slave narrative author and their relatives.