Throughout history, women of all colors have traditionally been limited by rigid roles and norms of behavior imposed by patriarchy. Marriage basically represented ownership of the wife by the husband, often positing women to a position no freer than that of chattel. Women were limited in exercising freedom of expression, were dependent upon their husbandÆs for income, and often remained vulnerable to the moods of their husband. In Harriet JacobsÆ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, we see that slaves also lived in a state of tension in which they had to accommodate their ômastersö in order to escape various kinds of oppression. Her story reveals that, much like white married women, the slaveÆs method of resistance often required subtle acts of manipulation in an attempt for free expression.
While Harriet Jacobs discusses various kindnesses she received from her first ôowner,ö when she is sold to Doctor Flint we see she becomes no more than chattel. When Harriet describes the power of Doctor Flint over his slaves, we see that she might well be describing a husbandÆs control over his wife in this era. For she tells us:
He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things. My soul revolted against the mean tyranny. But where could I turn for protection? No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men (Jacobs 45).
In this we see that JacobsÆ prefers freedom over marriage primarily because married women in this era remained basically the ôpropertyö of men and subject to their every whim or desire with little chance of escape. In William W. BrownÆs narrative, we see that unlike white males black males were often treated like female slaves or white married women, t
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