ddition, it was understood that many slaveholders took sexual advantage of their female slaves, which produced mixed offspring. So a law was enacted stating: ôA child shall follow the condition of the motherö (Jacobs, 2002, p. 26). These children, as well as the mothers, were usually sold off as soon as possible by the mistresses of the plantations, who did not want their own children playing alongside their slave half-sisters and brothers. In addition, as soon as female slaves reached fourteen or fifteen years old, the cycle would start again (Jacobs, 2002). JacobsÆ harassment by her master began at that age. Although he never raped her because they lived in a small community where her grandmother was respected, he used all other means of persuasion. For example, he told her that, ôI was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all thingsö (Jacobs, 2002, p. 470). He forbid her to see the one free man she did love, threa
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