Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas, both of whom were born into slavery, described their experiences in passionate, compelling narratives. As this brief essay will demonstrate, both shared the vulnerabilities of the slave, the mistreatment handed out to these victims of an immoral institution, and a sense of being viewed as inferior to their white masters. However, their experiences were further shaped by their gender and their progress toward emancipation and freedom.
Both Jacobs and Douglass composed slave-narrative, defined as follows:
"The ante-bellum slave narrative was the product of fugitive bondmen who rejected the authority of their masters and their socialization as slaves and broke away, often violently, from slavery. . . . Through an emphasis on slavery as deprivation--buttressed by extensive evidence of a lack of adequate food, clothing, and shelter; the denial of basic familial rights; the enforced ignorance of most religions or moral precepts; and so on--the ante-bellum narrative pictures the South's "peculiar institution" as a wholesale assault on everything precious to humankind." (Andrews 79).
Such narratives are often passionate and compelling in that they reveal the depths of abuse experienced by victims of slavery.
Harriet Jacobs (1130) makes note of the fact that as a young slave, she became accustomed to the fact that she was expected to render absolute obedience to her master; she also makes it clear that deviations from this obedience were punished and unacceptable. She demonstrates in her narrative that slaves had no control over their destinies, that they and their children could be sold or disposed of at will, and that despite their instruction in Christianity, they were not treated as Christians ought to be treated by other Christians. Later, as she was vulnerable to the unwelcome advances of white masters, this woman turned to her faith and her sense of pride a...