Slave Biographies

When one is born into poverty and oppression, it is difficult to believe one can achieve more than the community expects one can achieve. Despite the abject poverty and slavery faced by both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, both overcame the forces against them and went on to become writers who advocated abolition of slavery. Douglass' journey is chronicled in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, while Jacobs wrote of her experiences in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. However, despite both Douglass and Jacobs being treated to extreme cruelty and violence, they overcame the obstacles of slavery through a form of accommodation that ultimately was a truer and more profound form of resistance than any form of violence could hope to effect. A conclusion will address why the form of accommodation used by Douglass and Jacobs ended up being more enduring than violence.

It is difficult to imagine experiencing the life of slavery of either Frederick Douglass or Harriet Jacobs and not responding with violence. While Douglass was treated in a kindly manner by some slave owners, he was brutally whipped by Edward Covey, who had a reputation for breaking slaves. Douglass did challenge Covey and beat him in a fight after he could bear no more abuse, so soundly beating Covey that Covey never again beat him. Yet this reaction of a young teenage Douglass is understandable. More remarkable is his ability to achieve accommodati

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is not only a slave; she is a female slave. This means she is often subjected to abuse from both black and white males. In this sense, she discovers she must discover a means of accommodation to free her and save her children. As she tells us of the significant forces against her when explaining the control of her owner, Doctor Flint, "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?...There is no shadow of law to protect [the slave girl] from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by friends who bear the shape of men" (Jacobs 45). Eventually, this revulsion of the soul will be used by Jacobs to understand it is through the use of men she can thwart the aims of Flint and ultimately win her freedom. We see that Jacobs' pseudonym Linda Brent understands she will be sexually abused by Doctor Flint. Like Douglass' stratagems, Brent is ultimately able to figure out a means of thwarting Doctor Flint's aims without resorting to violence. Linda takes the monumental act of resistance by taking a lover of her own choosing and becoming pregnant in order to thwart Flint's plans to abuse

Category: History - S