Slave narratives and abolitionist books share much in common in terms of their descriptions of the institution of slavery, how slavery is entrenched in American society, and how slaves struggle to overcome the psychological humiliation and physical degradation that slavery entails. Frederick Douglass's (1845) Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs's (1861) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl both capture the daily cruelty and overall theme of slavery. These two slave narratives present a poignant picture of what it was like to live as a slave, showing also how slaves attempted to escape. Douglass and Jacobs also show how slaves managed to keep their families as together as possible, struggling against all odds to do so because of the systematic means by which whites enabled and even encouraged the dismantling of African-American families. However, there are some core differences between Douglass's (1845) and Jacobs's (1861) narratives that are worth noting from a sociological and historical perspective....
The main difference between the two narratives is gender. Jacobs writes from the perspective of a female slave, which raises important issues such as how female slaves were abused sexually. The potential for rape and sexual harassment was far greater for female slaves than for males, and Douglass does not address such issues in his autobiography. Jacobs shows how slave women could use their sexuality as a tool for empowerment, as when she purposely has sex and bears the children of Mr. Sands in order to avoid having to succumb to the sexual advances of her cruel master Dr. Flint. What Douglass addresses, and Jacobs does not, is the ways freed slaves were starting to compete on the job market with whites: which led to a great degree of social instability throughout the country.
Slave Narrative and Black Autobiography - Richard Wright's "Black Boy" and James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography The slave narrative maintains a unique station in modern literature. Unlike any other body of literature, it provides us with a first-hand account of institutional racially-motivated human bondage in an ostensibly democratic society. As a reflection on the author, these narratives were the first expression of humanity by a group of people in a society where
Not only does he capture the essence of India, he gives the reader an idea of the people, their food, and their culture, all together. In this, the language of his work is like a travelogue, and so, it combines many diverse types of literature into one compact and yet compelling whole. Equiano fills the book with descriptive language like this, and powerful language, too. In conclusion, this slave narrative is
He was not just some compassionate liberal advocating freedom for the oppressed, he was an actual victim of the system who had risen above it. This strengthened his leadership abilities even further because he was able to use his personal experiences to relate the horrors of slavery to those who had only read about it. When he tells about the cruelty of the slave overseer Mr. Gore, stating "His savage
Douglass did not have those options and he had to locate ways to become free that involved saving money and escaping. In the end they both used similar methods to escape but the initial decisions were gender based. The final similarity in the lives of the two was what they chose to do with their lives following their escape. They both worked to help free slaves who had not been
Equiano Douglas The narratives of Frederick Douglass and Thomas Equiano both offer insight into the African and African-American experiences prior to the Civil War. While both Douglass and Equiano can both easily be classified as abolitionists, their approach to abolitionism and political activism via literature differs significantly. One of the main reasons why Douglass and Equiano differ in their approach is that they wrote during completely different time periods: Equiano nearly
South - Mary Chesnut & Fredrick Douglass Prior to making a comparison between Mary Chesnut and Frederick Douglass, in order to present material which sheds light on the relationship between white southern women and slaves, it would seem appropriate to look closely at each of these two noteworthy characters from American history. Mary Boykin Chesnut Mary Boykin Chesnut was born in 1823, into the aristocracy of South Carolina, had all the privileges
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now