Harriet Jacobs:


Describe the role of relationships between women in Jacobs’s narrative. What women do we meet? What are their roles -- in families, in the community, in American political culture, as property themselves? Recall our discussion in class regarding the functions of white women and black women within the (context of) the institution of slavery.

What is the double burden borne by the female slave? How does femininity/womanhood compound the burdens of the slave’s life, as Jacobs describes it? How is her plight different from that of a male slave, per her descriptions?

Jacobs is very clear to discuss that she rebuffed Flint’s violent attempts to persuade her to have sexual relations with him. She in effect defends her chastity and affirms, in her description of her first “lover” (whom she is forbidden by Flint from seeing or marrying), that she upholds a belief in marrying by choice and for love. Yet, she proceeds to describe her “headlong plunge” into her relationship with the white attorney Samuel Sawyer, which she qualifies as an effective plunge into sin and shame. She, however, asks the reader’s pity: “Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom” (822). Why might she have proceeded in the rhetorical manner in discussing her debasement, as it were, concerning bearing children by a white man? Or is it, rather, that she bears children out of wedlock that shames her? Why does she proceed in relations with Samuel Sawyer (meaning, she has not one, but two, children by him)? How is this an act of ultimate defiance against Flint?

Describe Flint, beginning with the suggestions of his name. Jacobs chose this name for her former master to use in her book (Dr. James Norcom was the real name of her former master). In the Preface to the narrative, Jacobs writes: “I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts. I have concealed the names of places, and given persons fictitious names. I had no motive for secrecy on my account, but I deemed it kind and considerate towards others to pursue this course” (Incidents 5).

Why does Flint want to move Jacobs to a cottage out of town?

Jacobs sought to “capture the attention of Northern white women” with her narrative. What devices does she employ to rally the sympathies of these white women to her cause? What was the nineteenth-century white woman’s role in the community and the home? How does Jacobs describe the southern approximation of this? For white women in the south and for black women? According to her description, which women – slave-owners or slaves, as characterized by her mother and grandmother – better exemplify the (ideal) morals of Northern white womanhood?

How does Jacobs discuss skin color and race? She writes, “What tangled skeins are the genealogies of slavery” (826). Discuss this notion. How does her own family exemplify this “tangled skein”?

Jacobs was, as the Norton describes, eager to “contribute her life story to the abolitionist cause” (812). What role did Lydia Maria Child play in the publication of Jacobs’ account? Is this significant and worth study? Why or why not?

In a letter to Jacobs dated August 13th, 1860, Childs writes:

“I have been busy with your M.S. ever since I saw you; and have only done on third of it. I have very little occasion to alter the language, which is wonderfully good, for one whose opportunities for education have been so limited. The events are interesting, and well told; the remarks are also good, and to the purpose. But I am copying a great deal of it, for the purpose of transposing sentences and pages, so as to bring the story into continuous order, and the remarks into appropriate places. I think you will see that this renders the story much more clear and entertaining” (Norton Critical Edition 193).

What do you make of Child’s comments? What is their significance?