Gendered Views of Slavery with Examples of Two Books - Book Report/Review Example

Gendered Views of Slavery: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave African Chattel Slavery was a dehumanizing and inhumane trade which oppressed both African men and women in the U.S. As seen through the lens of gender, slave experiences differ, with African women subjugated to targeted cruelty such as rape and sexual breeding practices. Despite facing suffering, torture and great restrictions on self-expression, slaves find pathways of escape. Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs highlights the woman’s peculiar experience and exploitation, whereas Eric Foner’s Voices of Freedom cites the historical account of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave presents slavery through the eyes of the Black American slave. Both these biographies are true slave narratives, detailing the horrors of slavery specific to each gender, the coping mechanisms of slaves to survive and preserve their identities, culture and lives. As Christians, African slaves in America point to the so-called religion of the White man against him, seeing that such blatant contradictions existed between word and practice. Black slaves resort to making stirring appeals to the tenets of Christianity, the so-called White mans religion. Frederick Douglass is one of them who refers to the values of Christian love and the inconsistency in White slaveholders-the cruelest of men. Douglass wields the Holy Bible which instructs Christians in defense of human rights, equality, justice and brotherhood. Repeatedly Douglass alludes to the Holy Scriptures rebuking the slaveholders as “scribes, pharisees and hypocrites” (Matthew 23:13-16). Using the same religion which justified enslavement, Douglass turns the White man’s philosophy on its heels. To add force to his arguments, he quotes numerous scriptural texts from the Bible. Douglass understands that Gods unconditional love is impartial and likewise, all who claim to follow the tenets of love must adopt those unbiased standards. Jacobs does likewise in her slave narrative, extracting principles of Christianity and using it against her would-be masters. She characterizes her masters as those who “send the Bible to the heathen abroad and neglect the heathen at home” (Jacobs 113). Here Jacobs employs satire and irony for she knows that the so-called savage heathens would notice the disparity between Christian America’s slave institution and the doctrines of Christianity. Her observation serves to paint ridiculous the actions of slaveholders who profess one thing but do the opposite. Yet, she discovers that it is the White mans goal to keep inferior races in the dark by denying them freedom but preferring to serve them religious dogma. At the same time, one discerns the contrast between the said heathen barbarians and the prided, civilized and enlightened people in America. In one of her incidences when her master tries to take advantage of her sexually, Jacobs retorts to her master that, “the Bible doesn’t say so” (Jacobs 115). This situation bears evidence of the techniques of abolitionists who metaphorically beat the White man with his own Bible, using Biblical principles to confound and put to shame the oppressor. In the face of stifling repression, slaves do not break; instead they find innovative ways of resistance and self-expression as they go through their daily lives. African slaves in the U.S. make cultural adaptations to preserve their identities, skillfully encoding their culture in the dominant culture. In her narrative, Jacobs portrays singing and shouting at church as a cultural and spiritual way in which slaves would integrate traditional methods of worship into the mainstream religion, Christianity. The lot of African religions was to transform, chameleon-like, “due to the influences of the new environment and experiences in slavery” (Smith 1450). Just as chameleons blend in with their surroundings for survival, African practices had to assume a different appearance to escape notice. Since freedom of religion was proscribed for slaves, slaves have to find other covert means of doing practicing. “Slaves often had to practice their indigenous beliefs as well as their newfound Christianity under the cloak of night” (Finkleman 26). This recourse makes the African religion an underground profession. However, in public, slaves had a way known among them all to culturally express themselves. Even at the Methodist church, the slaves can be seen celebrating in their own culture as “the slaves generally compose their own songs and hymns” (Jacobs 78). Here Jacobs describes the birth of the Negro spiritual. This slave culture arises in the face of oppression and extreme hardship. Music plays an important role in the life of the slave. Derived from folk music, Negro spirituals evolve as an expression of the desire of slaves to be free. There lies a stark difference between the man’s response and the woman’s response to slavery. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs notes that “slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible worse for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have the wrongs, sufferings and mortifications peculiarly their own” (Jacobs 86). A gendered response exists as the African male and the African female’s risks vary in the context of Chattel Slavery. The enslaved African female has to contend against the lust of the slave master, the practice of slave breeding, sexual shame and the witness of the plight of her children growing up as slaves-soon to be separated from her. Rape is a reality as the slave woman is not only held captive to the field and the home, but also captive to the White man’s passion who owns her body. Jacobs’ reaction to Mr. Flint’s sexual overtures is a form of resistance for she refuses to surrender her body to her master. Knowing the inescapable reality of legitimate rapes, Jacobs decides to have a voluntary sexual relationship with Mr. Sands, rather than experiencing rape at the hands of her master. At fifteen, Jacobs testifies that “my master began to whisper foul words in my ear” (Jacobs 29). The African American slave woman remains exposed to the wiles of the slave master, brutalized and given over to his sexual perversions. At the end of it all, Jacob’s struggle against the White-governed system proves futile since she refuses one White man and falls into lap of another. During the course of the slave narrative, one also sees that the hope of raising a Black family would not materialize (for Jacobs does fall in love with a free Black man), Jacobs other alternative was the White men that desire to prey on her. As a mother, the African woman also runs the risk of seeing her children separated from her and sold into slavery or see her daughter become the wife of the slave master. Incidents of the life of the Slave Girl documents Jacob’s trajectory from a young girl to a woman in the toil of servitude that almost breaks her spirit. Her suffering inflicted by Mr. Flint who pursues her and her miserable living conditions are lamentable. She is helpless to protect her children from slavery where the slave mother is forced to give up her child to be used as the masters disposal. The slave mother’s child was often conceived by the White master. Commodification converts the sacred into the profane as the body and soul of the slave is reduced to cash value. In sum, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl underlines the hard lot of the slave woman and shows the options for resistance and escape. In this book, abolitionist and pro-slavery forces clash and tensions culminate as the slaves and their sympathizers war against slave prejudice and oppression. The Black woman is imperiled by slave breeding since she has no rights to affirm her personhood. However, Blacks still find avenues of escape through their music culture and by actively plotting and executing plans to run away to anti-slavery states. Works Cited: Foner, E. Voices of Freedom: A Documentary of History, W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. Finkleman, P. Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, New York, 2006. Jacobs, H. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Indo-European Publishing, 2010. Smith, JC. Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture, Greenwood Publishing, California, 2010. Read More