A critical reading of Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Term Paper

A critical reading of Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Term Paper Example Opponents fail to realize that given any medium or structure black writers follow, they would still be criticized. The pleas of black womens suppression have time and again been negated because of its non-appealing ideology - freedom for women of a colored race and letting them be at par with white society intellectually. Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl should be considered a monumental work in black women’s emancipation because it juxtaposed literacy as the key to freedom during an age of slavery and degradation of basic human rights. Social discourse often begins with people concerned with an issue, and wants it to be understood by the society. If it is of interests to the society, it would be forwarded and reformed. Such transformations pervade hierarchical power relations, race, gender, economic status and social construct because the society desires it. Jacobs narrative Incident has been one such discourse which demonstrated that her society was one in which "white men" compelled slaves to live base dishonorable lives under the guise of the Fugitive Slave Law and indulged in the vilest act to exploit slaves as would bloodhounds (Jacobs 69). Basic social norms of today were unheard of during Jacobs time. A slaves child was born a slave (Jacobs 11). She was the property (and not a human being) of her master regardless of the relations she had with her family. A slave did not have the right to bond with her family. This was evidenced in Jacobs words about her father who was a carpenter: "His strongest wish was t o purchase his children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded." (Jacobs 11). There was nothing novel in Jacobs experience if compared to other slaves in the country during the Revolutionary War time. But her experience did make a difference because Jacobs was fortunate to be raised, educated