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Harriet Jacobs shares her lifelong battle with slavery and the chattel

principle in the novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The chattel principle
states that all slaves are property and that all slaves have a price at which
they are worth. Even from a young age, the oppression of the chattel
principle shapes Jacobs into having a mindset and belief that no free white
owners will be willing to grant her or her family freedom.
Harriet Jacobs at an early stage in her life internalizes the idea that she
will never be freed in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. After her
mothers passing at the age of six Jacobs is sent to live with her mothers
mistress. Being as young as she is, after her mistresses passing, Jacobs is
beginning to understand that freedom is not obtained easily for slaves
despite the kindness and education she receives from the mistress. This
woman taught Jacobs how to read and write and cared deeply for her and her
mother before she passed (Jacobs, 4). Surely if anyone were to grant her
freedom in her life Jacobs thought that this woman would be her best chance
at granting her freedom. When she is not given freedom by the mistress and
left to the mistresss family, Jacobs learns very young that no matter how
nice white free people may be the chattel principle is clear that all slaves
have a price. That price will continue to hang over every slave, no matter
how close the bond between slave and owner. There is an obvious and quick
shift in Jacobss optimism shown when she thought she might be freed, but
repents the belief as soon as she finds out she is in fact not freed. This shift
is displayed when Jacobs goes from saying, I could not help having some
hopes that she left me free (Jacobs, 4) before being given to the mistresss
family and quickly switching to believing that, We all know that the memory
of a faithful slave does not avail much to save her children from the auction
block (Jacobs, 5). This event early in Harriet Jacobss life shapes her to
believe that freedom will not be granted to her or any slave and is a huge
part of her losing confidence and trust in slave owners, despite her
gratefulness for her mothers mistress.
Jacobs not only comes to her own conclusion she will never be a free
woman, she is told explicitly of this fact as well. Jacobs has many run-ins with
Dr. Flint, her owner in her teens, who makes many sexual advances towards
her and she resents him for it. She knows that to say no to a masters
request is one of the worst things for a slave to do, but she despises this man
and leads him to keep her out of spite saying, You are my slave, and shall
always be my slave. I will never sell you, that you may depend upon
(Jacobs, 65). After hearing Dr. Flint say these words not only does her
previous notion of never being freed stand true, it has solidified into a
concrete idea that she will actually never be freed, because she knows if he
is never going to sell her that means he is also never going to free her either.
Owners just continue to show Jacobs that she is never to be a free woman
and fears the same for the fate of her children Ellen and Benny.

Even though the father to Harriet Jacobss children finds a way to buy
the children off of Dr. Flint, the chattel principle prevails and again proves to
be stronger than the conscience of the slave owners. Benny and Ellen are
products of Jacobs and a rich slave owner Mr. Sands who is a wealthy slave
owner of a neighboring property. The children are owned by Mr. Flint and he
plans to keep them under his control to pain Harriet and plans to send them
to work the fields. After Harriet escapes Dr. Flint cannot help but sell the
children to a slave trader secretly working for Mr. Sands. Even though Dr.
Flint wants to keep the children out of spite the chattel principle disarms this
notion and is displayed when he sells the children and Jacobs brother for
1900 dollars because every slave has a price (Jacobs, 117-118). It is hard for
Jacobs to imagine Mr. Sands freeing her children because she has been
molded in the past to believe that all slave owners do not set slaves free no
matter the circumstances, under the idea that every slave has a price and is
too valuable to just let free. Jacobs is indeed correct to feel this way as Ellen
never receives her freedom and is sent to live with relatives in Brooklyn
(Jacobs, 155). Although Ellen gets to visit Jacobs she knows she cannot take
Ellen to live with her because that would put her at risk to anger the Hobbes
and have Ellen be sent away. Jacobs previously shaped mindset leads her to
believe this fact when she says, Mrs. Bruce offered me a home for Ellen; but
pleasant as it was it would have been I did not dare to accept it, for fear of
offending the Hobbes family (Jacobs, 191). Again Harriet Jacobs is grateful
for Mr. Sands being able to buy the children away from Dr. Flint and she is
saddened at the fact he will not free them. She is however not surprised to
find out that the children are not to be freed after being shaped through her
life by the principle that no slave is of no value and always has a price.
Jacobs describes in various situations her frustrations with the white
owners and always concludes that slavery is inevitable and lifelong. She
states that she has lost all confidence in the white man over the many years
of her trust being broken by the masters closest to her. The confidence has
slowly been lost because of situations such as when the mistress does not
free her, Mr. Sands does not free her children and the Hobbes does not allow
Ellen to stay with her mother. None of them free the slaves when they easily
could have. This mistrust and lack of confidence is evident when Jacobs says,
I had entered this family with the distrustful feelings I had brought with me
out of slavery (Jacobs 190). Another instance of Jacobs speaking on her
thoughts of the white owners shaping her views on life is when expresses
that she fully believes in the chattel principle saying, These God breathing
machines are no more, in the sight of their masters than the cotton they
plant or the horses they tend (Jacobs, 5). She also shares that no white man
or woman can understand what it is like to be a slave and because of that
very few will see it through to free their slaves, for the white man only has
one thing in mind, the value of the slave in an economic sense. Harriet
demonstrates her pain to the white people saying, You never knew what it
is to have the laws reduce you to the conditions of the chattel entirely

subject to the will of another (Jacobs, 60). Harriet Jacobs continuously to


exudes that the chattel principle shaped her to believe that the white owners
would never set her and her family free under any circumstances, and holds
onto that notion for most of her life.
With a mental thought process defined throughout her life, Harriet
Jacobs had clearly been shaped to believe that freedom will not come to her
or her children due to the overarching theme of the chattel principle that
slaves cannot avoid. Harriet Jacobs has been through many rough situations
in The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and the continued theme is that
she cannot shake the idea of the chattel principle no matter what her status
or relationship is with her owners. The chattel principle is woven into the
works of slavery and caused the oppression of slaves including the family of
Harriet Jacobs.

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