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24 March 2016

Slavery and Literature in the 1800s

African American slaves in the 1800s have always played an important role in the history

of American society, and have helped to develop and shape United States of America to what is

it today. Slaves would use narratives and speeches to share their experiences and try to make

society to see and understand what the conditions that African Americans lived in were.

Literature has helped to preserve the stories and narratives of African American slaves, and has

helped to make individuals understand the conditions that they have to live on.

Many students taking history or literature courses such as: African American History,

U.S. History, Women in America, Literature of American Slavery, and many other courses can

benefit and learn from the different passages, tales and speeches given by slaves in the 19th

century, that reflect the poor conditions that African Americans were sentenced to live with.

The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and Sojourner Truth’s Speech

to the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851 are two readings from The Norton

Anthology of American Literature that talk about slavery and women in the 1800s.

Sojourmer Truth was Born into slavery in 1797. Sojourmer became one of the most

powerful advocates for human rights in the nineteenth century. She spent her childhood on a

New York estate owned by a Dutch-American called Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh. Like many

other slaves, she was beaten several times, mistreated and sold to many different Masters.

Sojourmer Truth fell in love with Robert, a fellow male slave. Sadly, they were separated by

Robert’s master. Later on, she was forced to marry another slave named Thomas, with whom she

had five children.

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That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted

over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into

carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?

Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into

barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much

and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And

ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to

slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me!

And ain't I a woman?

Sojourmer Truth’s fragment from her speech delivered in Ohio shows what her situation

was, how her ethnicity sentenced her to a life full of slavery and mistreatment. As a black

woman, she had no human rights, she was only considered property and had to live to meet the

needs of her Master. Throughout the speech, Sojourmer Truth firmly expresses her idea of how

sexism and racism sentenced all African American to slavery under the worst conditions during

the 1800s. The speech is mainly about black women and the lack of human rights.the end, she

tells the important role of women in the world.

The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is not like any other

conventional slave narratives. The narrative does not acknowledge Harriet Jacobs as its author,

Jacobs narrated her story throughout the pseudonym “Linda Brent” instead. The narrator shares

the few fortunate circumstances of her childhood before she acknowledged she was a slave and

was set to live a repressed life.

This was the climax! I found it hard to preserve my self-control, when I

looked round, and saw women who were nurses, as I was, and only one shade
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lighter in complexion, eyeing me with a defiant look, as if my presence

were a contamination. However, I said nothing. I quietly took the child in

my arms, went to our room, and refused to go to the table again. Mr. Bruce

ordered meals to be sent to the room for little Mary and I. This answered

for a few days; but the waiters of the establishment were white, and they

soon began to complain, saying they were not hired to wait on negroes. The

landlord requested Mr. Bruce to send me down to my meals, because his

servants rebelled against bringing them up, and the colored servants of

other boarders were dissatisfied because all were not treated alike.

This fragment from the narrative The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet

Jacobs what the circumstances that African American had to deal with on a daily basis were, and

what their feelings towards it were. African Americans were always criticized, left behind and

mistreated by the rest of the society. As much as slaves tried to complain and fight for their

rights, they were never successful on finding a way to even out their rights with the rest of the

society’s rights.

As we can see with these two pieces, slaves used literature and speeches to share their

experiences and express their feelings towards slavery. Slave narratives are important not only

because they narrate the different stories about African American history and literature, but they

also reveal the complexities of the dialogue between whites and blacks in America in the last two

centuries. It is very important to keep slave narratives alive for many reasons, it is important to

keep a record of historical events regardless of how horrible those events were. Also, by

remembering the past, individuals might be smart enough to not make the same mistakes in the

future, the wise will learn from the past. Slave narratives are important in that these narratives
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offer the oppressed the ability to speak for themselves. These are two valuable lessons where

scholars can learn from past generations and experiences. Students may also use these pieces as

resources to learn from, write essays, reenact speeches and much more. Narrative fragments and

pieces written by slave African Americans are the best evidence that we have from the 19th

century and the historical events that occurred during that period of slavery. Finally, narratives

that illustrate the lives of slaves help Americans to understand the history and events that took

them where they are today and also give them insights into what they should do looking into the

future.
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Works Cited

Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.

Norton, W. W. &, 2011. Print. Sojourner Truth: Speech to the Women's Rights Convention in

Akron, Ohio, 1851

Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.

Norton, W. W. &, 2011. Print. The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs