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Slave narrative

Harriet A. Jacobs vs. Solomon Northup

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Ángela Fernández Fuentes

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Before the American Civil War, Southern states were called slave states. The United
States slavery existed during XVIII and XIX century. After that, there was an expansion
of the north abolitionism. The cotton expansion took place in 1800. It increased the idea
of having a cheaper workforce so the owners of plantation would have had people who
worked on their lands. This is one of the reasons why slavery was triggered. This was
mainly used for benefits and for economic reasons. These motives led to civil war
between the Northern States and the Southern States causing slavery (1861-1865).
American states began to divide for some ideological and economic reasons. Nineteen
northern states banned slavery, while eleven southern states allowed the sale of slaves.
At the moment it ended, the Federal Congress banned slavery in 1862 and the first of
January 1863 declared free all slaves. With the triumph of the northerners, slavery
disappeared from the United States and the United States of America reunited.
Abolitionist cause used as propaganda the narratives of some slaves who reached the
North. Solomon Northup and Harriet A. Jacobs are two of the black people who
endured the bondage period. While they were held captive they suffered torture. These
harrowing tales would be narrated by themselves after they obtained their freedom. This
essay intends to draw similarities and differences between these two narratives, focusing
on the issue of gender. Both, men and women suffered the horrors of slavery, but
gender marked some differences: on top of their work in the plantations or the
household, women were often seen as sexual objects and repulsive people. Maybe
women had the “benefit” of working as nanny or housemaid, so they did not do hard
labour. But this raised the possibility of spending more time with their Mistresses, who
were jealous of women who had to put up with their owner’s abuses.

Solomon Northup was born on July 1808 in New York. His father Mintus had
been born into slavery but he was freed following the death of his Master, so Solomon
also obtained the liberty. Solomon married Anne Hampton, a free black woman. In
1834, they moved to Saratoga, New York, where they worked to hold their three
children, Alonzo, Margaret and Elizabeth. So Solomon had a quiet life. He and his
family lived with the effort of every day. Solomon was clever because he had been
educated. He knew how to write, read and play the violin. Harriet Jacobs, however, was
still born slave (February 1813) also knew how read and write. She was cultured thanks
to her mother’s mistress. So, Solomon and Harriet were different from others slaves.
They had been educated and maybe because of this they could run away from slavery.
Whereas the most of slaves were captured when they were young so their minds were
more malleable. They thought that they were born to be slaves therefore the slaves did
not flee for lack of knowledge out because they thought they were born inferior to
whites. “Literacy is the journey from slavery to freedom.” (Frederick Douglass)

One of the differences between these accounts – differences that are triggered by
the writers’ own experiences – is the idea that one of them is the narrative of a woman
who was born a slave and a man who became a slave later in his life. Harriet was born a
slave but she had not realized until her mother’s mistress died. Due to this, she was
bequeathed to Dr. Norcom’s daughter. At the age of twelve Harriet became Dr. Norcom
daughter’s slave. She was three years old so the true Mistress Harriet was Dr. James
Norcom. This man was the most important motive of her misery. Dr. Norcom was the
second and the last owner of Harriet. It was from here that Harriet real bondage began:
“I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed
away.” (Incidents in the life of slave Girl p.2) In contrast, Solomon was a free man
“Having been born a freeman” (Twelve years a slave,p.3) He was kidnapped by two
men, Brown and Hamilton (1841). They told him to work with them playing the violin
in their circus performances. They offered him a good payment so he, innocently,
accepted the deal. In a certain way, he was accepting his slave life. They were travelling
until they arrived to Washington where Northup was drugged and sold as a slave called
Platt Hamilton. He was conveyed to New Orleans. In the north states slave sales were
not allowed, so during his travel he describes how they had to hide themselves until
they arrived in New Orleans where he was sold to William Ford. Later Solomon owner
changed. When they became free, they wrote their own experiences as slaves. On March
1854, Solomon had already written his book “Twelve Years as slave” and at the same
date, Harriet Jacobs begins to write about her experiences in anonymous letters for a
New York newspaper. She wrote anonymously because sex was taboo. A black teenager
raped by her white owner was the worst thing seen. Later she begins to write her
book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. Both stories have the typical structure of
slave’s narratives. In the beginning there is a prologue which is written by a “white
hand” what gives veracity to their texts. In the narrative “twelve years a slave” David
Wilson claims “Many of the statements are corroborated by abundant evidence”.
Solomon could repeat the same history several times without any contradiction. Lidia
Maria Child, who is the white hand in “Incidents in the life of a slave girl” uses the
phrase “The victimization of female slaves.” This statement has a connection with the
notions of sexuality and genre. These narratives had a very important role in the
abolitionist period but Jacob’s narrative provoked some doubts because the
development of the story was suspicious of some critics: “The work is not credible. In
the first place it is too orderly; too many of the major characters meet providentially
after years of separation…” (John Blassingame “the slave of community”. Gates, 1987)
Time later, Jean Fagan Yellin checked the story and she changed the idea of a fraud
narrative. This helped to promote Jacobs’ Incidents.

As we saw in the Solomon narrative, slavery was worse for him. He had formed
a family and he knew the meaning of freedom. Those who were born slaves had
interiorized the idea that the white man was superior and they thought that they had to
die slaves. But Solomon and Harriet knew the truth was otherwise. Harriet’s
grandmother was the figure who gave her the idea that working hard, she could buy
freedom for her and her children.

Another difference between female and male slavery it was evident within their
owners. Woman never had the opportunity of showing what they were good at
something. Solomon’s first owner thought that Solomon would get to build a raft to
carry objects from one side to another. Because of this, Solomon felt comfortable being
with Ford. “It was the desire of Ford's approving voice (...) I made up a narrow raft,
consisting of twelve cribs.”(Twelve years a slave, p.54) Ford was different from other
Masters. He was capable of feeling the slave pain but is unable to act accordingly.
Solomon still did not know how hard life of slavery was until Epps appears in his slave
life. His second Master (Epps) and Dr. Norcom were very similar. Both of them use
Harriet and Patsey as sexual objects. Epps was drunkard and he always had arguments
with slaves over anything. He possessed a favourite woman slave (Patsey). This was not
a good thing. Beautiful slaves were used to have relationships with other men, although
they were still small girls. The same happen with Dr. Norcom. He used Harriet to have
sexual relations with her. Women had the particular burdens: sexual objects. They were
hated by white women, because they “seduced” their husbands and in that period, to be
attracted and have sexual relations with a black woman was looked down upon socially.
Even more those women got pregnant by white men. Children as a result from abuses
were battered by the Master’s wife because they were illegitimate children. Not only
was it a bad thing for the children but also for mother: This put them in was a quiet
difficult situation. Those children normally was separated and sold as slaves to other
men or if mothers conceived a girl, most likely that girl would also have to suffer the
same as her mother. “Eliza never after saw or heard of Emily or Randall (...) In the
cotton field, in the cabin, always and everywhere, she was talking of them” (Twelve
yeas a slave, p.47)

Some of these women, such Patsey, preferred death would rather than this
lifestyle. She could not do anything or try to escape because Epps would found her.
Harriet, tired of Mrs. Norcom jealousy and Norcom’s abuses made a plan. She met a
white single and free lawyer (Samuel Tredwell) and she thought of getting pregnant
with him. When she was sixteen she if had her first child, Louise and two years later she
got Joseph. She had deliberated she was going to succeed in her freedom, but her owner
would use her children as blackmail her against preventing her freedom. Solomon, sick
of the slave life, also thought of escaping several times during that period. He tried it but
it was unsuccessful because he thought of risk and he knew that his Masters could kill
him. He thought he would soon recover and return to his family. Twelve years passed
until this happened. “I resolved in my mind a hundred plans of escape, and fully
determined to make the attempt the first desperate chance that offered” (Twelve years a
slave, p.27)

Solomon’s family was free so he need not be worried about them. However
Harriet had two child slaves. She had to leave their children and get away. She had
thought in trying to get a job to buy her children’s freedom. She spent seven years living
in her grandmother’s attic in which she read the bible and looked at her children from a
small hole. There, she realized that what slaves’ owner said about the Bible was wrong.
All Masters told slaves that the Bible said it was allowed to abuse them.

“When I was told that Dr. Flint had joined the Episcopal church, I was
much surprised (...) ‘What right have you, who are my negro, to talk
to me about what you would like and what you wouldn't like? I am
your Master, and you shall obey me.’ ”(Incidents in the life of slave
girl, p.71)

"’And that servant which knew his lord's will,(...)which knew his
lord's will, and prepared not himself (...)prepared not himself, neither
 did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.’"(Twelve
years a slave, p.72)

In 1842, one year after Solomon’s kidnapping, Harriet sailed to Philadelphia. At

the same time, Frederick Douglass would start the abolitionist movement which Harriet
would join later. There, she was looking for a job when she met Nathaniel Parker
Willis, who was a prominent abolitionist. Harriet was the nursemaid to the daughter of
Mary Stace Willis. Thanks to this man a new life would come to her. Dr. Norcom was
following Harriet since she left his home. So due to this she had to be travelling from
different places with Mr. Willis help. In London people treated her with respect and she
could compare between poor English and poor American people. “For the first time in
my life I was in a place where I was treated according to my deportment, without
reference to my complexion.” (Incidents in the life of a slave girl, p.166)

In Solomon case, he always was treated with respect in Saratoga until he was
captured. He became aware that good people exist when he meets Samuel Bass. He
trusted in Bass because he still knowing his true story, he did not betray him. “He
considered himself engaged in a dangerous undertaking, no less than running the risk of
his life, if detected.” (Twelve years a slave, p.166) Bass risked his life to help Solomon
as the same manner Mr. Willis helped Harriet. Finally Harriet came back and she
achieved her freedom because Dr. Norcom had died. Cornelia Willis, the second wife of
Mr. Willis, bought her freedom for three hundred dollar but Harriet did not like the idea
of has been bought to obtain her freedom.

“She was grateful for the boon; but the idea of having been bought (…)
‘I thank you for your kind expressions in regard to my freedom; but the
freedom I had before the money was paid was dearer to me. God gave
me the freedom; but man put God's image in the scales with the paltry
sum of three hundred dollars.’ ” (Incidents in the life of a slave girl,
p.185)

Solomon was saved on Christmas in 1853, after his family had received the
letter. The sheriff took him and he made some questions to confirm he was Solomon
Northup. Then he returned to home with his family on January. “‘I disengaged myself
from her (Patsey), and entered the carriage.’ ” (twelve years a slave p.189)
 When they were totally free, they fought against the racist violence and they
became abolitionist of slavery until their death, Harriet on March 1897 and Solomon
Northup’s final days is unknown yet.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jacobs, Ann Harriet. Incidents in the life of a slave girl. Written by herself.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England. Harvard University Press, 2000.

Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a slave. 1853.

<http://es.feedbooks.com/book/6875/twelve-years-a-slave>

Sekora, John. Black Message/white envelope. Genre, Authenticity, and

Authority in the Antebellum Slave Narrative. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Johnson, Yvonne. The voices of African American Women. Printed in the

United States of America, New York. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. 1998, 1999

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Harriet a. Jacobs & Solomon Northup American

farmer and writer. November 11, 2015. (N.P N.D)
<http://global.britannica.com/biography/Solomon-Northup>

Mackethan, Lucinda. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs: American Slave

Narrators. WebMD. April 2010. November 11, 2015. (N.P )

<http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/16091865/essays/
douglassjacobs.htm>

About Harriet Jacobs- BIOGRAPHY http://www.harrietjacobs.org/bio.html 11

November, 2015. (N.P N.D)

Solomon Northup Biography. Biography.com Editors. Publisher, A&E

Television Networks (n.d) November 9, 2015
<http://www.biography.com/people/solomon-northup-21333433#horrors-of-slavery>

DesignHammer Media Group,LLc, Harriet Jacobs (N.P N.D)

http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/commentary/355/entry November 17, 2015
 Movimiento abolicionista europeo: (N.P N.D) November 11, 2015
<http://www.mgar.net/var/trata3.htm>