Harriet Jacobs was born a serf, although she never realized it until she was six years old. Her father was an intelligent and skillful carpenter who was regularly sent for long distances to the headman. His strongest wish was to provide for his children while supporting himself and his mistress. He was unable to accomplish his objectives because he, too, was enslaved. Harriet’s parents shielded her so that she could not realize she was one of the slaves (Jacobs). The essay here aims at assessing African American slavery as portrayed by Harriet Jacobs and other slaves of her time, the torture they experienced, how they coped and fought against.
Like other serfs, Harriet’s experience as a slave was unbearable due to increased torture from masters. First, they were not allowed freedom as they were expected to go everywhere with their masters. They were overworked on a farm until the cotton and corns were laid (Jacobs 107). Even though some matters would give them a good dinner, they had to work until Christmas Eve. However, at the appointed hour after New Year’s Eve, Harriet and other slaves would wait as if criminals to hear the pronunciation of their doom (Jacobs 107). As slaves, they could know the cruelest of their masters or the most humane master. A large crowd could beg, saying, “please Massa, hire me this year…” (Foner 39). Thus, this implies the kind of life the slaves were living at the time.
Furthermore, working in the fields involved having stuff that sometimes posed a challenge to animal feeding. Slaves lived on dirty floors with little or no good furniture. Life on plantation agriculture with a cruel oversight body was often the nastiest, and others were forced to live with their masters (Jacobs 109). Working for a small farm owner who was struggling, on the other hand, could mean going hungry. In some cases, the stories about cruel overseers were true. Since masters were paid to get the most work out of their slaves, overseers frequently used whatever necessary means.
Whipping, shackling, beatings, mutilation, branding, and incarceration were used to punish slaves. Although there were many cases of serf mistreatment, masters ignored all warnings meant to regulate their activities. Pregnancy did not impede punishment; ways for administering lashings without injuring the infant were created. In many cases, slave masters used to have holes where women were kept before whipping (Foner 41). However, such “protective” measures provided little defense in expecting serf women or their prenatal offspring from severe harm or death due to excessive enthusiasm or the number of lashes inflicted. Rape and sexual assault of women were common forms of serf oppression. Slave sexual assault was based in medieval northern and southern culture and enslaved people as property.
Slaves were subjected to desperation and would sometimes drive the plantation’s overseer. Some slaves refused to fight back against their masters due to the deep artificial mental constructs they had acquired from their childhood. Namely, Athenians thought that slavery was a kind of perpetual bondage. They used to accept the inability to escape; even if they would leave one of the masters and try to live freely, some other white man would return them to their master or enslave them anew. However, the assumption had had no conception of the depth of degradation. To cope with stress, some slaves are known to seek communication with other people. Sometimes, they were singing to ease their struggle while working. Harriet Jacobs had strategies of coping with their bondage despite increased mistreatment from masters. Although there were many challenges, they managed to survive. Harriet, for instance, questioned everything she felt was not pleasant to her (Jacobs). The reflexive manner of being helped her relieve the stress and leave the matters about which she could not do anything.
Moreover, in later times, Harriet Jacobs and other slaves fought slavery by their involvement in abolition before the Civil War launched. They raised money for refugees who were black, hence working to improve freed slaves’ conditions. These actions that were so different from the previous behavior of the slaves were dictated by the emerged hope. There had been no chance to escape slavery before, but when it became possible, all the struggling wanted to participate in further achieving freedom.
Based on the accounts of Jacob’s, the Northern states were certainly a racist culture that was no lesser merciful to Afro-Americans than the Southerners. The Civil War was waged for economic and political reasons, with the North’s primary goal being to keep the union together, not to abolish slavery. These realities are overlooked in the argument about slavery apologies. Thus, both sides were racist towards the black population before the war, so abolishing slavery was just a matter of comfortable excuse.
The Confederate battle flag was never an emblem of state sovereignty. Slavery, separation, lynch mobs, and racial prejudice are all government wrongs depicted during and since the Civil War (Jacobs 116). Many whites, particularly young whites in the South, believe they must not be held responsible for what their forefathers did. Nevertheless, if those want to be free of that legacy, they should regard the existing African natives in the state. However, this is not the case, as mistreatment attempts are still evidenced despite increased campaigns on the need for racial equality.
Despite the fact that slavery was present in Northern and Southern states alike, numerous Northerners devoted themselves to ending the act of slavery. The first symbolic step for youth in distancing itself from the injustices of its forefathers was to halt revering a legacy based primarily on enslavement and a banner that was designed to represent the defensive system of enslavement. The time was also for white Southerners to accept the apparent truth unambiguously. The fruitless effort was a wrong cause, but it was also a time for the other white people to recognize that, while the reason for so many Northern troops killed was decent, this was not entirely about the abolition of slavery. Aside from the inquiry of if a federal act of contrition for enslavement at this late date would be prudent or pointless, so much can be said with certainty (Jacobs 120). The nation would be demanding an apology for the Southern cause in the Civil War, but not for the Northern reason in that war. Thus, the main reason for white people to fight for the abolition of slavery was to harm their white enemies while still considering Afro-Americans inferior.
In conclusion, research has shown the turf conditions experienced by Harriet Jacobs and servants. People of color were discriminated against due to their ethnicity; various tortures were experienced by the black people, with which they tried to cope. Although the Covil War was declared to the Southerners, considered the main slave-masters, Northerners were not significantly different in their violence. Unfortunately, the moving force of the Civil War for these people was the desire to damage their white opponents, not to abolish slavery.
Works Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History: Seagull Fourth Edition. Vol. 1. WW Norton & Company, 2018.
Jacobs. “Harriet Ann Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Docsouth.Unc.Edu, 1813-1880.