Introduction
Female enslavement, in many cases, was much worse than male. In addition to the horrors and brutalities that enslaved men suffered, mothers also had the additional pain of being separated from their children. Enslaved women were frequently employed as breeders, compelled to have children to increase their master’s amount of inventory, but forbidden the ability to raise them. This added to their suffering and degradation. In reality, the plantation owner frequently forced his female slaves to become pregnant with his kids to satisfy their needs. While male slaves were often prized for their work and physical prowess, historians mention those female slaves were appreciated for their progeny. Even though Glymph and Jacobs portray the struggles of black women under different circumstances, they still reflect the disturbing reality of enslaved people facing abuse and discrimination while attempting to get freedom.
Discussion
Jacobs’ condition as a slave is the primary source of her pain. The fact that she is a slave is entirely because she is black. She might have had a shot at escape as a youngster, but her mistress broke a promise she gave to her dying mother1. Jacobs had been given to her mother’s mistress when her mother passed away. The critical aspects that shaped the lives of enslaved women —including being black and enslaved—were harassment and sexual assault of enslaved women. Her experience was one of the first public talks about the sexual assault and harassment that enslaved women experienced2. The key factors that shaped the lives of enslaved women are the battlefield which also comprised plantations, militarized areas, and Federal government-run labor camps. Enslaved women challenged the boundaries of Union policy on these battlefields.
They started to give policies structure and importance as they begged officials to let them hide behind Union lines3. Additionally, black women provided their labor and demanded food and pay, creating a wartime strategy Glymph characterizes as genuine freedom4. Jacobs contends that those still considered slaves—in this case, black women—cannot be held to the same requirements as those free.
Jacobs describes a structure in which the slaves and their captors were at war, or completely at odds, with one another (assisted and encouraged by Northern supporters)5. Jacobs describes the enslavement circumstances that denied individuals their autonomy and ability to influence their and their children’s futures6. While the author’s relatives and friends who were also in slavery used any opening they could find, working in the system only gave them minimal autonomy within the framework of an awful institution. Slaves had no control over their morality, physical integrity, or offspring because they physically belonged to other people.
Regardless of whether the enslaved woman is as fair as her mistress or as dark as ebony. In any instance, there is no legal protection to shield her from abuse, assault, or even death; all of these things are done by demons that take the form of men7. The mistress’s only emotions for the defenseless victim are envy and fury, even though she should be her protector. Thus, black women were constantly objectified and assaulted, with almost no chance of escaping or getting help.
Black women fought for their independence and the Union, supporting it with their sacrifices and prayers. They worked as cooks, field laborers, mothers, and daughters on plantations that the federal government-owned or leased and were also the spouses of troops8. The majority remained in slavery throughout the conflict, but they organized resistance on plantations, farms, villages, cities, industries, and hospitals under Confederate control9.
However, most white Northerners did not consider the possibility that they were, or might be, radical civil rights activists or Union ladies. The book makes the intriguing claim that most American women remained and fought (or did not fight) on the ground where the war first discovered them10. Moreover, the house was where the Civil War most severely interfered with women’s everyday life.
The conflict was a breeding ground for ideas about the family, liberation, sectional politics, and citizenship. No group of American women had to fight the battle on as many battlefields while equipped with such limited liberties as African American women11. The Women’s Fight aims to delve deeper than the more well-known narratives to examine women throughout the war as citizens and nonresidents, partisans and noncombatants, and even as political actors—all profoundly involved in defining the safety of home.
They expressed their desire to take part in the fight against oppression and for liberation by using the language of rights. Black women used well-known democratic vocabulary to connect their abolitionism politics to the nation’s wider political aims and emancipatory ones in various ways12. Although slavery had given enslaved women a little breathing room, they could grow a family, a community, and abolitionist politics in that small space, which equipped them to act firmly in their defense in the event of war.
When President Lincoln eventually recruited an undrafted, undesired force of enslaved women and children who strengthened the antislavery movement and helped turn the United States’ original battle for unity into a war for liberation. 13The former slaves demonstrated their allegiance to the flag on the battleground and in Union lines despite resistance from Union troops and officials. Black women had the opportunity to modify long-standing resistance tactics to the revolutionary objective of emancipation thanks to the Civil War. Their lives, as well as the objectives and course of the war, were profoundly altered as a result. While their understanding of the politics of the conflict and its potential benefits was crucial, their capacity to make liberty more than just a slogan depended significantly on the region14. Federal and Confederate initiatives, the actions of armies, the individual attitudes and beliefs of officers, and the deeds of enslavers also played their roles.
Conclusion
Overall, the portrayal of black women differs in certain ways in both books. Glymph portrays the battlefield, which included farms, military zones, and government-run labor camps, as a major influence on the lives of enslaved women. On these battlefields, enslaved women pushed the bounds of Union policy. While she covers all the possible aspects where black women experienced oppression and managed to survive, Jacobs focuses on the domestic life of female slaves. They labored on plantations the national government controlled or leased as cooks, field workers, mothers, and daughters. She emphasized how the life of black women depended on a couple of white people and what terrors they experienced every day. However, both stories have a common message: enslaved women then constantly fought for their freedom and the possibility of having basic human rights.
Bibliography
Glymph, Thavolia. 2019. The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation. North Carolina: UNC Press Books.
Jacobs, Harriet.2014. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. South Carolina: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Nittle, Nadra Kareem. 2019. “Biography of Harriet Jacobs, writer and abolitionist.” ThoughtCo. Web.
Nunley, Tamika. 2022. “The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation, by Thavolia Glymph.” The English Historical Review 137 (584): 283-285. Web.
Footnotes
- Nittle, Nadra Kareem, 2019. “Biography of Harriet Jacobs, writer, and abolitionist.” ThoughtCo. Web.
- Nittle, Nadra Kareem, 2019. “Biography of Harriet Jacobs, writer, and abolitionist.”.
- Nunley, Tamika, 2022. “The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation, by Thavolia Glymph.” The English Historical Review 137 (584): 283.
- Nunley, Tamika. 2022, 284.
- Jacobs, Harriet. 2014. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. South Carolina: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 9.
- Jacobs, Harriet, 2014, 10.
- Jacobs, Harriet, 2014, 30.
- Glymph, Thavolia, 2019. The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation. North Carolina: UNC Press Books, 88.
- Glymph, Thavolia, 2019, 88.
- Glymph, Thavolia, 2019, 13.
- Glymph, Thavolia, 2019, 10.
- Glymph, Thavolia, 2019, 91.
- Glymph, Thavolia, 2019, 97.
- Glymph, Thavolia, 2019, 106.