Classic Slavery Narratives

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that one of the literary vehicles used by the anti-slavery movement was the narrative, written by slaves and former slaves, who described the brutality and inhumanity involved in the institution of slavery. However, it is clear from a reading Equiano's "Interesting Narrative" and Jacob's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" that these perspectives differed according to a slave's gender and position. The author points out that, unlike his female counterpart, Harriet Jacobs, Equiano was in a much better position to prosecute any advantages that came his way by virtue of being a male with skills in a day and age where such attributes were recognized and valued, even in slaves. The paper concludes that both of these slave narratives speak to the brutal hardships and dehumanization that occurred, but Equiano's is from the perspective of one who willingly participated in the "peculiar institution," while Jacob's is from the perspective of an unwilling participant.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview
Olaudah Equiano's "The Interesting Narrative"
Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"
Summary and Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Time and again, Jacobs points to individuals' incidents in which her white owners took special pains to ensure that the blacks were acutely aware of their lowly status, and the whole slavery mentality only served to bring out the worst in everyone involved. For instance, in Chapter 8 of Jacobs' "Incidents of a Slave Girl", the author writes, "Some poor creatures have been so brutalized by the lash that they will sneak out of the way to give their masters free access to their wives and daughters. Do you think this proves the black man to belong to an inferior order of beings? What would you be, if you had been born and brought up a slave, with generations of slaves for ancestors?" In Chapter 4, Jacobs describes the mentality of the day when she writes of the escape and capture of Benjamin."

More papers on Classic Slavery Narratives:

• Comparison Essay # 109753 : "Slavery Narratives"
• Essay # 36629 : "Slavery"
• Comparison Essay # 121816 : "Central Themes in Different Slave Narratives"

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