Harriet Jacobs and the "double burden" of American slavery.

• Author: Miller, Jennie

Introduction

The ethical, social, and economic issues associated with American slavery remain among the most discussed topics in the study of United States history. Much of what was initially known about the condition of slaves came from antebellum travel accounts, such as those of Frederick Law Olmstead, or from the writings of Southern apologists published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as Ulrich B. Phillips. (1) In these early works, slavery, as seen through the eyes of the white community, was characterized as both respectable and necessary. Such accounts often depicted slavery as a benign institution and failed to capture the essence of life for the slave. No significant revisionist accounts appeared until the publication of Kenneth Stampp's The Peculiar Institution (1956), but even Stampp admitted, "It may be a little presumptuous of one who has never been a slave to pretend to know how slaves felt." (2)

By the 1970s John W. Blassingame emerged as a premier scholar on American slavery. His most important work, The Slave Community (1979), provided a much better representation of the true conditions of American slavery. In that book's preface, Blassingame writes:

By concentrating solely on the planter, historians have, in effect, been listening to only one side of a complicated debate. The distorted view of the plantation which emerges from planter records is that of an all-powerful, monolithic institution which strips the slave of any meaningful and distinctive culture, family life, religion, or manhood. The clearest portrait the planter has drawn of the slave is the stereotype of Sambo, a submissive half-man, half-child. Such stereotypes are so intimately related to the planter's projections, desires, and biases that they tell us little about slave behavior and even less about the slave's inner life, his thoughts, actions, self concepts, or personality. (3) Blassingame argues that slaves were significant contributors to both antebellum and post-Civil War Southern culture. This claim rests largely upon actual slave testimonies, often transmitted verbally given the high rate of illiteracy within the slave population. Blassingame's study spawned a new era in the historiography on American slavery. This new group of historians focused on the words of the slaves themselves. One former slave offered "a simple and chastening truth for those who would try to understand the meaning of bondage: 'Tisn't he who has stood and looked on, that can tell you what slavery is,--tis he who has endured.' 'I was black', he added, 'but I had the feelings of a man as well as any man.'" (4)

The publication of the works of Blassingame and other revisionists prompted students of American slavery to rely increasingly on primary sources produced by slaves themselves, including slave narratives and autobiographies, to understand the institution of slavery as the slaves experienced it. Two early slave narratives stand out as exemplary works not only in their own right, but also as representative of the slave experience as a whole. Frederick Douglass of Maryland and Harriet Jacobs of North Carolina are among that small number of slaves who managed to record their own accounts of their years in bondage. In a time when only ten percent of all slaves could read or write, Douglass and Jacobs each received the gift of learning from sympathetic mistresses who were willing to break the law in order to educate their slaves. (5) The lessons these former slaves learned as children supplemented their natural intelligence, resulting in autobiographies that revealed their inner struggles and experiences as slaves.

Reliance on the writings of Douglass and Jacobs to make historical generalizations concerning American slavery can place a writer in an uncomfortable predicament. One must readily admit that every slave in the United States had a unique story to tell. Nevertheless, Douglass and Jacobs were among the few whose stories had an opportunity to be heard. For this reason, Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, together with compilations of slave narratives, will serve as research base in this study of the "peculiar institution." (6)

The lives of Douglass and Jacobs certainly were not identical, but both former slaves lived in the same generation and shared many similar experiences. Yet, gender becomes the one compelling difference between the two. By comparing and analyzing the autobiographies of Douglass and Jacobs and supplementing their testimonies with supporting evidence from other slave narratives, this study will show that gender-based experiences caused the horrors of slavery to be more traumatic and difficult to overcome for slave women than slave men.

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs: A Study in Contrast

The lives of Douglass and Jacobs include varied experiences thus allowing them to serve as representatives of nineteenth century American slaves. Both were born during the same decade and endured slavery in some of the less harsh regions of the South, Maryland and North Carolina, respectively. While reflecting on their childhood, each author remembers happy times and carefree feelings until they reached the age of six or seven, at which time both Douglass and Jacobs experienced the loss of their mother. At the same time, they both became aware of their condition as slaves. As Jacobs recalls: "When I was six years old, my mother died; and then, for the first time, I learned, by the talk around me, that I was a slave." (7)

During their later childhood years as slaves, Douglass and Jacobs also shared a common experience, namely a beneficial relationship with a kind mistress. This connection gave Douglass and Jacobs the opportunity to become literate, a shared trait equipping each autobiographer with the skills to communicate with the world. This girl of literacy, however, also became a curse as it helped Douglass and Jacobs fully realize the meaning of slavery. Both experienced painful discontent as they pondered their own condition in bondage, which, in turn, fueled each writer's determination to obtain their freedom. Douglass vividly recollects his master's comments regarding the dangers of teaching a slave to read. His benevolent mistress was quickly reprimanded for her efforts, and, although Douglass experienced disappointment in losing his teacher, he expressed gratitude for the "invaluable instruction," which his master unknowingly shared. (8) Jacobs, like Douglass, fondly recollects the mistress who helped her to become literate. "While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory." (9)

While both Douglass and Jacobs gained their freedom and became leaders in the abolitionist movement, a more productive comparative analysis of their lives lies in their differing experiences. Whereas Douglass had little association with his family, Jacobs' situation exemplified strong family ties. During his early childhood, Douglass lacked any emotional attachment toward his mother because of their forced separation. In recalling his mother's death, Douglass states, "Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger." (10) He mentions other family members, including a grandmother who lived far from him, as well as two sisters and a brother who lived nearby. But at the beginning of his Narrative, Douglass acknowledges that: "the early separation of us from our mother had well...