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Slave Narratives

" Douglass similarly professes from his experience as a slave that slavery proved as harmful to him as it did his slave-mistress in that it destroyed her sense of morality and corrupted her soul. .
             Both Douglass and Jacobs examine the fact that plantation life sheltered slaves from knowing the truth about how degrading and immoral an institution slavery was and therefore allowed for ignorance to breed among slaves. Douglass recalled how slaves from different plantations would fight over whose master was richer or smarter thinking that the "greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves (Douglass 354)." ). Jacobs also calls attention to the state of ignorance that slaves were confined to in the plantation culture. She recalls how one woman begged her to read a newspaper to her because her husband had told her that the "black people had sent word to the queen of 'Merica that they were all slaves; that she didn't believe it, and went to Washington city to see the president about" and to force him to help her free all the slaves (Jacobs 45).
             A notable difference between Douglass' and Jacobs' portrayal of plantation life is .
             the tone by which they expose the desolation of life as a slave. Douglass relates the .
             events he has witnessed while living on the plantation in an objective and impassive .
             tone. When Douglass imparts the misfortunes of Aunt Hester, he provides the details of .
             her whipping and what reason the master had for whipping her but he stops there and .
             implicitly asks the reader to pass the judgment of the morality of slavery (Douglass 344). .
             Jacobs, in contrast, is much more emotional and graphic when she is relaying her .
             experiences as a slave. She recalls how a slave was beaten severely when the overseer .
             overheard him accusing Dr. Flint of fathering his wife's child. This greatly arouses .
             Jacobs' emotions as is evident when she states that she heard the slave's "piteous groans, .


Essays Related to Slave Narratives

1. Slave Narrative

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2. Slave Narratives

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4. Frederick Douglass' Slave Narratives

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5. Narrative of a Fugitive Slave

"Narrative of William Wells Brown, A Fugitive Slave," (1847) is a fascinating and emotional account of the horrors of American slavery. The first and most interesting point worth examining in William Wells Brown's narrative is how the title of his book is written. ... Black people were not just slaves, that were writers with their own opinions and beliefs. Brown provides readers with narratives of daily life on the plantations, at slave auctions and during the dark hours of individual pain but what makes his narratives so unique is his constant reference to all these situations in the ...

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6. Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

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7. Sentiment in Two Slave Narratives

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8. Slave Narrative and the Female Voice in Abolitionist Writing

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9. An Interesting Narrative

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