Harriet Jacobs" memoir, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, shows us the life of a female slave and the abuse she suffered at the hands of her master. This was very different than the abuse we have witnessed from the other slaves we've read about. This book was very moving, because it was the real life account of a woman who was sexually abused. It was revolting to read as well, because she made herself believe that the abuse she was suffering was OK, because that was how she served her master. Jacobs uses rhetoric very well to make the reader sickened and saddened at the same time.
Jacobs uses rhetoric to gain sympathy for abused, enslaved females in the south by giving accounts of her life in slavery to northern white women. Other authors of books in this time who were slaves probably used rhetoric to target men for the most part. In this era, men were the ones who made a difference in the country. They fought in the wars and were the leaders in a family. .
Jacobs's use of rhetoric to affect women in such a personal way as the sexual abuse of a woman must have, and still does, strike a chord in our hearts. It is upsetting to think that she made herself believe that it was her job to have sex with her master. I"m sure this was hard for northern white women to understand and her use of rhetoric is ideal to help them get angry at the slavery system. I am sure many women read this book and knew exactly how she felt and wanted to do something about the what slavery was doing to these women.
