In her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs grapples with her violent past –namely the sexual abuse she experiences at the hand of her master, Dr. Flint–in hopes that it will educate her white readers about the pervasive damage that slavery causes. In Chapter V, “The Trials of Girlhood,” Jacobs not only remembers the beginning of the abuse but uses it to reveal how the almost inevitability of sexual violence imposed by a master steals the childhoods of black females.
Although Jacobs writes most of Chapter V in the first-person perspective, she changes the subject from herself to slave girls everywhere to explain that her story is not an anomaly. She writes:
Every where the years bring to all enough sin and sorrow; but in slavery the very dawn of life is darkened by these shadows. Even the little child, who is accustomed to wait on her mistress and her children, will learn, before she is twelve years old, why it is that her mistress hates such and such among the slaves. Perhaps the child’s own mother is among those hated ones. She listens to violent outbreaks of jealous passion, and cannot help understanding what is the cause. She will tremble when she hears her master’s footfall. She will be compelled to realize she is no longer a child. (27)
Although Jacobs details how Dr. Flint’s sexual advances make Mrs. Flint jealous and cause her to hate her rather than recognize her as the victim earlier in the chapter, the generalized characters, vague language, and suspenseful tone of this passage reveal Jacobs’s story as not just a common reality for enslaved women and girls but an inevitability. First, in using unnamed characters and words such as “everywhere” and “will,” Jacobs separates herself her experience and from and frames it as widespread to the point that it can be predicted. This move discounts arguments such as “paternalistic slavery” or that “not all slavery nor slave owners were bad.” Specifically, the repetition of the word “will” throughout the passage not only emphasizes the sureness that enslaved girls will be victims of sexual abuse but builds an almost horror-movie-esque type of suspense. Once we realize the source of the mistresses’ hate it is almost too late, the “little child” has presumably entered puberty– “will learn, before she is twelve years old” (27)–and her master comes thundering after her. Finally, Jacobs’ concludes that the master’s pursuit of the girl “will [compell] her to realize” that she is not a child anymore as if this–like a period–marks a slave woman’s entrance to womanhood, like a right of passage that they all encounter.
Questions:
- Thinking about our conversation from last class (about the difference between abusive relationships and bad relationships), are there any similarities between Jacobs’ portrayal of the black female body and womanhood and Ntozake Shange’s portrayal of womanhood and sexual relationships in Sassafrass, Cyprus, and Indigo?
- Which perspective of this relationship do you think would be more persuasive to Jacobs’ white readers? This passage or Jacobs’ personal account?