Looking back before African Americans were put and dragged into slavery, life was different for them and the relationships between them and settlers, or for say, white males were generally different. By different I mean how African Americans were given more of a chance and an opportunity compared to when they were put into slavery and had absolutely no chance of living their life and being free. Once slavery came around, all African Americans were put into danger, and resulted in millions of blacks being inserted into slavery from Africa and would be punished for any wrongdoing, such as threatening the masters/owners. In the south slavery was the strongest, meaning where the majority of slaves went and slavery took place, and was relied on for the economy and for the agriculture to keep things running. The crops that the owners relied on the slaves to grow and harvest to make a lot of money were, rice, indigo, tobacco (which was one of the most important crops and a lot of money being made from before cotton), and cotton (which made the owners a fortune).
“By the time of the Civil War, cotton accounted for almost 60 percent of American exports, representing a total value of nearly $200 million a year.” (Faragher, 232) This shows and gives a good example of how important the slaves were to society, especially the south with growing cotton and bringing a lot of money. With being the most important, they certainly weren’t being treated that way, and were treated very horribly. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, which showcases and goes into depth of Harriet Jacob’s narrative, and really brings out and describes what slaves had to go through in the south. When reading her narrative, it illustrates how her real-life experiences as a slave show the social structure in the south and how the blacks held the least amount of power, and the struggles they went through.
There was a window of opportunity and hope for African Americans when the American Revolution concluded and led to all of the northern states to abolish slavery or even pass laws for emancipation over time, and there were even slaves in the south that freed their slaves to go along with the north. “In the flush of freedom following the American Revolution, all the northern states abolished slavery or passed laws for gradual emancipation, and a number of slave owners in the Upper south freed their slaves.” (Faragher, 232) I was looking like the African Americans would get a chance to live their lives and be free. Things then became very hectic when southerners weren’t following the north and moving on from a slavery society, and instead ignored them and continually stated that the economy was dependent on slavery and it was a necessity. This all emerged greatly especially after the north started to abolish slavery and in addition what really got southerners rallied was the new invention of the cotton gin.
The reason that the cotton gin turned so many southern heads was because of the potential it had to make even more money from cotton, and that was bad news for the slaves because it was becoming even more essential than before. “As the production of cotton climbed higher every year in response to a seemingly inexhaustible international demand, so too did the demand for slaves and the conviction of Southerners that slavery was an economic necessity.” (Faragher, 232-233)
The Antebellum American South’s economy was built and based around slavery which provided fortunes and supported the owners and masters who were at the top of the hierarchy. In the antebellum south it was very hard for the black people to come together as a community in which they lived. Even with them everyday living with their oppressors, and always having to come in contact with them, and always living in fear, African Americans were still able to find a way to create their own identity and culture to carry on and create an influence and legacy of their people. “Living in intimate, daily contact with their oppressors, African Americans nevertheless created an enduring culture of their own, a culture that had far-reaching and lasting influence on all of southern life and American society as a whole.” (Faragher, 235) It didn’t get any better after the civil war with the abolishment of slavery, and African Americans hoping for control over their own lives and having the freedom to do what they pleased, because life for them was still horrible. Blacks would be met with threats and harassment especially toward black women, which was the same as being a slave, which shows there were no positive advancements in getting rid of slavery.
Harriet Jacobs gives and explains her experience and perspective of being a slave and going through the horrors of being a slave and trying to survive. While learning about history and how terribly blacks were treated during slavery, and the countless struggles they had, Harriet Jacobs gives an eye-opening perspective because of coming from someone that lived through it and explaining what she was put through and how she survived and what she thought of how things were going in society. Even after the Civil War, like I stated before, blacks weren’t treated that much better, and even in the north there were problems with how people treated blacks, and she explains her experience of having problems like even after slavery ended. What she talked about in her story, related to pretty much every other African American at the time, and how they all were searching for freedom and opportunity to live a peaceful life.
Throughout her narrative it is her dream of having a good life for her and her family and not having to worry about being captured and mistreated which related to all the other slaves during that time and were looking for a better life. She especially went into detail about women being treated the worst while being a slave and experiencing sexual abuse which shows what the women went through and sexual abuse they were put through. Harriet’s story is just one story to the thousands of stories of black women who were sexually abused while in slavery. The women, shown by her experiences, show how they were controlled and even the men were controlled by the power, economically and socially, of mainly white males. When it comes to slaves escaping their owners and plantations to try to go to the north, it was much harder for women who had children, so what Harriet did was hide for years.
In the north it was very much known that slavery was not supported for the most part and was generally anti-slavery, and in the south people were very against the abolishment of slavery and relied on it. There was a problem for slaves that escaped their owners and plantations and fled to a free state for sanctuary, where if they were caught and were found to be a slave to an owner, they must be returned to the owner. This made it hard for slaves who escaped to live a free and peaceful life, and instead would live in fear of getting caught and getting sent back to their slave life, and Harriet Jacob’s goes over this type of action against the slaves in her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Harriet eventually fled to the North, but is vulnerable and scared of being caught and sent back and her children, just like the other slaves who have done the same as her. She goes into detail about how she hopes people won’t commit such an action and go as far as sending a slave back to that environment and ruining their life even more. “I do it with the hope that every man who reads this narrative will swear solemnly before God that, so far as he has the power to prevent it, no fugitive from Slavery shall ever be sent back to suffer in that loathsome den of corruption and cruelty.” (Jacobs, 1861) This was just the reality for the slaves who weren’t bought their freedom just like her and had to live every day in fear and not knowing if they would be caught and sent back.
Throughout Harriet Ann Jacobs narrative, she goes into detail about multiple cases against American slavery. With her real-life experiences, she goes over not only her own struggles but explains how everyone like her is dealing with the same problems. From the very beginning, since the American Revolution, slavery tore the North and South apart and made things unrepairable to the point that led to the Civil War, which then led to the abolishment of slavery but freed slaves were still treated horribly and not given the freedom that they thought would come upon being freed, and was just as bad as before. Her life experience was an example as to what the slaves would go through to ensure freedom and to have a chance of living their life the way they want to live it, and not as a slave. It was shown exponentially in her narrative story that the wealthy, who were also in economic and social power, were white males and African Americans with no power at all even though they were very essential to running things in the south.
