Enslaved African-American Woman

During the antebellum South, many Africans, who were forced migrants brought to America, were there to work for white-owners of tobacco and cotton plantations, manual labor as America expanded west, and as supplemental support of their owner’s families. Harriet Jacobs’s slave narrative supports the definition of slavery (in the South), discrimination (in the North), sexual gender as being influential to a slave’s role, the significant role of family support, and how the gender differences viewed and responded to life circumstances.

The book focuses on intimate relationships and trying times for enslaved women. The readers have insight into the world of American Slavery its effect on women of African descent.

The title of this book comes from the inspiring words spoken by Sojourner Truth at the 1851, nine years prior to the Civil War at a Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. In Deborah Grays White, Ar’n’t I a woman her aim was to enrich the knowledge of antebellum black women and culture to show an unwritten side of history of the American black woman. Being an African- American and being a woman, these are the two principle struggles thrown at the black woman during and after slavery in the United States. Efforts were made by White scholars in 1985 to have a focus on the female slave experience. Deborah Gray White explains her view by categorizing the hardships and interactions between the female slave and the environment in which the

During the nineteenth century, white mistresses and enslaved women struggled to acquire agency in an antebellum economically driven apparatus. Although these women encountered varying experiences, they intersected at the male and masculine hegemony that draped their

Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and

The Bondswoman’s Narrative is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and therefore it contains both personal and informed perspective of slavery. Crafts’ novel taught me that rivalries existed between the slaves, that the conditions of house slaves compared to field slaves varied drastically, and that not all slaves came from Africa nor were they strictly designated for labor. Her words were enlightening and cast light upon another side of slavery not frequently spoken of.

Slavery was common in the eighteenth century. Slaves were seen as property, as they were taken from their native land and forced into long hours of labor. The experience was traumatic for both black men and black women. They were physically and mentally abused by slave owners, dehumanized by the system, and ultimately denied their fundamental rights to a favorable American life. Although African men and women were both subjected to the same enslavement, men and women had different experiences in slavery based on their gender. A male perspective can be seen in, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. A female perspective is shared in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Upon reading both of the viewpoints provided, along with outside research, one can infer that women had it worse.

In a time period when women were considered inferior, as were blacks, it was unimaginable the horrors a black woman in the south had to endure during this period. African women were slaves and subject to the many horrors that come along with being in bondage, but because they were also women, they were subject to the cruelties of men who look down on women as inferior simply because of their sex. The sexual exploitation of these females often lead to the women fathering children of their white masters. Black women were also prohibited from defending themselves against any type of abuse, including sexual, at the hands of white men. If a slave attempted to defend herself she was often subjected to further beatings from the master. The black female was forced into sexual relationships for the slave master’s pleasure and profit. By doing this it was the slave owner ways of helping his slave population grow.

Hannah Craft’s novel The Bondwoman’s Narrative reveals aspects that women in slavery face that many are unaware of. Such as marriage being enjoyed more by the free than slaves, how a profit can be made other than being sold, the awareness of their station in life, the jealousy slaves face from their female masters, and two-faced hypocrisy. The article such as “The Radical in the Kitchen: Women, Domesticity, and Social Reform” and Deborah Gray White’s book Ar’n’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South reinforce some of these points.

This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era.

“Look at me! Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me- and ar’n’t I a women?” These wise phrases came from the African-American abolitionist and women’s right activist, Sojourner Truth, in her speech titled “Ar’n’t I a Women”. This bright and diligent soul was born into slavery in 1797 and struggled to escape the plantation with her infant in 1826. Through reading, the reader is able to deduce the anger, frustration, and sadness of Truth’s experience. One can only image the severe and harsh conditions slavery imposed on black females. Slavery in the 19th century was a brutal punishment and unrealistic expectation for African American slave women. The book Through Women’s Eyes contains an intriguing image on page 215 titled “How Slavery Improves the Condition of Women” conveys the living form of black women as they get beat and whipped by white men and even mistresses; furthermore, the reader had the ability to analysis the image using the knowledge from the book Ar’n’t I a Women written by Deborah Gray White.

Harriet Jacobs, in her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was born into slavery in the south. While her youth contained “six years of happy childhood,” a few tragedies and mistresses later, Jacobs spent many years in pain under the possession of her cruel five-year-old mistress, Emily Flint, and Emily’s father, Dr. Flint. Once able to obtain freedom, Jacobs spent most of her life working for the Anti-Slavery office in New York, in hope that one day she could make a difference in the world. “She sought to win the respect and admiration of her readers for the courage with which she forestalled abuse and for the independence with which she chose a lover rather than having one forced on her” (Jacobs 921). Linda Brett, the pseudonym that Jacobs uses to narrate her life story, endures the harsh behavior women slaves were treated with in the south during the nineteenth century. The dominant theme of the corruptive power and psychological abuse of slavery, along with symbolism of good and evil, is demonstrated throughout her narrative to create a story that exposes the terrible captivity woman slaves suffered. The reality of slavery in the past, versus slavery today is used to reveal how the world has changed and grown in the idea of racism and neglect.

The understanding of the life of a slave woman is far beyond the knowledge of you or I, unless you have actually been an enslaved woman. These literary elements depicting the passage from this story are the only

It can be said that enslaved African women played a very important role and were greatly involved in acts of resistance in Jamaica in the first half of the 18th century. This research will discuss how involved these women were in the acts of resistance in Jamaica. We will be taking a look at the role of Nanny of the Maroons, and others like her. This research will also look at day to day resistance efforts that all enslaved women used, which are just few of the things that will allow us to fully understand the hardships that enslaved women went through and as it relates to their acts of resistance and how much of an important role it played. The 18th century, at this point in time being involved in resistance was rather difficult for females;

The status of the mother determined the status of the children. “[Women] had no rights of any kind and no legal authority over anyone---even their children who belonged to their owners. Even if enslaved women wanted to decide whether or not their child will be enslaved, the decision will already be made for them. Thus, showing how conditions were for enslaved Africans in the sixteenth century. Since they were not able to fully gained their freedom at that time, they had to deal with oppressive