Section A
1. White and black southern women suffered in the slavery system. The repercussion during the period of slavery affected white and black women in different ways. The luxury and culture of the white southern women were premised on the forced labor and sexual oppression of her slaves. Slavery turned black and white women against each other and set their interest and their perspectives in direct opposition.
Ninety percent of the slave women of the South labored in the cotton, sugar, tobacco, and race fields. The implications of slavery included sexual exploitation, physical and emotional abused by their owners. Because slavery became a profitable business during this period, slave owners arranged weddings among slaves to reproduce and sell them on the lucrative internal market. As a result, women attempted against their children during their pregnancies to terminate them or kill their infants rather than give birth for slave owners. In addition, masters were the legal owners of the slave’s women sexuality and reproductive capacity along with her labor. Any children of slave women were also a slave therefore the master’s benefit from them financially as well as sexually.
2. The importance of Harriet Jacob’s story is the description of her experiences as a slave woman on her own words. White and black women were unprotected by law from insults, violence or death. The cruelty used against slaves led into degradation, wrongs and vices that any human can imagine. Harriet Jacob’s extraordinary courage to fight for freedom was incredible and her writings are proving her story. Furthermore, they are evidence of the brutality that slaves were exposed to.
Section B
1. In both accounts slaves did not give up in their families. Yet, marriage was banned among slaves therefore the families were separated. Slave owners never let slaves to build strong bones with their families to have a total control of them. The slave owners were afraid to be hurt financially if slaves reveal against them hence masters took them apart for their own benefit.
2. Both stories are true stories that have great value regardless the way they were written. One of the stories was written by its own victim in contrast with the second one that was passed by word mouth. Even though the differences that these stories present in my opinion both accounts captured the essence of the story. Probably, recalls may not be very accurate but the significance of the real meaning of the narrative based on true stories are proof that happened in the past and that is what it counts.
2 comments:
Sharmagh D - R1:
Hi Xochitl,
I would say that I really enjoyed reading your blog number five. I think that you and I both picked up the same main issues of the reading and discussed those. Though, I must say that in your blog number five, for the section B part number 1 you should add that because the law prohibited African American people to know much about their race and be around their own people, it caused people to go against the law to try to make their life better. Like the example in our book with the half white and half black women who runs away with her boyfriend who is really her slave to go to the north to live a better life. She had to dress up as an undercover male because the law said that only men were allowed to travel with their slaves. They both risked their lives to be able to live a better life. Also, for section B number two, you can add your own feelings about what you think about how their memory was after so long. In both cases, both writers waited a while before publishing their stories. You wrote that it was the main idea they did not forget. I disagree with that because they remember every single detail. Memory plays a big role in that. As I wrote in my blog, I think that whenever something brutal and harsh occurs in someone’s life it will never be able to escape their long term conscience. See you in class!
R#2
Hey Sharm,
I wanted to thank you for taking the time reading my Blog. Regarding section “B” you are totally right I missed to mention that in both accounts they used all the possible resources they had to accomplish their goal. In William and Ellen Craft’s story, Ellen disguised as a male in order to cover her true identity. The barrier of female subordination did not help the couple to travel as male and female however as a man slave owner (Ellen) and slave (William) had more opportunity to travel out of the state without any problem, towards their freedom. In the other hand, Polly Shine’s narrative is about a slave couple that resisted banning marriages among slaves and decided to do whatever it takes to be together. In this case, to escape during the nights to see each other and spend some time together as a family. Unfortunately, the master came to a decision to sell the slave and separate the family as he considered a troublemaker and incorrigible slave. I think as Ellen as the Negro both are powerful characters and very determined despite the obstacles they went through.
About answer number two, I did not mean to say that the details were not important or they may have forgotten. What I tried to say is despite the gap between the facts and the time the accounts were written both stories kept their essence which are the difficulties they went through to reach their objectives and the way they fought against the slave system. Furthermore, both accounts are very detailed, or kept the majority of the details.
Usually when you pass some information to another person the percentage of forgetting a detail is very high. The story sometimes distortions from person to person therefore I think there is a possibility that the person who wrote -not the one that experienced it-
might forget a little piece of the story. Though, I appreciated very much your comment thanks for stopping by.
~Xochitl
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