Harriet Jacobs

I wish I was more competent for the task I have undertaken…that’s what keeps popping into my mind as I read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. I think it’s possible that she has been through so much, as is apparent in the story, that she doesn’t even know how talented she is.
There are a few things I would like to say . One is I may not have been a slave, but I do know exactly what it is like to be controlled by another’s will. Not to have thought nor breath that is my own. I was mastered by my stepmother in a most psychological way. There was no help from my father “They were the objects of her constant suspicion and malevolence. She watched her husband with unceasing vigilance; but he was well practiced in the means to evade it.” That perfectly describes my own father. He spoke little and did all he could to avoid my step mom.
How can there be so much evil in this world.? Jacobs cries out, in all modesty “IN the view of these things, why are ye silent, ye free men and women of the north? Why do your tongues falter in maintenance of the right? Would that I had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen so weak!” That’s an amazing quote to me because it still rings true today. Because people are uninformed and so no desire to be informed, never will they know of the horrors that still exist within the hearts of evil men today.
Bottom line is that I appreciated Harriet Jacobs view of slavery a little more than James Baldwin. It is more human. Jacobs writes from her experience . I like that because I like to see the truth in all things. I do not like things sugar coated, I don’t like things to be alluded to, and I really don’t like it when an author doesn’t allow me to feel what the author felt. I feel bad because I am supposed to. This is something I am sorry ever happened to anyone and I will do all in my power to prevent from ever happening again. That I believe is the point…to learn one’s lesson.