Drawing on specific events from Douglass and Jacobs autobiographical narratives discuss the ways in which women’s and men’s experience of slavery differed and were the same or similar.
... He then said, ‘Linda, I swear by God I will never raise my hand against you again;’ but I knew that he would forget his promise" (p. 207). Not only was this man subject Jacobs to sexual advances; she was under his constant supervision. After numerous incidents with Dr. Flint, Jacobs spoke of the hopelessness of female slavery; "No pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery, the slave girl is reared in an atmosphere of licentiousness and fear. The lash and the foul talk of her master and his sons are her teachers. When she is fourteen or fifteen, her owner, or his sons, or the overseer, or perhaps all of them, begin to bribe her with presents. If these fail to accomplish their purpose, she is whipped or starved into submission to their will. She may have religious principles inculcated by some pious mother or grandmother, or some good mistress; she may have a lover, whose good opinion and peace of mind are dear to her heart; or the profligate men who have power over her my be exceedingly odious to her. But resistance is hopeless" (p. 177). For the enslaved woman, race and gender meant a double oppression; not only did another, but her body, own her labor as well. Jacobs’s talks about the oppression faced by all enslaved women; the conflict between womanly deals and sexual exploitation by white masters. She finds strength within her in dealing with sexual harassment from her master, for maintaining family unity, and for establishing a moral code in harmony with her beliefs and situation. For the slave girl, “there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death” Jacobs, 151) In incidents in the Life of a slave Girl, Jacobs’s primary ordeal is the sexual harassment and obsessive pursuit by Dr. Flint. Defending herself from Flint’s verbal assaults meant that Jacobs must make a verbal defense, placing her in a position regarding ideals of true womanhood. Jacobs’s wishes to die, but this does not occur naturally, Jacobs’ options then appear to be submission or suicide (or escape), neither option being acceptable. Douglass is able to detect and detail the differences in the slaveholder’s cruelty and that to which he was subjected. From being whipped and humiliated daily, which was similar to the treatment of h...