The time during slavery and the period just after was a period of time ripe for people trying to tell their stories. These former slaves had traveled rocky paths to attain freedom and had interesting stories to tell about their journey. Each of their respective paths were lined with difficult situations. They confronted things we can only dream of and in that way, they are all extremely interesting. Many women were struggling to put their families and lives together during the Reconstruction. Harriet Jacobs faced the problems head on, while being a mother and eventually running away from her plantation to try and make it on her own and Jacobs was not alone. There are other women with the same tenacity and strength that she so diligently displayed. However, Jacobs is not the only woman whose narrative garnered attention from the nation and sometimes even the world; Lucy Delaney also wrote a narrative expressing the pain and anguish they had gone through, but managed to overcome.
These women wrote their stories to show a nation of people the hardships they had gone through. They do not seem to care about whether or not they receive fame and fortune. They are only concerned with doing the right thing according to what they know. It is also of interest that these women were even allowed the opportunities to tell their stories, because slaves had not been able to read or write because if they could then it might have empowered them even more.
Harriet Jacobs narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was written of under the pseudonym Linda Brent. Brent’s early life was not easy at all. She lost her mother at a young age and lived with her mother’s mistress, Mrs. Margaret Horniblow, a most agreeable woman. Upon her death, Harriet was willed to Mrs. Horniblow’s five year old niece, making the niece’s father, Dr. Norcom, Jacobs’ new master. As years went on, with Harriet as the slave for these people, she was mistreated more and more. Eventually she found a need to escape and from here her narrative begins to take shape.
Harriet Jacobs wrote about a character named Linda Brent. Brent’s life has several eerie similarities to the life of Jacobs, such as the mean spirited Dr. Flint, who unlikeDr. Norcom {Jacobs’ previous master} does not seek sexual advances toward Brent. Instead of wanting to disgrace her physically, he takes special notice in the fact that she can read and write, and therefore, he seeks to torment her emotionally and spiritually. Also, Mr. Sands seems to bear a resemblance to Samuel Sawyer, a young unmarried lawyer, whom Jacobs had children with. It becomes painfully obvious during the story that Mr. Sands is simply a way out for her for Jacobs because she cannot have the black man she truly desires, as Dr. Norcom has told her that he will not sell her. Since she had lost the love of her life, Brent must have felt like her entire life had been shattered. Eventually Jacobs does escape and make it to permanent freedom with a story that would last generations.
Jacobs narrative is described as being written in Edenic innocence (Blackford). Holly Blackford describes two children playing in a garden, one black and the other white. Jacobs likens this to the white girl growing up and remaining innocent and being protected, while the black girl is raped by her masters. These serpents are taking away perfection, just as the snake with Eve in the garden. For example, Jacobs descriptions of Dr.
The story of Lucy Ann Delaney is a much different story from that of Linda Brent. While they both had similar experiences and wrote about the same time, Delaney does not see a reason to give the people she encounters pseudonyms. She comes right out with everything that happened. Delaney, unlike Jacobs, was born to a free family and as the laws went, whatever the mother was, so would be the child. After so long, her mother sued for ownership and she was freed. [But Delaney was “born to a free family”—explain this point more clearly] After this ? she went on to live a life full of pain and sorry, as her first husband was killed in a boiler explosion and with her second husband she had four children, two of whom died as infants and the other two, a boy and a girl died during their 20s. Delaney states that she and her husband have been married for forty-five years, yet we do not know any thing in particular about her death and the circumstances around it.
Also, while Delaney’s narrative is a great example of a mother’s fight for her child, as she is allowed to do so, Jacob’s narrative speaks of the cook who was forced to eat dog mush and sometimes locked away from her nursing child. How else would a nursing child be able to survive without its mother to nurse it and take care of it? Dr. Flint obviously did not care, unless it was to benefit him and keep him looking good within the community.
What is most interesting about the story of Lucy Delaney is the fact of a suit being filed to gain her freedom. While not a lot of work has gone into analyzing her actual plight, it is obvious that her case is somewhat similar to that of Dred and Harriet Scott. Secondly, Delaney’s case was solely based on the fact that her mother was no longer a slave. It is based on the fact that once you are no longer a slave, neither should any of your children. However eight months are? the suit of her mother it is ruled that Delaney cannot be a slave because “once free, always free” (
In the end, both of the women wrote their narratives on the suggestion of someone else. Jacobs’ autobiography and narrative have had their authenticity questioned however, the series of letters she wrote to back herself up are almost certain that what this strong powerful, historic figure has said is unequivocally the truth. Secondly, we are able to verify the narrative based on the writings N.P. Willis, because after escaping 1842 she was a wet-nurse for his baby. At this time Jacobs did begin to write her narrative with the help of L. Maria Child, who became the editor of her book and William C. Nell .With all these things, the veracity of Jacobs’ narrative cannot be questioned further.
Finally, the women of the slave era had lofty ideas when they were emancipated regardless of how the arrived at this freedom. These two women were brave enough to write down the trials and tribulations they had been through without worrying too much about what people thought of them. The most fascinating thing is that they had the support of whites in the forms of editors, writers, or attorneys. Both women embody the post-slavery idea of trying to better yourself and aiming to make your family situation better than what it was before.
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