Slavery Narratives Basing Their Arguments

Slavery Narratives

Basing their arguments on personal testimony, Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass both argue against the institution of slavery. Both Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" and Douglass' "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" contain graphic imagery. On a purely emotional level, the two slave narratives offer poignant proof that slavery is an unjustifiable social institution. However, Jacobs and Douglass also rely on logic in their respective arguments. Their rhetoric is clear, pointing out flaws in the apologists' arguments. For example, both authors devote part of their narratives to exposing the hypocrisy of Christianity for condoning and sometimes championing slavery. Their appeal for a consistent religious ethic is the core strength of both Jacobs' and Douglass' narratives. Both authors also refer to American law to show how slavery contradicts the tenets of the Constitution. Because their narratives share similar rhetorical foundations, neither is more effective than the other.

Harriet Jacobs concentrates more on gender than Douglass does, writing from her perspective as a female slave. Douglass also alludes to the ways sexuality is used as power in the unequal relationship between slave master and slave. He was the illegitimate son of a slave owner. Yet Jacobs' abject fear of Dr. Flint provides a far more compelling testimonial to how gender and power are intertwined. Jacobs illustrates the ways slave women have had to negotiate their bodies and their wombs in ways males will never encounter except by observation.

As a male, Douglass has not experienced first hand how the threat of rape adds another dimension to the experience of being a slave. Yet gender does play a strong role in Douglass' "Narrative of the Life." For example, Douglass can physically challenge Covey in ways a women could not do. Douglass also shows how gender segregation affects the lives of slaves, restricting their ability to form social alliances and disrupting families. Thus, even if Douglass does not write from a female perspective he remains keenly aware of how gender and power interplay in the institution of slavery.

Both Jacobs and Douglass discuss the ways the state supports slavery. Laws protect slave owners, preserving their right to beat and kill slaves. Douglass addresses the law in the context of being beaten by a group of whites in Chapter 10. Fighting back would be treated as an affront to the law. The law protects the rights of slave owners to buy, sell, and trade people. Without any legal protection, slaves cannot help but seek subversive means of survival. Jacobs hides in an attic because the law will not protect her right to self-determination. No slave has the right to self-determination under the laws of nineteenth-century America.

Just as Jacobs and Douglass point out the discrepancies in the way slaves are bereft of the full rights of citizenship, the authors also deride religion. Both religion and the law purport to advocate human rights, freedoms, and liberties. Yet neither religion nor the law can offer any justification for the dichotomy of slavery. No logic can sustain the argument that slavery is humane or just, and the brilliance of Jacobs' and Douglass' lsave narratives is their mutual ability to expose the fallacies in both religion and the law. The optimism with which the authors express their views does not negate their overt critiques. For instance, Jacobs and Douglass are both deeply religious. They do not criticize Christianity but only the way Christian doctrine is distorted to support slavery. Neither author criticizes the United States but only the way American law and values are distorted to support slavery. Their incredible ability to overcome a lack of formal education to write their stories bears witness to the power of the individual to transform defunct social norms and institutions.

Similarly, Jacobs and Douglass critique the fallacy that black people are inferior to whites. Having been fed nonsense since they were born makes it more difficult to develop the self-esteem necessary to wage a war against oppression. Their instinct not just to survive but to help change the future of America shows that Douglass and Jacobs both recognized the potential of the written word. Being exposed to abolitionist literature fueled their passion primarily because they felt part of a larger community of both whites and blacks who believed in human rights. No scientific basis for slavery could ever stand up to logic, which is why Jacobs and Douglass rely on reason and rhetoric. Morality is not framed as a product of the Church or as an expression of the law. Rather, morality is a universal ethic that protects the rights of all human beings.