Slave literature and cultural representation

Slavery

The American government was directly complicit in slavery and passed a number of laws that supported the institution. One of the most severe and notorious of those laws was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The Fugitive Slave Law highlighted the vast gulf between the slaveholding and free states of the union, leading eventually to the Civil War. However, the law also impacted the lives of countless people who attempted to escape slavery or those facilitated their passage. In her memoirs, Harriet Jacobs writes about the Fugitive Slave Law. The author calls those who enforced the law "cruel human bloodhounds" who were no better than slave owners themselves (Jacobs 68). To properly understand slavery, it becomes essential to comprehend the entirety of the system that supported it.

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs does not spare the North from its participation in the subjugation of people of color. Jacobs refers, for example, to Massachusetts as being a "nigger hunter for the south," (198). A large part of Jacobs's narrative is comprised of her direct and personal experiences trying to escape from slavery, and the consequences of her actions. The incidents during which Jacobs tries to escape parallel the image of the public service announcement calling attention to all fugitive slaves. The image states, "Attention: The Slave-Hunter is Among Us! Be On Your Guard! An Arrest is Planned for To-Night. Be Ready to Receive Them Whenever They Come!" This advertisement is one that Jacobs might have very well seen and read during her experiences trying to escape with her family.

What the image, and Jacobs' experiences, show is that there were indeed a large number of Americans who were truly against the institution of slavery and were willing to risk their lives helping others. Those abolitionists who were passionate enough to take action are the ones who published announcements such as those shown in the image. Abolitionists helped men and women like Harriet Jacobs flee the tyranny of abusive masters. Moreover, Jacobs and the image illustrate the extent to which slavery was a national issue that transcended the Mason-Dixon line. In other words, both the north and the south were hostile towards African-Americans. The South might have been the slaveholding region, but the North did not necessarily object to slavery and in many cases supported it. This is why the Fugitive Slave Law and similar acts came to be, and why there were many who would enforce this law. Jacobs was forced to go into hiding several times, as her life was in danger after the passage of this cruel law. Much of Jacobs's narrative is filled with terror and fear for her own life and the lives of her children. It was only through the kindness and selflessness of strangers that she was eventually able to win the struggle for freedom.