LITR
4232: American Renaissance
University
of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2002
Index to Student Research Projects
Regina Richardson
Dr. Craig White
American Renaissance
18 April 2002
We Were Heard
What
provokes a person to write about his or her life?
What motivates us to read it? Moreover,
do men and women tell their life story in the same way?
The answers may vary depending on the person who answers the questions.
However, one may suggest a reader elects to read an autobiography because
there is an interest. This interest
allows the reader to draw from the narrator’s experience and to gain
understanding from the experience. When
the reader involves him/herself in the experience, the reader encounters what is
known and felt by the narrator. The
encounter may provide the reader an opportunity to explore a time and place long
past.
Reading
the narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, one identifies a period
when the slave’s voice begins to emerge.
Douglass and Jacobs emerge during the American Renaissance period.
During this period, society struggles with the abolishment of slavery and
women’s rights. Douglass and
Jacobs’ narratives awaken society to the atrocities of slavery confirmed by
their personal experiences. The American Renaissance, distinguished as an intellectual
and artistic period, now includes, among others, Douglass and Jacobs brutal
historical accounts. Douglass and
Jacobs’ narrative presence represents the voice slaves who desire freedom from
bondage.
In
Trudy Mercer’s “Representative Woman: Harriet Jacobs and the Incidents in
the Life of a Slave Girl,” she suggests both narratives work as propaganda:
The
slave narratives of pre-Civil War America may exemplify the earliest and most
dramatic uses of the “personal as political,” and the sharing of experiences
as a means of “consciousness raising.”
(1)
Based on
Mercer’s statement, one could argue that slave narratives offer evidence
promoting political action to abolish slavery.
Although Douglass and Jacobs’ experiences support the “personal as
political’, their narratives further explore the residual effects of slavery:
1) to prohibit the identity of male and female slave, and 2) to marginalize the
slave’s presence in society.
The
problem of identity plagues Douglass. Unable
to establish a sense of self, Douglass questions his age and parentage.
From the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American
Slave, he states, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age […]“ (1824).
Douglass’ concern about his age is a sign that he lacks knowledge
important to who is he. For
Douglass, his age would confirm the years he has been in bondage.
By questioning his age, Douglass characteristically connects to the
American Renaissance’s quest to examine and explore oneself in society.
Douglass further inquires about his parents:
My
mother was named Harriet Bailey. […]
My father was a white man. He
was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage.
The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the
correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld
from me. My mother and I were
separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. (Douglass 1824-1825)
Failure to
obtain the knowledge of his paternity and separation from his mother prevents a
familial connection. William
McFreely’s Frederick Douglass asserts Douglass’ family was comprised
of “cousins, an infant uncle and his grandparents, Betsy and Isaac Bailey”
(3). This family connection soon
ends when Betsy Bailey relinquishes Douglass to Wye House (5).
Douglass’ failure to establish his identity directly results from an
institution that does not recognize slaves as human beings.
Douglass lacks an identity because society classifies him as property.
Jacobs realized at the age of twelve her slave identity. Although Jacobs’ mistress had been like a mother and taught
Jacobs to read and spell, Jacobs is not her mistress’ daughter.
At the deathbed of her mistress, Jacobs realized she is a slave and not
even her mistress’ neighbor (Jacobs 1964).
Separation of the nuclear family and dispersion of slaves to other
plantations prevents the slave from forming an identity.
The nuclear family cannot exist for slaves who are “no more, in the
sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant […]” (Jacobs 1964).
Consequently,
because Jacobs learns to read and spell, she can later create an identity.
In “Rewriting the American Self: Race, Gender and Identity,” Kimberly
Drake emphasizes slave narratives identify slaves in a society.
However, society fails to recognize slaves as human beings.
Although they are slaves, Douglass and Jacobs force society to recognize
the African American male and female as human.
Therefore, Drake contends:
[…]
the written narrative, which in itself is a textual development of the
ex-slave’s consciousness, can be viewed in Lacanian terms as the author’s
attempts to enter into the Symbolic order, into Society: by (re-) writing him or
herself, and thus placing that self into the tradition of American
autobiography, s/he proves proof of “American” identity.
(2)
Becoming
literate helps Douglass and Jacobs develop an identity apart from the slave.
When Douglass goes to care for Thomas Auld, Mrs. Auld begins to teach him
to read and write. However, Mr. Auld stops Mrs. Auld’s instruction of
Douglass. Mr. Auld tells his wife,
“if you teach that nigger […] how to read, there would be no keeping him.
Nevertheless, Douglass will not be deterred from learning.
Douglass confesses, “I now understood what had been to me a most
perplexing difficulty—[…] the white man’s power to enslave the black
man” (Douglass 1839). Douglass
realizes to keep slaves ignorant preserves the institution of slavery.
If knowledge is power, then the power will lead to a desire to identify
and free oneself from slavery.
Moreover,
Jacobs’ experience to identify self within the slave society is different from
Douglass. Unlike Douglass, whose
masculinity continuously is oppressed by the whip, Jacobs’ femininity suffers
sexual oppression. In Jill Ker
Conway’s Written by Herself, she believes,
[…]
a woman has been expected to merge her identity in others and to find the
meaning of life in relationships with others […], their life histories do not
fit the classic pattern of the male narrative about the self-created and bounded
individual. (8)
Conway’s theory that a woman’s identity is merged with others has limitations. Of course, Douglass and Jacobs’s narratives are similar because they examine human emotions associated with slavery. These emotions bind Douglass and Jacobs to a slave relationship. The pattern of injustices suffered by Douglass and Jacobs binds them. Douglass and Jacobs’ narratives explore dehumanization of African American men and women and that binds them. Douglass shares a vivid moment of brutality after he is sent to Mr. Covey to be broken in:
My cart was upset and shattered, my oxen were entangled among young tree, and there was none to help me. […] I told Mr. Covey what had happened, and how it happened. He ordered me to return to the woods again immediately. I did so, and he followed on after me. […] he came up and told me to stop my cart, and that he would teach me how to trifle away my time, and break gates. He went to a large gum-tree, and with his axe cut three large switches […] he ordered me to take off my clothes. I made him no answer […] he rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after. This whipping was the first of a number just like it, and for similar offence. (Douglass 1850)
Douglass describes a potential occurrence for any slave who displays the slightest noncompliance to his master. However, Douglass and Jacobs life histories separate because they seek freedom for different reasons. Through Jacobs writing, the reader hears the voice of “a heroic mother who rescues her children from slavery” […] (Jacobs 1961). Unlike Douglass, Jacobs has a double burden as a slave and a woman. Mercer adds:
For the slave woman, race and gender meant a double oppression: not only was the produce of her labor owned by another, but her body and her reproductive power as well. Jacobs presents the dilemma faced by all enslaved women: the conflict between virtuous, womanly ideals and sexual exploitation by white masters. (Mercer 2-3)
Indeed, Jacobs identification as a woman separates her narrative from Douglass. Not only is Jacobs marginalized as a slave but also as a woman. Although her book exposes the sexual exploitation of slave women, it draws the attention of all women. Jacobs describes the sexual oppression she endures at the hands of Mr. Flint, her master, as follows:
When I succeeded in avoiding opportunities for him to talk to me at home, I was ordered to come to his office, to do some errand. When there, I was obliged to stand and listen to such language as he saw fit to address me. Sometime I so openly expressed my contempt for him that he would become violently enraged, and I wondered why he did not strike me. […] In desperation I told him that I must and would apply to my grandmother for protection. He threatened me with death, and worse than death, if I made any complaint to her. (Jacobs 1965)
Jacobs delicately explains the unwanted sexual advances of Mr. Flint. Unable to tell anyone including her grandmother, leaves Jacobs exposed to unwanted advances and psychological torment. Mrs. Flint, who is aware of her husband’s behavior, further torments Jacobs. Jacobs wrote “what an unpleasant sensation it must produce to wake up in the dead of night and find a jealous woman bending over you” (1967). Identifiably, Jacobs and Douglass’ narratives cease to merge in the context of sexual oppression. Although both authors describe children fathered by masters, Jacobs approaches the subject from the perspective of the slave woman. Because Jacobs experiences sexual oppression firsthand, she is able to express details whereas Douglass is restrained. Jacobs describes the inability to remain virtuous as a slave woman, but she connects to the heart of all women despite ethnicity.
Drake believes “the ability to utilize language, especially written language or literacy, is also portrayed by many ex-slaves as crucial to their quest for freedom” (2). Moreover, Drake substantiates the relationship between literacy and freedom when she quotes Scarry as follows:
[…] only when the body is comfortable, when it has ceased to be an obsessive object of perception and concern, that consciousness develops other objects. One of those “other objects,” according to Scarry, is language. Pain, she claims, destroys the victim’s voice, his/her ability to express him or herself in words; in doing so, it destroys “the contents of the consciousness,” or the victim’s sense of self. The slaves’ narratives, then are attempts to speak, to rebuild the self (Scarry 4, 6, 31, 39). (Drake 1)
Douglass and Jacobs participate in Euro-American society as slaves not as people. Slavery identifies Douglass and Jacobs as human property and marginalizes them from white society. Becoming literate is a catalyst that gains Douglass and Jacobs an identity. Literacy is also a catalyst that gains both authors access to freedom. Through Douglass and Jacobs discourses, the effects of slavery and desire for freedom are expressed compellingly. The reader experiences Douglass and Jacobs disappointment, despair, hope and happiness. Douglass and Jacobs narratives poetically and reflectively transport the reader through the journey to freedom. The language Douglass and Jacobs use as they recount slavery experiences heightens the reader sense of emotional turmoil. The alienation, brutalization, and dehumanization suffered by Douglass and Jacobs defines their narratives as representative of the African American voice. Because Douglass and Jacobs capture the dramatic and optimistic emotions of slaves, they express the gothic and sublime elements characteristic of a romanticized genre. Although Douglass and Jacobs discourses are representative of the slave narrative, the discourses reach beyond slavery.
I believe Douglass and Jacobs’ narratives maintain the idea that slave identities reestablish itself in society through stories. Today, remnants of the slave identity embed itself in society in the form of slave burial sites and talks of reparation. Although slavery in the United States no longer exists, the embedded effects of slavery still revisit us.
Works
Cited
Conway, Jill Ker. Written by Herself: Women’s Memoirs from Britain, Africa, Asia, and the United States. New York: Random House, 1996.
Drake, Kimberly. “Rewriting the American Self: Race, Gender, and Identity in the Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.” Melus. 22.4 (Winter 1997): 91-108. 16 April 2002 http://relayweb.hwwilsonweb.com/cgi-bin/webclient.pl?sp.usernumber.p=513630&url=yes&sp.nextform=show.
Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Laughter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 1871-1880.
Jacobs, Harriet Ann. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 1962-1985.
McFreely, William S. Frederick Douglass. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991.
Mercer, Trudy. Harriet Ann Jacobs Author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. “Representative Woman: Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” 16 April 2002 http://www.drizzle.com/~tmercer/Jacobs/representative.shtml .