7. Harriet Ann Jacobs 1835-1842
Women in slavery suffered immeasurable abuses. Prospective buyers a the slave market would examine female slaves by handling their breasts, forcing open their legs for inspection, and even raping them while standing on the selling block. After purchase, female slaves endured a journey riddled with sexual advancements and violence. Upon arrival at the plantation, the female slaves became field hands or house slaves. Those that went to live in the big house endured immeasurable sexual advances from male members of the household while the women of the house treated them disdain and cruelty.
Slavery in all forms was ruled with terror and violence. Sexual assaults against male and female slaves ran rampant and rarely resulted in justice for the slave. Instead, most were forced to submit to acts of sexual harassment and advancement or lose their children that often resulted from such encounters. This placed slave women in a precarious place. They either had to endure unwanted and violent sex acts to remain near their children, or they could flee and lose their children forever. Harriet Ann Jacobs did both.
Born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813, Harriet Ann Jacobs was a mixed-race girl. Her father was a free European and her mother was a mullato slave. Slave states had a law that proclaimed any child born to a slave would be a slave and legally freeing a slave became increasingly difficult. At six, Harriet’s mother died and she was sent to live with Margaret Horniblow. Under Margaret’s ownership, Harriet was taught to read, write, and sew. When Margaret died, she willed Harriet, now 12, to her five-year-old niece, the daughter of Dr. James Norcom, who became her de facto owner.
Upon her arrival in the Norcom home, the doctor routinely sexually harassed Harriet. When Harriet entered into a relationship with Samuel Sawyer, a white lawyer, Norcom continued his advances. Samuel and Harriet had two children that were also slaves. Norcom threatened her with the sale of her children if she did not submit to his advances. As the years went by, Harriet’s life became unbearable. At 22, Harriet escaped Norcom, finding refuge in another slave owner’s home, where she could keep an eye on her children. After a short stay, Harriet left, traveling through a swamp, to live in her grandmother’s attic.
Samuel Sawyer purchased his own children from Norcom and then went to live with Harriet’s grandmother. Harriet hid in the attic for seven years, her children never knowing she was above them as they grew. In 1842, Harriet went to Philadelphia. She was now a fugitive slave, but instead of hiding, she became involved in the abolition movement. She wrote her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, using the name Linda Brent, which became an important piece of African American literature, a key publication for the abolition movement, and one of the few narratives that focused on the struggles of female slaves.
