Douglass vs. Jacobs
...orld-view then that of Douglass. Harriet was very oblivious to the fact that she was a slave and shows this by saying “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away" (Jacobs 828). Clearly, Jacobs grew up with an optimistic view of life; she would have no reason not to. Being raised with her family and in a normal household with both parents and siblings, Jacobs must have been nurtured from birth into a commune of loving figures and supporters. A big contributor to her strength and ambition comes from her tender relationships with her family, which further nurtured her aspiration to become free, once she learned she was a slave. While Douglass is able to develop a sense of self-identity primarily through his education, Harriet Jacobs acquires a self and cultural identity mainly through her family. Both authors strive to portray the evils of slavery; however, due to the fact that they were addressing different audiences, the two styles differ completely. Douglass addresses a Northern, white audience and his intention was to expose slavery and its ills. "From the crown of my head to my feet, I was covered with blood. My hair was all clotted with dust and blood; my shirt stiff with blood. My legs and feet were torn in sundry places with briers and thorns, and were also covered with blood. I suppose I looked like a man who had escaped a den of wild beasts, and barely escaped them" (Douglass 41). Douglass uses hair-raising text and graphic similes to create images in the readers mind. His powerful words and chilling anecdotes convey the seriousness of the treatment of slaves in his time. Douglass does not seek to ‘sugar-coat’ any of the truth in his stories; he lays them bare for all to see. His specific, savage accounts add credibility to his truth-bearing and his realities become very tangible for us who have never experiences such imagery. Douglass communicates the true horrors of slavery and how those who experienced it first-hand viewed it. Harriet Jacobs, on the other hand, expresses a more demure picture of slavery by appealing to societies standards and speaking in first person (to the reader). By publishing her work, Jacobs intended to appeal to white women of a civilized society. Her writing had to be more subtle and delicate in order for women of that time to read it. Women were not interested in hearing explicit details about beatings or acts of violence. However, Jacobs did expose the tribulations of women within a slave society, specifically issues of a sexual nature and family. "He cut every hair close to my head, storming and swearing all the time. I replied to some of his abuse and he struck me. Some months before, he had pitched me down stairs in a fit of passion; and the injury I received was so serious that I was unable to turn myself in bed for many days" (Jacobs 839). Jacobs describes months of abuse and torture in three simple sentences. They happenings are told more like a series of events, and leave out any emotion which might evoke sympathy. Jacobs had to allure a modest circle of women; therefore, she could not include feelings or sympathies for herself. If she had, her autobiography would have been rejected and her abuses would have been blamed on her. Jacobs alluded to such horrible dealings with her master in order to justify the decisions she did share in her story. In a way, Jacobs was trying to ‘save face’ in front of a large crowd, who were quick to judge and quicker to forget. While Frederick Douglass’ writing style tends to be more factual with moments of true savagery, Harriet Jacobs seeks to establish an emotional, personal tone with the reader by directly addressing him or her. In contrast to their differences, both slaves looked to the North to escape their horrible lives and start again to live comfortably. Frederick Douglass made passage to New York in order to escape his entrapment in Maryland. Douglass left on September 3rd, 1838 and had an uninterrupted trip. However he further explains "How I did so, -what means I adopted,-what direction I traveled, and by what mode of conveyance, -I must leave unexplained, for the reasons before mentioned" (Douglass 63). Douglass feels as though he cannot explain any of the details of his passage first, so that he is not tracked down by his former masters and second, in case any of his fellow slave-brothers happen to use his mode of escapement as well. Douglass never clarifies how he got free and the reader is left to wonder. However, after he evaded slavery and left it behind, Douglass began work in the North, got married, and began to publicly speak. Douglass saw the North as a safe-haven where he ...