Incidents Part 4

One point I really enjoyed during the book was that Jacobs continually talks about how there is no such thing as a good slave master.  I mean this by saying that Jacobs continually talks about how being a master corrupts you and the power you have often takes over your morals and beliefs.   One example of this is when Mr.Sands says hes gonna free their children, but he doesn't until very much later.  No slave masters have any morals.  They all claim to be Christian yet treat human beings as animals and use them for personal profit. Jacobs states that "Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another"(Jacobs 21),  And it shows how the slaves experience is never fully understood.  I do enjoy the ending where Jacobs and her family finally become free and when she says, "Reader, my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage. I and my children are now free! We are as free from the power of slave holders as are the white people of the north; and though that, according to my ideas, is not saying a great deal, it is a vast improvement in my condition"(216), because it shows that slavery can still be overcome to some extent   

Incidents Part 3

As I keep on reading into the book I realize that Jacobs' is a very selfish person.  What I mean by this, is that she is running up north while Dr.Flint tries to throw her children in jail in order to get her to come back.  Jacobs, "was about to risk everything on the throw of a die" ( Jacobs 97) with the possibility that she might have her children face the consequences for her actions.  This is the complete opposite of Margaret Gardener.  Margaret Gardner did whatever she had to do in order to have her children not face the hardships of slavery.  Jacobs' says that "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own"(32) with is true because she has to deal with the lives of her children.