Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in 1813 in the state of North Carolina. During the first few years of her life, she had a kind mistress that taught her to read and write, which enabled her to tell her story in her own words. Her autobiography was superbly written and illustrates the social climate in North Carolina. When her kind mistress passed away, she was given to her mistress’s niece, a child of three years old and the daughter of Dr. Fitch, a local practitioner. Harriet was soon to find out that Dr. Fitch was not as kind as her previous mistress was and she suffered greatly because of his actions. Her story demonstrates the treatment of slaves and their families in the early nineteenth century.
Surprisingly, Harriet enjoyed some freedom during her slavery years. Although, some masters were extremely cruel and allowed very little freedom for their slaves, it is apparent that North Carolina was a society with slaves and not a slave society. According to Harriet, she was able to visit often with her family members, including her grandmother; however, her master controlled every aspect of her life.
Family life among the slaves of North Carolina was difficult. Some were not slaves at all, having purchased their freedom themselves or obtained freedom from a kind master; however, being a free African-American in the early 1800s was a tenuous position to be in and in some cases, they were re-sold to the highest bidder. Harriet’s grandmother, Martha is a good example of this practice. Her mistress promised her that when she died, she would grant her emancipation. Unfortunately, Dr. Fitch inherited her grandmother and instead of granting her freedom, he had her sold. Because Martha was so beloved within her community by whites and slaves alike, she was purchased for $50.00 by an elderly white woman that had known Martha all her life. The woman freed her once the sale was final (pg. 14). Martha was able to purchase a modest home in town and she lived there, raising her grandchildren and taking care of members of the community until her death.
Not all slaves were treated as well as Harriet and her family. She mentions a plantation owner not far from her home with a reputation for his brutal treatment. This plantation owner owned six hundred slaves. Because of his wealth, he was never reprimanded for his harsh treatment. He whipped his slaves to death, imprisoned them, and withheld food from them. His brother owned bloodhounds that were used to terrorize the slaves. If a slave were to run away, his hounds would chase them down and would tear the flesh from their bones (pg. 52). Another appalling punishment for his slaves was to “tie a rope round a man’s body, and suspend him from the ground.” The slave was then, subjected to hot pork grease splattering on his bare flesh from above his head (pg. 52).
Although he was not as cruel, Harriet’s master, Dr. Fitch, did not treat his slaves well either. Most were sent to his son’s plantation where they were brutally treated until they could not be worked another day. His wife was extremely cruel to their slaves. She was responsible for slowly killing her maid, Nancy by working her to the point of exhaustion and not allowing her to sufficiently rest. This treatment ultimately caused Nancy to miscarriage numerous times until she finally succumbed to her death.
It was common practice for a slave owner to debauch his female slaves in a sexual way once they reached a certain age. Dr. Fitch relentlessly pursued the affections of Harriet to no avail but he never forced her as masters often did. Because of Dr. Fitch’s obvious sexual advancements towards Harriet, his wife became jealous and often tried to “catch” Harriet and her husband having an affair. She would question Harriet and insinuate that she knew about their affair in order for Harriet to admit to doing something that she did not do. Harriet avoided her master’s advances at all cost, often going to her grandmother’s home for protection. Numerous times, she was given sanctuary in her grandmother’s home to escape the doctor and his wife.
Slaves were not permitted to marry without the consent of their master and if allowed, it was not recognized as a legal marriage. Harriet experienced the pain of not being able to be with the man she loved. She fell in love with a free black man and he asked her to marry him. The restrictions of slavery gave her master the power to withhold that simple pleasure from her life and he did so with pleasure. He was angry because she did not prefer him, a white man, over a free “nigger” (Pg. 44) He offered to allow her to marry one of his slaves so that he could still control her. Even though her master had the power to kill her, she refused and was ordered to never speak to the man she loved again.
Harriet’s master continued to press her to give herself to him. She tried to make him disinterested by giving herself to another white man, Mr. Sands, and had two children by him. Although her actions were shameful to her and her family, she did so in hopes that Dr. Fitch would lose interest in her and she believed that Mr. Sands would free her children for he was kind and said he would do so. Any child resulting from relations with Dr. Fitch would have, more than likely, been sold or forced to work on his plantation, a common practice among slaveholders. Children were often taken from their mothers and sold because the master could not stand to look at them or the mistress was offended. Any child born to a slave woman was considered the master’s property. Slave mothers lived in constant fear of their master or mistress because their child even if conceived by two slaves, could be taken and sold at any time. One incident in particular stands out in Harriet’s story. As so often happened, a slave woman was raped by her master and she gave birth to his child. Harriet heard her pass by uttering, “It’s his own, and he can kill it if he will.” The next day she and her child were sold never to be seen again (pg. 136).
Although she lived in the home of her master, Harriet’s children lived with her grandmother. At one point, Dr. Fitch offered Harriet a house of her own so that she could live with her children. She was promised that her “labor shall be light” (pg. 93) and she and her children would be granted freedom. He stipulated that if she accepted the offer, she must sever all ties and have no contact with the father of her children. She refused and as punishment, Dr. Fitch sent her to his son’s plantation to work without her children. It was at this time that Harriet decided to run away. She accepted an offer from a local white woman to hide within her home for a time. She was there only a short time until her family could build a small space in the attic of the storeroom for her to hide. She was not able to speak to her children or let anyone know where she was. She suffered frostbite in the winters and suffocating heat in the summers. Harriet lived in the attic of her grandmother’s home for almost seven years. She wrote letters to her master and grandmother and sent them through free men to the north to postmark them in order to make her master believe she was not in North Carolina.
Mr. Sands, the father of her children, through the help of a slave speculator was able to purchase Harriet’s brother, William and her children, promising to free them. Instead of freeing them right away however, with her permission, he gave their daughter to his sister that lived in the North, promising her a good education once there. He took their son to live with his wife, and used her brother as his personal slave. He treated them well; however, while travelling with William in the North, freedom was within reach and William left his master and joined with abolitionists. He was not pursued. At this time, Harriet decided she wanted to escape to the North to be free with her family. With the help of friends and her uncle Phillip, she was able to get aboard a northbound ship and escaped to Philadelphia through great hardships. Her daughter, Ellen was residing with Mr. Sands’ sister in Rochester, New York. Harriet was able to visit with her daughter anytime she wanted to. Living in the North did not guarantee her safety and she lived in constant fear that her master would find her. Dr. Fitch wrote to her promising her freedom if she would only return to him. Her mistress, Dr. Fitch’s daughter, wrote to her as well, imploring her to return. It was not long before she was found out and Harriet was forced to book passage on a ship to England in order to escape. Her experience in England was so completely the opposite of her experiences in America that she actually forgot that she was a slave. In England, she was treated the same as any white and was never poorly treated.
Harriet returned to America and took her children to live with her in Boston. The Fugitive Slave Law was enacted by this time and this added to her fears of capture. Her brother took her son Benjamin and escaped to California. Harriet and Ellen remained in Boston until the death of her master. She was then passed off as property to a Mr. Dodge who tried unsuccessfully to get her to return to the South. Mr. Sands’ sister, Mrs. Bruce was able to negotiate, through an attorney, with Mr. Dodge. She was able to purchase Harriet for $300.00 and granted her and her daughter freedom at last. Justice prevailed and Harriet lived a long life. She passed away a free woman in 1898.
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