Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl are both powerful examples of Black autobiography, but they portray their experiences and realities of slavery in very different ways. Washington focuses his narrative around education, work, and self-reliance. He presents a vision of gradual racial uplift, appealing to a largely white audience. In contrast, Jacobs confronts the brutal realities of slavery, and emphasizes the unique struggles faced by women, and the importance of abolition. While both authors use purposeful rhetorical choices to appeal to their intended audiences, the choices they make are very different and reveal contrasting approaches to representing slavery.
In Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl, Jacobs emphasizes the struggles she faced in slavery, particularly through her experiences with Dr. Flint. She endured repeated extreme physical, mental, and sexual abuse, which she highlights to show the sufferings enslaved women go through. Her stories define the differences between slave life for men and women saying “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” (Pg 68) She refuses to forgive her oppressor, Dr Flint, making it clear that her suffering was not something that could be excused. Her story is so horrible that it evokes sympathy from any reader, but her detailed graphic effects were also a purposeful choice to directly appeal to white women in the North. By plainly expressing the violations she endured, experiences white women could possibly understand through their gender and maternal identity, Jacobs tried to increase sympathy to those with privilege and convince them to grow the abolitionist movement. It was clear she did not dance around topics, and fully confronted the horrors of the institution.
In Up From Slavery, Washington seems to not emphasize the horrors or struggles faced in slavery as much. It is shown through phrases describing how “I [Washington] can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time.” (Pg. 8) Compared to Jacob’s recounting of the 7 years she experienced in a cramped garter trying to escape slavery and the various abuses she went through, hearing how Washington’s worst experience with slavery stands out as a stark contrast. Washington throughout the story seems to take a very forgiving view of slavery, portraying even slaveholders as “victims” of the system that has corrupted them. He writes, "But I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution..." (Pg. 2) He finds a way to empathize even with the slave owners.
While Incidents of a Life of a Slave Girl paints a realistic but very sad story of slavery and the horrible effects it has on people, especially women, Up From Slavery minimizes the brutality and emphasizes progress and reconciliation. Washington argues how the hard work and suffering slaves went through led to them being better and stronger people. The choice to downplay the horrors to reassure white readers and focus on uplifting their race through education and industry is purposeful. He even goes as far as to almost glorify aspects of slavery by describing the loyalty and devotion between slaves and masters, and how some slaves felt helpless after emancipation. Jacobs, on the other hand, shows slavery as a never ending force of violence, fear, and violation.
Both stories highlight how the institution of slavery morally affects everyone, but Washington emphasizes the shared victimhood (both slaves and masters) and Jacobs portrays it as a moral corruption that destroys enslavers' humanity and victimizes the enslaved. The contrast ultimately shows two strategies of Black autobiography. Washington uses peacemaking, compromise, and uplift to gain white support for gradual racial progress, while Jacobs uses personal experience and raw emotional sympathy to expose the horrors of slavery and call for immediate abolition. Jacobs and Washington utilized very different narrative styles to present the realities of slavery to support their visions for the future.
Shreya,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your comments contrasting Washington's and Jacob's autobiographies, but I was also wondering about your opinion on whether Washington's approach was necessary at that point in time. Do you think that his strategy -- downplaying the horrors of slavery to appeal to White southerners -- was the most effective in creating peacemaking? It's a nuanced argument, but I'm not entirely sure if Washington's claim was made effective by neglecting slavery's past.
I deeply enjoyed reading this post Shreya! I agree with your inspection of the various underlying strategies the authors had while writing and how that affected their end work. I'm very interested to research more about the extent to which Harriet Jacob's femininity changed her life experiences in contrast to Washington. Of course both autobiographies were molded through the respective author's attempt to be palatable for white readers, but I wonder whether it was a product a difference in gender, location, or time which separate Jacob's and Washington's lived experiences so much.
ReplyDeleteHello Shreya, I've talked about the comparisons many others have made between these two novels in their blog posts and I even compared the two in mine so while reviewing your blog I wanted to talk about your break down of "Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl". One thing that you pointed out that I and many others didn't was that Jacobs directly says that “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” (Pg 68). I think that it was amazing you put the idea of comparing the author's opinions over comparing the novels because it's something that I haven't seen many others do. I also think that direct quotations from Jacobs' novel made your blog post and analysis stronger through Jacobs' vivid depiction of the horrors of slavery. Overall this was an amazing blog, Shreya!
ReplyDeleteHi Shreya! You capture the ways Washington and Jacobs appeal to their audiences using different tactics really well. I wonder if there's a strategy you view as more convincing or fitting for the time, and what degree of importance making a narrative palatable to a white audience is. Washington's ideologies certainly didn't age well, but it's interesting to question whether or not he fully believed what he wrote in his autobiography considering his secret support for civil rights.
ReplyDeleteHey Shreya!! I think you've written something very interesting here! I think it's intriguing to look at the differences between these two narratives and see how the authors developed through their childhoods. While Washington and Jacobs both described their childhood as being relatively okay, Jacobs' story becomes a lot more intense very fast. I'm wondering how Washington's views would have changed had he gone through what Jacobs did and vice versa. Would they have written in different ways and used different tactics to appeal to people?
ReplyDeleteHey Shreya, I wrote about the same topic and I really agree with your insights. Your analysis of Jacobs' and Washington's respective stories was awesome and your concluding paragraph properly conveys your ideas. Particularly, your in-text citations were strong and brought everything together. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteShreya, your insightful interpretation of the difference between Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery" and Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" shows how both authors use their personal stories to convey different messages about slavery and racial progress. Your alternative reading challenges me to think about how Washington's tone of forgiveness and optimism might soften the reality of slavery that contrasts Jacob's story. I agree with Citlali's question: do you think if Washington went through what Jacobs did, would his story be conveyed in a different tone?
ReplyDeleteHey Shreya! You did a wonderful job of detailing the fundamental differences between Jacobs's narrative and Washington's narrative-both through the lens of their personal experiences and their intended audience. I think it is illuminating in and of itself that these authors even had to consider how they might appeal to their audience, instead of writing entirely from the heart (which Jacobs seemingly did much more than Washington). I'm very curious to see how these perspectives might have changed as these authors started to reach different audiences, and whether Washington would seem as conciliatory as he does in Up From Slavery. Overall, great blog!
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