Essay on Feminism and Slavery - 2356 Words

Feminism and Slavery Harriet Jacobs escaped from slavery and at great personal risk wrote of her trials as a house servant in the South and later fugitive in the North. Her slave narrative entitled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl gave a true account of the evils slavery held for women, a perspective that has been kept relatively secret from the public. In writing her story, Jacobs, though focused on the subjugation due to race, gave voice subtly to a different kind of captivity, that which men impose on women regardless of color in the patriarchal society of the ninetenth century. This form of bondage is not only exacted from women by their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons, but also is accepted and perpetuated by women†¦show more content†¦By showing that not one woman practices all four virtues, Jacobs is trying to reveal the impossibility of meeting this ideal. In discussing some of the women who helped her escape slavery, it is the features that deny these women True Womanhood that Jacobs celebrates the most. Lindas grandmother Aunt Martha is pious in the extreme. Such strict religious devotion gains and retains Lindas love, respect, and fear. A free woman, Aunt Martha owns her own home and supports herself by selling home baked goods to her neighbors, a token of her domesticity. It is assumed by the reader that Aunt Martha is pure. Her strong religious beliefs would not allow her to indulge in a love affair. The quality that Lindas grandmother lacks to be a true woman is submissiveness, though she counsels Linda to be submissive to her master and accept her lot as a slave. Jacobs relates an incident where her grandmother chased a white man out of her house with a loaded gun because he propositioned Aunt Marthas daughter. This is a severe deficiency from the ideal and excludes Aunt Martha from the realm of absolute True Womanhood. By societys standards, this is an unpardonable sin, but by Jacobs it is the quality Linda appreciates the most. Through this lack on Aunt Marthas part, Lindas grandmother gains Lindas respect. Linda, after her escape from her master, is aided by a slave holding white woman, who remains anonymous by her own request. In everyShow MoreRelatedGender And Environmental Exploitation : Eco Feminism851 Words   |  4 PagesGender and Environmental Exploitation Eco-Feminism is a conceptual idea in a direct response due to Androcentrism a concept that places man as the centric structure and leaves women and the environment under forms of oppression. Androcentrism originated in the 16th century when mass colonization and European exploration occurred in which not only exploited Atlantic cultures, but also environments spanning across the Atlantic. 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