Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass is, without a doubt, one of the most influential and most well-known slave writers. This makes sense, as his way with words is powerful, his language is educated but understood, and he knows how important his story is to tell. Like Harriet Jacobs and Olaudah Equiano, he went through many things, and saw many horrors, but he tells the details of his life in an interesting and detailed way.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are alike in that they both lost parents at a young age. However, Jacobs got to live with her mother and father before her mother's death when Jacobs was six years old, and Douglass, from the start didn't even know his age. He says "I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I walked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old." Douglass had no idea who his father was. From the start, they were not only slaves, but also incredibly alone, which only adds to the hopelessness of their ordeals.

Douglass and Jacobs also differ in their views of their slave mistresses. Jacobs despised her master's jealous wife. She speaks of her as follows:

"I had entered my sixteenth year, and every day it became more apparent that my presence was intolerable to Mrs. Flint. Angry words frequently passed between her and her husband... In her angry moods, no terms were too vile for her to bestow upon me."

Jacobs writes again, later:

"She was not a very refined woman, and had not much control over her passions. I was an object of her jealousy, and consequently, of her hatred; and I knew I could not expect kindness or confidence from her under the circumstances in which I was placed."

Douglass, on the other hand, felt the exact opposite way about his slave mistress. She instructed him, and commanded that no one else instruct him. He spoke kindly of her, saying:

"My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first went to live with her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another. In entering upon the duties of a slave holder, she did not seem to perceive that I sustained to her the relation of a mere chattel, and that for her to treat me as a human being was not only wrong, but dangerously so."

However, slavery even took its toll on Douglass's mistress, turning her "lamb-like disposition" to one of "tiger-like fierceness". She became more demanding in her lessons and more violent towards Douglass. This goes to show how horrible slavery really was. The act of owning and completely commanding over another life turns people vicious, and puts everyone involved through experiences that entirely change who they really are. No one, the owners or the slaves, seems really happy, and this is crucial to realize. Everyone in every slave story has some sort of negative emotion to express, whether it be jealousy, hopelessness, viciousness, sadness, grief, or fierceness. Douglass says at one point, "I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed." That is huge, that though everything that had happened to him, and everything he had seen, he still had that glimmer of hope. That hope is what makes him so important, to me.

Another way that he differs from Jacobs is in the fact that Jacobs's master never beat her. She was afraid of him, and he did abuse her emotionally, but he did not strike her. She says that she wondered why, but she assumed it was "better policy to be forbearing".

Douglass, however, was physically hurt. He says:

"He ordered me to take off my clothes. I made him no answer, but stood with my clothes on. He repeated his order. I still made him no answer, nor did I move to strip myself. Upon this he rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after. This whipping was the first of a number just like it."

Both writers, Douglass and Jacobs, are crucial to teaching us about slavery. Jacobs tells us about being a woman. Douglass tells us about being a man. Jacobs tells us about a mistress who is jealous and hateful. Douglass tells us about a mistress who is originally kind and gentle. Jacobs tells us about emotional abuse. Douglass tells us about physical abuse. All of these aspects make up the numerous different terrible things endured by slaves, and they are so important for us to realize. Slaves were not all handled in the same ways, and were not all treated as poorly as others. However, they all lived a life outside of their own control, and were not treated as the strong human beings that they were.

If I had to choose an author, I'd choose Jacobs because I loved her emotional appeal, and I loved that she tells the women's side. That being said, I fully understand why Douglass is so important and well-known, as he depicts his story with honor, grace, and courage.

Harriet Jacobs: More powerful author than Equiano

Harriet Jacobs

Olaudah Equiano and Harriet Jacobs were both very influential African American writers who told harrowing stories of the harsh realities of slavery. Both writers offer incredible insight into what was once a reality for numerous men and women. However, their first difference is in their gender. While Equiano talks about how slavery was for women, he obviously did not experience it firsthand. We can read from his point of view, and understand how horrible it must have been for female slaves, but this issue is really central to Jacobs. She describes the suffering a woman slave goes through, with a different, but related, set of issues to that of a male slave. Dr. Flint first proposed that Jacobs should have sex with him when she was only fifteen years old, as she "was his property and must be subject to his will in all things." While slaves were largely regarded as property by their owners, it is different for the case of women once you factor in rape, and children. Jacobs talks about these women's secrets in the following passage:

"The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. My master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. But did the mothers dare to tell who was the father of their children? Did the other slaves dare to allude to it, except in whispers among themselves? No, indeed! They knew too well the terrible consequences."

Jacobs also uses emotion more than Equiano. Equiano's writings seemed to rely more on descriptions, imagery, and chronological events. He details the events of his journey, and even describes bad things happening to him without evoking much feeling, as follows;

"I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables, and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced anything of this kind before, and, although not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet, nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water; and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut, for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with myself."

He does use some words of feeling, but not in the sense that Harriet Jacobs does. She opens her work by saying;

"I would ten thousand times rather that my children should be the half-starved paupers of Ireland than to be the most pampered among the slaves of America. I would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation, till the grave opened to give me rest, than to live with an unprinciple master and a jealous mistress. The felon's home in a penitentiary is preferable. He may repent, and turn from the error of his ways, and so find peace; but it is not so witha favorite slave. She is not allowed to have any pride of character. It is deemed a crime in her to wish to be virtuous."

Jacobs was never beaten by Mr. or Mrs. Flint, and yet, her story is captivating by the vast comparisons she uses. She would rather her children be half starving and free than be spoiled and pampered among people owned by other people. She would rather work 24/7 than to be treated well by a master. She tells of emotional abuse that equals or is as bad as physical abuse. Sometimes I think that the fear of not knowing how they will punish you, not knowing if maybe they'll hit you this time, not knowing what they'll say or do, is worse than knowing that you will be whipped. Jacobs brings this fear of the unknown to life.

Overall, I liked reading Harriet Jacobs better. I thought her depictions of slavery were beautifully written, and her style was captivating. She told events, but she told her feelings too. She is obviously a very strong, driven woman, and one with a purpose. Her story is very powerfully told, and that power is what I loved most.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe is still considered to be one of today’s greatest writers. Poe, born in 1809, is known as a dark, depressing, and mysterious writer, and he excelled in the art of the short story, primarily horror stories. His words have haunted readers for years, told tales of death and destruction, and inspired people even now. He has been compared to Hawthorne, by their similar use of symbolism, but unlike Hawthorne, Poe taught no moral lessons except for the discipline of beauty. However, in Herman Melville we also see the same sensibility for symbolic expression. That being said, Poe does stand out on his own. Nearly anyone can recall the line “Quoth the raven, nevermore.” Many of us have heard the legend of a heart beating underneath the floor boards. We know the story of a maiden in a tomb by the side of the sea. Edgar Allan Poe is someone who cannot be escaped in literature, as he is such a huge figure. He is known as being dark, misunderstood, and even “demented”. His parents died when he was young, he married his cousin, and he died mysteriously. But, he made an impact. He was struck with poverty, anxiety, and tragedy, and from that, developed the short story, symbolic poetry, and tales that last forever.

In The Fall of the House of Usher, we see the kind of tale we have come to expect with Edgar Allan Poe's writing. The narrator has been invited to his childhood friend, Roderick Usher's house. Roderick tells the narrator that his twin sister, Madeline, has died. The two, believing that she is dead, place her in a tomb. Roderick is overcome with anxiety, and the narrator reads to him, attempting to calm him down and make him feel better. Roderick, however, is convinced that he hears Madeline trying to escape her coffin. As it turns out, the door opens, and Madeline is behind it with blood staining her white robes. Madeline and Roderick both die, and narrator leaves before the mansion is destroyed by a storm.

Many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories revolve around themes like these, death, mystery, curses, and hauntings. This one is no different. The suspense builds as the story goes on, and we hear his vast vocabulary, with words crafted specifically for vivid descrptions and imagery. We feel the anxious tremblings of a man losing his mind. When Poe writes about a storm, we feel the storm. Poe is the first author we've studied that really delves into gothic literature to this extreme.

We see examples of his brilliant imagery in even the first paragraph of the story:

"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."

Another example, on page 874, is:

"A cadaverousness of complexion; and eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy, hair of a more than web-like softness and tenuity; -- these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten."