Slave Gir; essays

Slave Gir; essays In Harriet Jacobs book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the main themes are the struggles for freedom, the constant abuse, and the hardships of being a slave. Every slave struggles for freedom, not just to be a free woman, but just to be herself. Linda was one of the few slaves that had the ability to read and write. If Linda was ever caught reading or writing, her master would punish her. Being able to read and write as a slave was looked at as a crime, so it was not tolerated. Linda also had a boyfriend who was a free African American, but Lindas master did not like this so he told her that she better not ever see him again. Linda tried to explain that they loved each other and he wanted to marry her, but instead Linda was punished for telling her master that she wanted to marry him. It was little things like this that Lindas master did to keep her from having any sort of freedom what so ever. Abuse as a slave was very common, not only physical abuse, but also verbal abuse was very common. Linda was abused on a daily basis, more verbally than physically, and the amount of abuse varied daily depending on her master and her mistress. Lindas master one night made her sleep in his bed, and her mistress was not too happy about it. Linda was forced to tell her mistress what happened and her mistress punished her by making her sleep in a room right next to hers. At night Linda would sometimes wake up to her mistress stand over her bed staring at her. Linda had many hardships growing up as a young slave girl such as both of her parents dying, being separated from her siblings, and being separated from her grandmother. Luckily for Linda she was real close to her grandmother and her grandmother was free, so occasionally Linda would get to visit her. To top off all the loved ones she had lost and be separated from, she had to deal with the daily struggle of being a slave, not knowing if she would ever become f...