Harriet Jacobs a True Woman
The nineteenth century was an age of male dominance as well as slavery; even white women were viewed more as property or a burden to men instead of an equal. In concur with male supremacy the cult of true womanhood was practiced, an ideology which was brought forth in the eighteen century stating four virtues which women should abide by, piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity, in turn they would be grant happiness and power; hardly being the case of either, women were subjected to the control and dependency of their male counterparts. These virtues were taken mostly in attention of the elite white woman, not considering poor white women as well as slaves, who were thought to be less than women; African American women were excluded not only because of their class status but also because of their race. Most astonishing of all women believed “that unless they aspired to and, in fact, achieved these impossible ideals, they were less than moral, unnatural, unfeminine,” they sought with great aspiration to be included in such a cult. As a slave searching for freedom, Harriet Jacobs redefined the cult of womanhood by breaking through the norms expected of a woman, she took control of her life and refused to be submissive or domesticated and even choose to cease her purity and piety on her terms. Slavery was hardly kind to anyone enchained by its grasp; women were more susceptible to the cruelty of sexual exploitation, which was quite common during the time even if unspoken of. Slave owners needed not ask for the permission of an enslaved woman to take their will, they simply procured and manipulated women as they saw fit. Harriet Jacobs was only twelve when she was willed to a new owner, a child who could not yet understand was it meant to own a slave. Jacobs was at the mercy of Dr. Flint, a man without scruples who had not only dishonored his family but also fathered many slave children. Jacobs’s true discontentment began when she turned fifteen years of
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