Feb 07, 2006 15:56
Saira Hirji
History 11
Harriet Jacobs
Harriet Jacobs hid from her slave owners for seven years, living in seclusion in “a small loft, under her grandmother’s roof,” (the Freedmen’s Report) right near her children and her master. Once she had escaped, Harriet went on to help others. She wrote her book, “Incidents In the Life Of a Slave Girl,” and also participated in the abolishment of slavery by writing newspaper articles. I think that Harriet was a very generous person, because after all she went through, she finally escaped the bonds of slavery, and still gave everything she had to help others in need.
After being pursued by “blood hounds” and living in cramped quarters for so long, Harriet still found it in herself to do so much for others. She visited and cared for ex-slaves who could not care for themselves. Many freed slaves had no money or means of survival, and so they were becoming sick and/or dying. Harriet was begging for blankets for them, and spending time with them in their last days.
She not only sympathized with the dying who never really felt the benefits of slavery, but she also sought to help the orphans or those who died. She asked people to either adopt the orphans, or to at least contribute financially to the institutions taking them in.
Another major thing Harriet did was participate in the founding of a school to help educate fellow colored people. People of all ages attended the school, and learned the basics- their ABCs and how to read and write. This school made all the difference in many lives, and Harriet helped make it all possible for the people.
One document I found was a newspaper article in which Harriet wrote about the indecent treatment of slave women. She described how at fourteen a girl could be forced into sex, have two kids before the age of twenty, and then be sold to make room for a new sex toy for the master. This expose on the policy of using them and then throwing them away was another way in which Harriet contributed to the anti-slavery actions, because she helped open up people’s eyes to what was going on in the lives of slaves.
Harriet did so much to help people. She dreamed of the day when her people could be free, educated, and equal to the whites. She did not just hope for these things, she helped to achieve them, and she got to see the ball get rolling toward today’s mostly equal and diverse society. She would be so proud to see how far her work has come, and I have to admire the effort she put into making not only her dreams, but the dreams of colored people everywhere come true.