Blog 3

This week we watched a movie in class titled “Slavery in the Making of America”. A portion of this video was dedicated to discussing the life and trials of a young girl named Harriet Jacobs. Her story both intrigued me and made me horrified as I saw the trials that she had to endure at such a young age. Harriet was the slave a man named Norcom. Norcom had several slaves at his farm, but he chose Harriet to work as a house slave. This means that she was supposed to work in this house and look after the mistress. At a young age, Norcom began harassing Harriet because of her beauty. Although it was forbidden for slaves to learn to read and write, she was taught anyway. Harriet wrote about she had to deal with. She recalls how even beauty can be a curse in the life of a slave. Later on in her life, she was compelled to run away to save her children. She stayed in the roof of her grandmother—who was a free woman. Her children were rescued but Harriet could not speak to them. She hid away and watched her children grow up from a tiny hole she made in the roof.

                Any woman or mother should every have to go through an ordeal like this. This was an outcome of women and slaves being objectified. Even in western society today, women are obligated to look a certain way so that they are “accepted” in society, when in reality the only person that needs to accept anything is themselves.