One Woman’s Stand Against a Patriarchal System – Sidney Morgan

Sidney Morgan is an 11th and 12th grade ELA teacher who is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Education with a concentration in English and Literature.  She was nominated by Professor Edwina Helton, and has chosen to submit a selection from a recent paper in ENG L361, Studies in 19th Century American Literature.  Prof. Helton notes that Sidney’s “work is original, making powerful connections across disciplines.” 

One Woman’s Stand Against a Patriarchal System

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a slave narrative written by Harriet Jacobs which details her perils of living with a master who was obsessed with her and how she managed to escape. In the narrative, written in 1861, Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent to conceal her identity in an attempt to avoid persecutions. Linda suffered greatly and for much of her life because of her master’s obsession. Even her escape was made more painful and difficult because her master refused to give up on finding her. He put much more time, effort, and resources into searching for her than he would have if she was a male slave. In fact, many of the misfortunes Linda endured happened strictly because of her gender and the notion of the “cult of True Womanhood” (Larson 739). On the subject of female slaves Jacobs explicitly states in her narrative, “No matter the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men” (Jacobs 159).  The oppression of women created several conflicts in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, but the narrator, called Linda in the novel, actively fought against the system which was stacked against her.

Female slaves had to endure sexual harassment and abuse from their white masters. Jacobs explained how many masters started harassing their female slaves when they reached fourteen or fifteen years of age. It often started by the masters whispering impure things into the ears of their young slaves. Sometimes they would try to manipulate their female slaves by sweet-talking them into bed or manipulating them by telling them as a slave it was their duty to comply with their master’s wants and needs. If these tactics didn’t work they would resort to violence and rape. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Mr. Flint relentlessly chased after Linda for years. He tried to entice Linda with flattery and he said, “that I [Linda] was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things” (Jacobs 159). Oftentimes when that didn’t work he would become angry and use violence. He would boast about how well he treated her—much better than any other master would—and then he would physically harm her by hitting her or throwing her around. As a result of Linda’s sexual refusals, Mr. Flint became thoroughly engrossed with her. Even after Mr. Flint is offered a lot of money for Linda, and after he wastes a large amount of time and money searching for Linda, he still refuses to sell her. It clearly would have been in his best interest to sell her at that point, and if she was a male slave he would have. However, he was so obsessed with Linda that he was determined if he couldn’t have her then no one could. While Linda’s experiences with sexual abuse from the hands’ of a master were horrendous, they were not the worst cases of sexual abuse that occurred. Unfortunately, many female slaves encountered much worse abuse and were unable to ward it off like Linda did.  Linda fought against the white, male power by not allowing Mr. Flint to take her body sexually without her submission; most female slaves were not able to thwart their offenders’ advances. While Mr. Flint’s actions were reprehensible, he never raped Linda. Most commonly rape was the fate of female slaves who attempted to refuse their master’s sexual passes. These are troubles that male slaves did not encounter, but unfortunately they were not the only tragedies which affect female slaves alone.

Not only did female slaves have to endure this horrific sexual abuse, but they also were made to feel guilty about losing their purity. According to the notion of the cult of True Womanhood, purity was a main expectation of women. Once a woman lost her purity she was deemed as wicked and, in a slave’s case, not as valuable. Thus female slaves had to fear sexual abuse, and then after said abuse they had to mourn for their treasured purity. Where her purity was concerned, Linda decided to take matters into her own hands. After years of fending off Mr. Flint’s advances she began to feel like his success over conquering her body was only a matter of time. Instead of allowing Mr. Flint to take her purity she made a decision to willingly give it to another man, just so Mr. Flint couldn’t have it. When explaining her decision to throw away her purity Linda said, “It seems less degrading to give one’s self, than to submit to compulsion” (Jacobs 192). In her article, “Converting Passive Womanhood to Active Sisterhood: Agency, Power, and Subversion in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, Larson explains Linda’s decision by saying, “Dr. Flint tries to take her purity, but she gives it to Sands… she takes the power to remove this purity away from Flint and gives it to herself” (749), therefore by sacrificing her sacred purity she removes some of Dr. Flint’s power and gives a little empowerment to herself. However, even though Linda was able to gain a victory over the system she was fighting against, there were still consequences for Linda’s decision: she became pregnant.

Another phenomenon that happened mainly to female slaves was the pain of raising children born into slavery.  Commonly, the result of being raped by their master was that female slaves became pregnant. In truth, this was a calculated plan by many masters in order to increase their slave numbers. Since babies born assumed the status of their mothers, these babies were also slaves. This meant that one of two things happened to these mothers and babies: the mothers either had to watch their children grow up living a life full of pain and abuse or they had to live through watching their children being sold at a slave auction and never seeing them again. It was even worse if they had a daughter, then the mother would have an additional worry: knowing the sexual abuse their child would likely endure at a young age. On the other hand, if their children were sold the slave mothers had to spend their days not only without ever seeing their children again, but also wondering everyday where they were sent, how they were being treated, or if they were even alive. To further that point, Jacobs said, “But to the slave mother New Year’s day comes laden with peculiar sorrows. She sits on her cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn from her the next morning; and often does she wish that she and they might die before the day dawns” (Jacobs 144). A female slave having children represented a complete dichotomy. The slaves loved their children dearly, but it was impossible to determine if it was crueler to let them live in misery or die young. What should have been a joyous aspect of their life turned into a double-edged sword. Linda was able to trick Mr. Flint into selling her children to Mr. Sands, their father. They had a man working with Mr. Sands pose as a slave trader to buy the children. Mr. Flint thought he was selling Linda’s children away from her, but she undermined his power play against her. Although she was able to trick Mr. Flint into selling her children to their father, she still had to withstand her children living as slaves. Yet there was another characteristic which was primarily exclusive to female slaves, which wasn’t tragic.

There was a general solidarity amongst the female slaves. While female slaves (and slaves in general) did not have the power to fully protect one other, many times they did tend to help each other out whenever they could. Without the unity of female slaves many of them that managed to escape to the North would not have made it, Linda included. When Linda first escaped from the Flint’s (Mr. Flint’s son) she went to her grandmother’s home and asked the woman, Sally, who lived with her grandmother to pack Linda’s clothes into Sally’s trunk to trick the masters into thinking Linda had packed her belongings and ran away. This could have had severe consequences for Sally if it was discovered that she did this for Linda, but she did it anyway to help Linda. After she left her grandmother’s house, Linda was harbored by a friend. This friend not only concealed Linda knowing she was risking her life to help Linda, but she also doctored Linda up after she was bitten by a snake. In the novel Linda noted, “I was in great anxiety lest I should implicate the friend who harbored me. I knew the consequences would be frightful” (Jacobs 243). Once she moved from her friend’s house to a white woman’s house, Linda was cared for by another fellow female slave, Betty. Betty was the one who met Linda and took her to her new hideout. While at the hideout, Betty made sure Linda was fed daily. She also helped to keep Linda’s identity and location hidden from others. All of these women were actively resisting the white, male tyranny by assisting Linda in escaping. While many companion female slaves stood together against oppression, most white women from the South were just as guilty of oppressing female slaves as their male masters were.

White women, mainly women from the South, acted as oppressors to female slaves just as strongly as white men did. Female slaves had no power, as they were considered property, and they still managed to help each other out through their solidarity. While white women did not have as much power as white men, they still had more power than female slaves. Therefore, if female slaves were able to assist one another then white women would have been more than capable of aiding these women, but the southern mistresses chose to stand with their race over their gender. Around the time masters started sexually harassing and abusing their female slaves, the masters’ wives would become extremely jealous. This jealousy would lead to even more mistreatment to the female slaves by the hands of the mistress. The mistresses knew their husbands were abusing these young slaves, and instead of trying to help these victims they would further abuse them. Often times, when female slaves would have children, as a result of their master raping them, their mistresses would also either severely mistreat the babies or make the master sell them. This is another clear example of mistresses choosing their ethnic group over their sex. Many of these women had children of their own, so they knew the thought of being forced to part with their babies would be torturous. Yet, they forced their female slaves to endure this pain, after they had lived through the pain of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and rape. In Linda’s case, Mrs. Flint was aware of Mr. Flint’s obsession with Linda. The more obsessed Mr. Flint became with Linda the more resentful Mrs. Flint became. Her jealousy made her so enraged it threatened Linda’s life. This can be seen when Linda said, “Sometimes I woke up, and found her bending over me… At last, I began to be fearful for my life” (Jacobs 166). Even though Mrs. Flint frightened Linda and treated her poorly, Linda refused to continue the pattern of pitting women against other women. Unlike the anger and resentment Linda felt towards Mr. Flint, she explained that she actually pitied Mrs. Flint and would never wish to do her wrong. By refusing to fall prey to the dividing of women, Linda pushed back against the discrimination of all women. White women were hurting more than their slaves by oppressing their fellow females.

White women contributed to their own oppression by choosing to unify with their race over their gender. White women did not have as much power or freedom as white men; they were still considered the lesser sex. Women did not have any voting rights and they were expected to be obedient to their husbands. Instead of trying to empower their gender by helping female slaves, they helped white men continue their power by keeping women divided. If the women of both genders were to join together in solidarity they could have gained more social power. This is one way white women as a whole could have defied their persecution, but instead they submitted to their suppressors. Of course there were some white women in the South who did empower women by choosing to help female slaves, such as the mistress who risked her family’s reputation by harboring Linda. This can be seen as an active stance against the cult of True Womanhood.

In the article, “Converting Passive Womanhood to Active Sisterhood: Agency, Power, and Subversion in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, Jennifer Larson describes what the cult of True Womanhood (sometimes referred to as the cult) is and how it relates to Jacobs’ narrative. Larson explains that, “this cult called for purity, piety, domesticity, and submissiveness in all women” (739). The cult of True Womanhood was a major notion in the nineteenth century. Women actually strived to live up to the standards of the cult because that is what society deemed created a “real woman”. The cult of True Womanhood was a social structure which enforced a patriarchal society and kept women oppressed. In her article, Larson also explains how Jacobs’ narrative is a protest to the cult. All ways in which Linda defies the patriarchal system set against her are also ways that she opposes the cult. Linda’s multiple refusals to submit to Mr. Flint’s advances is a rejection of the cult of True Womanhood. Also, when Linda chooses to lose her purity as an act of defiance against Mr. Flint she is actively challenging the notions of submissiveness and purity, and therefore the cult itself. Even displaying characters who aim to meet the cult of True Womanhood’s standards is a protest against the cult. Showing characters such as Mrs. Flint is a testament to how immoral the cult’s ideology is. Mrs. Flint is a horrible woman who divides her gender by mistreating a fellow woman in a time of great need, but by the cult’s standards she is considered a real woman: she is pure, domesticated, religious, and submissive to her husband. This shows how the cult is structured to ensure women are divided and stay oppressed.

Many of the events in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl shows how slavery, along with the cult of True Womanhood, was yet another patriarchal structure which further divided and oppressed women of both races. While slavery obviously did not only oppress woman, it did oppress African American women even more than it did African American men. However, Linda’s reactions to her lifelong misfortunes are demonstrations to her fight against the patriarchal system and the cult of True Womanhood. Refusing to submit to Mr. Flint and valuing her power of choice over the notion of purity are two major ways Linda does this. Harriet Jacobs’ narrative shows that she was truly a remarkable woman who paved the way for the beginning of women’s suffrage in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Works Cited

Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself. New York, The Modern Library, 2004.

Larson, Jennifer. “Converting Passive Womanhood to Active Sisterhood: Agency, Power, and Subversion in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Woman’s Studies, vol. 35, no. 8, 2006, https://web-b-ebscohost-com.proxyse.uits.iu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=12&sid=588c35aa-4b72-43d2-8e0c-7c76750d1724%40sessionmgr103. Accessed 9 November 2018.