Slave Literature Essay

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Slavery

The American government was directly complicit in slavery and passed a number of laws that supported the institution. One of the most severe and notorious of those laws was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The Fugitive Slave Law highlighted the vast gulf between the slaveholding and free states of the union, leading eventually to the Civil War. However, the law also impacted the lives of countless people who attempted to escape slavery or those facilitated their passage. In her memoirs, Harriet Jacobs writes about the Fugitive Slave Law. The author calls those who enforced the law "cruel human bloodhounds" who were no better than slave owners themselves (Jacobs 68). To properly understand slavery, it becomes essential to comprehend the entirety of the system that supported it.

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs does not spare the North from its participation in the subjugation of people of color. Jacobs refers, for example, to Massachusetts as being a "nigger hunter for the south," (198).

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A large part of Jacobs's narrative is comprised of her direct and personal experiences trying to escape from slavery, and the consequences of her actions. The incidents during which Jacobs tries to escape parallel the image of the public service announcement calling attention to all fugitive slaves. The image states, "Attention: The Slave-Hunter is Among Us! Be On Your Guard! An Arrest is Planned for To-Night. Be Ready to Receive Them Whenever They Come!" This advertisement is one that Jacobs might have very well seen and read during her experiences trying to escape with her family.

What the image, and Jacobs' experiences, show is that there were indeed a large number of Americans who were truly against the institution of slavery and were willing to risk their lives helping others. Those abolitionists who were passionate enough to take action are the ones who published announcements such as those shown in the image. Abolitionists helped men and….....

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