Journal #28 Harriet Jacobs: At Least She Had A Happy Childhood?

QUOTE:

“I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away” (Jacobs 1809).


SUMMARY:

Linda Brent (pseudonym for Harriet Jacobs) was fortunate to have a somewhat normal, happy childhood. After she learned that she was a slave, she still had at least a somewhat kind mistress. However, Brent’s so-called “nice” mistress didn’t leave her slaves free after she died.


RESPONSE:

It doesn’t seem right for anyone to rationalize Brent’s whole life, saying, “at least she had a happy childhood,” since the first years of a child’s life are so important. However, Brent does seem to treasure the memories she has from when she was living a “sheltered” life. At the end of our reading she even says that her early memories make her happy. What I can’t get over though, is that her mother’s white mistress, no matter how “kind” she may have been, didn’t give Brent’s mother or any of Brent’s mother’s children freedom upon her death. In fact, it seems like it was very rare for any slaveholder to leave any of their slaves free.

The whole system for keeping slavery a completely lucrative asset for a slaveholder seems like it was devastating for any slave, and it disgusts me when I think about it. I can’t think of any reason other than greed that would cause mistresses or masters to squeeze every last bit of work they could get out of their slaves, and then also try to do the same with any children their slaves may give birth to. Then, if for some reason their slaves would think they'd be free at least when their master or mistress died, these slaves, and basically their whole family lineage, would be left as an inheritance to their family members.

I would want to smack anyone who was that greedy, but I really don’t think that would have done any good. I guess that’s probably one of the reasons why certain revolutionaries (like Emerson and Thoreau) were so against slavery, besides the fact that slavery in general is inhumane and should not exist. At least there was a civil war that ended slavery, even though that sounds pretty horrible to be glad that there was a war.