Harriet Jacobs & Frederick Douglas: a comparison.
             Two stories about slavery, both very impressive but at the same time very different from each other. The stories are written by authors who both where once slaves themselves, but finally gained freedom One was written by a woman and thus giving us a look at how slave women experienced this life, the other written by a man.
             The first story, Incidents in the life of a slave girl. by Harriet Jacobs, seems to be an autobiographical one, although some critics claim it is fiction. Whether true or not the story had a great impact on me . It gave a good inside look in how the life of a slave woman was, the problems she met, especially the sexual abuse by the master. It astonished me that a master impregnate a slave and that this child followed the condition of the mother, and was thus born a slave (this I did not know before).
             The courage of Linda for standing they abuse and the things she did to be independent (especially in choosing her own man and not having one forced upon her), such as living in a dark and small place , escaping and not seeing her children, made a deep impact on me.
             With this story Jacobs made very clear, that although some slave owners were kind, being a slave and being a property of some one is something very wrong and that being once a slave freedom, which Linda finally possessed, was the highest property to have. This is also made clear by Frederick Douglas, but in a very different way, his story was harder and the details he gave of the abuse where cruel and gave me the shivers . (because of the bloody details). From of the very beginning he made clear that even death was better than being a slave and that he was he sure that once he could escape from slavery and being a freeman at last. He also tells us that the first step towards freedom is learning to read and write, skills that were kept as far a way from slave to make sure they didn't escape. He a...