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American Literature: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 8968 Views


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Description:

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, abridged. Ready? Go.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Incidents in the life of a slave girl outline time, alright..

00:23

where the story of Harriet Jacobs took place Harry Jacobs was a slave born in

00:27

North Carolina in 1813 she didn't know that she was a slave until she was six [Facts about Harriet Jacobs]

00:32

years old and her mama died so at least she was spared knowing how truly awful

00:36

her situation was even after learning her plight in life Harriet's mistress

00:40

Margaret Horniblow was pretty cool she taught Harriet how to read and so they

00:44

got along just like peas and carrots but since all good things must end [Margaret's gravestone appears]

00:49

Margaret passed away when Harriet was 11... in her will Margaret gave Harriet to her

00:53

niece remember slaves were considered personal property to their owners who

00:57

was only three years old at the time awkward since baby niece Mary Norcom

01:03

was still learning her ABCs and being potty trained, her dad Dr. James Norcom [Dr James appears with Harriet]

01:07

became Harriet's master run Harriet run seriously if she had known what life was

01:13

going to be like Harriet might have strapped on her Nikes and taken off into

01:16

the sunset of course that wasn't really an option so she belonged to the nor [Harriet runs into James''s path]

01:20

comes and had to hang out and do what they wanted her to do the next 17 years

01:25

of Harriet's life sucked bad it wasn't bad enough being a slave Dr Norcom made

01:30

Harriet his sex slave too..This began when Harriet was in her mid-teens and even

01:35

though she came up with and executed a plan to stop Dr. Norcom's unwelcome

01:39

advances he kept right on pursuing her Harriet found a friend and consensual

01:44

partner and lawyer Samuel Treadwell Sawyer and they got down to the business [Harriet jumps on Samuel]

01:48

of making babies Harriet thought this would make Norcom so mad that he'd sell

01:52

her and the children she bore not so fast Harriet, Dr. Norcom wasn't happy

01:57

about this baby making business but kept Harriet around anyway since she was his [Norcom orders Harriet into the house]

02:01

slave, Norcom adopted the two young-uns as his own property too after all two

02:06

more able-bodied youngsters make great plantation workers

02:10

Harriet wasn't having it, Sawyer the lawyer purchased the kids and Harriet

02:14

escaped but it wasn't exactly to freedom she found a hiding spot in a crawlspace [Harriet walking up the stairs]

02:17

in her grandmother's house where she lived among rats and filth for the next

02:21

seven years can you imagine seven years of confinement with only a Bible and

02:27

some stray rodents to keep you company sounds like someone should write a book

02:30

about this experience anywho Harriet chose the crawl space because she could

02:35

keep an eye on her kids who were living there without the evil doctor Norcom [Harriet in the attic and kids playing]

02:38

knowing where she was, nice going Harriet...in 1842 Harriet was able to hop aboard a

02:44

boat headed north and sailed off to find true freedom friends in Philly took her

02:48

in then she got worked as a nurse maid for some nice folks who treated her well

02:52

Harriet even met up with her daughter Louisa, reunited and it feels so good [Harriet with Louisa]

02:57

with the encouragement of friends Harriet decided to put her life story

03:00

down on paper it wasn't easy but Harriet was able to make it happen incidents in

03:05

the life of a slave girl hmm what does this title make you think about A) a

03:10

bunch of parties a slave girl had during her lifetime. B) a very specific exact

03:14

tale of one girl who lived through the horrors of slavery..C) any young woman

03:18

who lived in slavery anywhere and at any time while none of these explanations

03:22

might be spot on Jacobs chose this vague title to leave the story open to

03:27

personal interpretation by the reader her audience was white Christian

03:31

northern women's who upheld the cult of domesticity above all else Harriet knew

03:36

these things were super important to the women around her so she shaped her book

03:39

to focus on how slave women were denied the right to everything involved with [Statue of liberty discussing Harriet's book]

03:43

the cult of womanhood slave women weren't allowed to access to Christian

03:48

education a happy home or a right to raise a family like other women could

03:52

Harriet also admitted that she used her sexuality as a way to gain her freedom [Dr Norcom sleeping]

03:56

which was definitely not something that the members of the cult would get down

04:00

with she also said the traditional ideals women were supposed to meet

04:03

didn't make sense to apply them to slave women and she used her book to

04:08

demonstrate just that we hyped up the incidents of life of a slave girl so

04:12

much we just know you're itchin to read and talk about some specific passages so

04:16

let's get to it... I had not lived 14 years in slavery for nothing I had felt seen and

04:23

heard enough to read the characters and question the motives of those around me

04:27

the war of my life had begun and the one of God's most powerless creatures I

04:32

resolved never to be conquered... take a moment and let that one sink in okay

04:38

moments over this quote comes from Chapter four we chose it because it [Norcom holding Harriet]

04:42

shows the great maturity and bravery Linda / Harriet had to show even though

04:46

she was barely a teenager most kids her age are playing video games and hanging [Boys playing on their smartphones]

04:50

out at the mall not Harriet she's ready to take on the world the next passage we

04:55

pick has to do with race... if God has the stowed beauty upon her it will prove her

05:00

greatest curse that which commands admiration in the white woman only

05:04

hastens the degradation of the female slave death was already almost

05:08

preferable to what male slaves had to go through but women who were slaves got

05:13

served with a double whammy slavery turns everything upside down even the [Harriet upside down on playground bars]

05:18

value of being pretty beautiful slave girls are more likely to be victimized

05:22

Harriet Jacobs did her best to show what real life was like for a woman born into

05:27

slavery it wasn't always pretty but reporting on the truth seldom is...Next up

05:31

let's examine a passage from the preface of incidents I do earnestly desire to

05:37

arouse the women in the north to a realizing sense of the condition of two

05:41

millions of women at the cell still in bondage suffering what I suffered and

05:45

most of them far worse... any guesses on what theme we're talking about here

05:50

Harriet opened her book by pleading with northern women her audience to listen to [Harriet protesting for people to listen to her story]

05:54

her story she wanted him to feel it was one worth telling she might have caught

05:59

their attention too if this little thing called a civil war hadn't happened as

06:02

you probably remember the civil war began in 1861 right about the time

06:06

Harriet's book was getting published nothing like an old war to put the

06:09

kibosh....but since Harriet was not a quitter she joined the

06:13

abolitionist movement and continued working to sell her book and fight [Harriet selling her book at a stall]

06:16

injustice talk about multi-tasking we've got two more passages to check out so

06:20

let's get to it this is a quote from chapter 10 and it's a toughy... I can

06:25

testify from my own experience in observation that slavery makes the white

06:29

fathers cruel and sensual the sun's violent and

06:33

licentious it contaminates the daughter and makes the wives wretched...can you say

06:38

dysfunctional family, in this short passage Harriet's talking family dynamic [Woman appears in a room and slips on a banana]

06:43

because of slavery the otherwise average family is a total mess it seemed

06:47

impossible for southern slave owners to understand how bad slavery was for

06:51

everyone in Harriet's opinion there's no way for families to be normal and loving [Mary waving her arms in the air]

06:55

as long as slavery exists this is one of the many reasons she fought to share her

07:00

experience and end slavery all together she didn't curl up and cry about her [Harriet crying on the floor]

07:04

hard life Harriet kept pushing for people to know the truth about slavery

07:08

during the war incidents in the life of a slave girl slowly but surely gained

07:12

traction abolitionists took notice and shared the book with others our final [People reading Harriet's book]

07:16

passage up for examination is about friendship... one was a fair white child

07:21

the other was her slave and also her sister when I saw them embracing each

07:25

other and heard their joyous laughter I turned sadly away from the lovely sight

07:29

I foresaw the inevitable blight that would fall on the little slaves heart I

07:34

knew how soon her laughter would be changed to sighs, the fair child grew up

07:38

to be a still fairer woman from childhood to womanhood her pathway was blooming

07:42

with flowers and overarched by a sunny sky. Scarcely one day of her life had

07:48

been clouded when the Sun rose on her happy Bridal morning... hold on one [Girl wipes tear from her eye]

07:53

moment..This is another super sad passage from what

07:57

we're figuring out is a really tragic book Harriet knows that the life of a

08:01

slave girl is pretty much the worst thing ever and she feels terrible for

08:05

the other slave girls who suffered just like she did which is another reason she

08:10

felt like she had to write her book it wasn't Harriet Jacobs goal to be the

08:14

first former slave woman to write and publish a full-length novel about being [People approach Harriet's stall]

08:17

a slave but that's the lady we know and love her to be today she didn't get the

08:21

credit she deserved in her lifetime but it's safe to say she lived a pretty

08:25

decent free life while she could maybe now is the time to celebrate Harriet's

08:29

accomplishments..[Statue of Harriet Jacobs]

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