Fictionalized Autobiographies

1. Fictionalized Autobiographies Harriet Jacobs & Harriet Wilson

2. Slave Narratives • Antebellum – largely male • Better chances to escape • Not tied down by children • Exceptional personalities • Often mulatto (mixed race)

3. Slave Narratives • Postbellum – fewer • Less popular • Adapt values of dominant society • Booker T. Washington (Up from Slavery)

4. Slave Narratives • WPA Narratives • Collected in 1930s • Number in the thousands • Ex-slaves older – question of memories • Collectors whites

5. Harriet Jacobs • Born 1813 in North Carolina • House slave • Owner dies, transferred to 5-year-old girl • Sexually harassed • Fakes escape 1835 • Hides in crawl space • Escapes 1842

6. Harriet Jacobs • Works as domestic in the North • Contact with many in abolitionist circles • Freedom purchased in 1852 • Begins writing Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in 1853. • Published in January 1861 • No great sales • Dies in 1897

7. Incidents Book “forgotten” Thought of as fiction Rediscovered in 1980s Identities validated • Pseudonyms • Linda Brent • Dr. Flint • Sensational aspects • Living in attic

8. Reasons for fictionalization? • Protect identities • Sexual content • Morality of the era

9. Lydia Maria Child "I am well aware that many will accuse me of indecorum for presenting these pages to the public; for the experiences of this intelligent and much-injured woman belong to a class which some call delicate subjects, and others indelicate. This peculiar phase of Slavery has generally been kept veiled; but the public ought to be made acquainted with its monstrous features, and I willingly take the responsibility of presenting them with the veil withdrawn."

10. Incidents “She will become prematurely knowing in evil things. Soon she will learn to tremble when she hears her master's footfall. She will be compelled to realize that she is no longer a child. If God has bestowed beauty upon her, it will prove her greatest curse. That which commands admiration in the white woman only hastens the degradation of the female slave. I know that some are too much brutalized by slavery to feel the humiliation of their position; but many slaves feel it most acutely, and shrink from the memory of it. I cannot tell how much I suffered in the presence of these wrongs, nor how I am still pained by the retrospect.”

11. My food was passed up to me through the trap-door my uncle had contrived; and my grandmother, my uncle Phillip, and aunt Nancy would seize such opportunities as they could, to mount up there and chat with me at the opening. But of course this was not safe in the daytime. It must all be done in darkness. It was impossible for me to move in an erect position… But I groped round; and having found the side next the street, where I could frequently see my children, I stuck the gimlet in and waited for evening. I bored three rows of holes, one above another; then I bored out the interstices between. I thus succeeded in making one hole about an inch long and an inch broad. I sat by it til late into the night, to enjoy the little whiff of air that floated in. In the morning I watched for my children. The first person I saw in the street was Dr. Flint. I had a shuddering, superstitious feeling that it was a bad omen. Several familiar faces passed by. At last I heard the merry laugh of children, and presently two sweet little faces were looking up at me, as though they knew I was there, and were conscious of the joy they imparted. How I longed to tell them I was there!

12. Incidents “Often I was obliged to lie in bed all day to keep comfortable; but with all my precautions, my shoulders and feet were frostbitten. O, those long, gloomy days, with no object for my eye to rest upon, and no thoughts to occupy my mind, except the dreary past and the uncertain future! I was thankful when there came a day sufficiently mild for me to wrap myself up and sit at the loophole to watch the passers by.”

13. In the North When Mr. Durham handed us our tickets, he said, "I am afraid you will have a disagreeable ride; but I could not procure tickets for the first class cars."Supposing I had not given him money enough, I offered more. "O, no," said he, "they could not be had for any money. They don't allow colored people to go in the first-class cars." This was the first chill to my enthusiasm about the Free States. Colored people were allowed to ride in a filthy box, behind white people, at the south, but there they were not required to pay for the privilege. It made me sad to find how the north aped the customs of slavery.

14. Characteristics • Less “factual” language • Combined with the sentimental novel of the era • Longer than most narratives • Continues on in North

15. Harriet Wilson • Publishes Our Nig: or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black in 1859 • Little known about her until 1980s. • Life verified through documentation • 1st African American novel by a woman?

16. Harriet E. Wilson • Born 1825 in New Hampshire • Abandoned by mother • Free person of color • Becomes indentured servant • Marries former slave in 1852 • Deserted by husband • Publishes in 1859 to gain money for son

17. Harriet E. Wilson • Book largely ignored • Later turns to spiritualism • Dies in 1900

18. Harriet Wilson • Lack of popularity • Expose of Northern problems • Subtitle: In a Two-Story White House, North. Showing How Slavery’s Shadows Fall Even There • Doesn’t follow slave narrative pattern

19. Our Nig  LONELY MAG SMITH! See her as she walks with downcast eyes and heavy heart. It was not always thus. She had a loving, trusting heart. Early deprived of parental guardianship, far removed from relatives, she was left to guide her tiny boat over life's surges alone and inexperienced. As she merged into womanhood, unprotected, uncherished, uncared for, there fell on her ear the music of love, awakening an intensity of emotion long dormant.

20. Our Nig • Ends up in house as servant • Mother and sister in family mistreat her • Father largely absent • Sons sympathetic but spend little time there • “Aunt Abby” supports, but too weak

21. Our Nig •  "If I do, I get whipped," sobbed the child. "They won't believe what I say. Oh, I wish I had my mother back; then I should not be kicked and whipped so. Who made me so?" •    "God," answered James. •    "Did God make you?" •    "Yes." •    "Who made Aunt Abby?" •    "God." •    "Who made your mother?" •    "God." •    "Did the same God that made her make me?" •    "Yes." •    "Well, then, I don't like him." •    "Why not?" •    "Because he made her white, and me black. Why didn't he make us both white?" •    "I don't know; try to go to sleep, and you will feel better in the morning,"

22. Our Nig • They watched him for hours. He had labored hard for breath some time, when he seemed to awake suddenly, and exclaimed, "Hark! do you hear it?" •    "Hear what, my son?" asked the father. •    "Their call. Look, look, at the shining ones! Oh, let me go and be at rest!" •    As if waiting for this petition, the Angel of Death severed the golden thread, and he was in heaven. At midnight the messenger came. •    They called Frado to see his last struggle. Sinking on her knees at the foot of his bed, she buried her face in the clothes, and wept like one inconsolable. They led her from the room. She seemed to be too much absorbed to know it was necessary for her to leave. Next day she would steal into the chamber as often as she could, to weep over his remains, and ponder his last words to her. She moved about the house like an automaton. Every duty performed -- but an abstraction from all, which shewed her thoughts were busied elsewhere.

23.  She received her like a returning wanderer; seriously urged her to accept of Christ; explained the way; read to her from the Bible, and remarked upon such passages as applied to her state. She warned her against stifling that voice which was calling her to heaven; echoed the farewell words of James, and told her to come to her with her difficulties, and not to delay a duty so important as attention to the truths of religion, and her soul's interests. •    Mrs. Bellmont would occasionally give instruction, though far different. She would tell her she could not go where James was; she need not try. If she should get to heaven at all, she would never be as high up as he. • He was the attraction. Should she "want to go there if she could not see him?" •    Mrs. B. seldom mentioned her bereavement, unless in such allusion to Frado. She donned her weeds from custom; kept close her crape veil for so many Sabbaths, and abated nothing of her characteristic harshness.

24. Frado pondered; her mistress was a professor of religion; was she going to heaven? then she did not wish to go. If she should be near James, even, she could not be happy with those fiery eyes watching her ascending path. She resolved to give over all thought of the future world, and strove daily to put her anxiety far from her.

25. Our Nig •  It was not long before an opportunity offered of profiting by his advice. She was sent for wood, and not returning as soon as Mrs. B. calculated, she followed her, and, snatching from the pile a stick, raised it over her. •    "Stop!" shouted Frado, "strike me, and I'll never work a mite more for you;" and throwing down what she had gathered, stood like one who feels the stirring of free and independent thoughts. •    By this unexpected demonstration, her mistress, in amazement, dropped her weapon, desisting from her purpose of chastisement. Frado walked towards the house, her mistress following with the wood she herself was sent after. She did not know, before, that she had a power to ward off assaults. Her triumph in seeing her enter the door with her burden, repaid her for much of her former suffering. •    It was characteristic of Mrs. B. never to rise in her majesty, unless she was sure she should be victorious. •    This affair never met with an "after clap," like many others.

26. Our Nig • Problems • Change in voice • Events she can’t have known • Contradictions in text

27. Significance • Life of a totally different, unknown social class • Uncovers Northern attitudes • Religion genuine? • Combination of sentimental novel and slave narrative

28. Comparisons • Maya Angelou