Blog #5

1. The white women in the south had lived very different lives than the white women living in the northern states. White Women had been seen more equal to men than they had been in earlier years. Therefore, many of the elite white women did not and were not expected to labor since they were slave-owners. The white women also had a duty to manage these slaves. They were instructed to discipline any slaves who had done anything which unsatisfied the slave-owners. The non-elites role was different than those of the elites. Their duty was to take care of the slaves by nursing for them. They had labored more than the elites because their priority was to produce items for the family rather than buying these items, as women had done in the north. The implications for the black women was to work in the plantation and agricultural fields. Their work in the fields were just as effective as the work done by the black men. The black women had been beaten by their owners in order to humiliate the slaves. It was hard for these women to bear children because they knew that they would have to give the children up to the slave-owners so that the child, too, could be a slave.

2. The significance of the story is that it shows us the troubles that these slave women endured while being under the command of their male slave-owners. Harriet Jacobs had been a victim of her owner because of the way he had attempted to take advantage of her sexually. Many of the male slave-owners convinced these black women that it was their duty to give in to the sexual favors because they were owned property. The sexual relations that the white men and black women had with one another led to deliberate breeding in which the black women gave birth to the children of the white men. These women had learned to hate their slave-owners because they were victimized and had felt ashamed for the rest of their lives.

1. Many of the slave-owners in the south saw their slaves as being fundamental in their way of living because it allowed for their lives to be easier and had also brought in more wealth. These slave-owners had also seen the relationships between their slaves inconsequential. The characters in the accounts resisted the assumptions made about them by showing us the reality of their relationships and the emotions that they lived with. The Crafts’ relationship showed many readers of the article that black people are able to have emotional bonds with one another and that they would go through many obstacles in order to keep a strong bond. They had gone through their search for freedom as a couple and proved that even black people are able to work together when they are emotionally tied.

2. The fact that these two documents were written with different amounts of decades between the actual occurrence and the written accounts changes the way the individuals were able to record and explain their memories. The memories that the Crafts had are more detailed than those of Polly Shine because the Crafts were able to record the dialogue that occurred between each other and the dialogue that occurred with the people at the train station. William Craft’s experience is very detailed because he explains every action, every thought, every sound that had taken place during their running away from slavery. Polly Shines is more vague with her memory because she only gives general information of the occurrences. For example, she only estimates the amount of slaves that her slave-owner had and remembers general information of only one story. It is easy to see that an earlier account of an occurrence is more effective than a later account. Although, an argument could be made regarding Polly Shine’s memories because of the fact that she was a lot younger during her experiences than the Crafts were in theirs. This might play a role in distorting her memories as well. The Crafts account is much more effective because of the detailed information we are given and therefore allows us to have a stronger emotional connection.