The Slavery Of The United States - 1181 Words

Since the beginning of the installment of slavery in the North American colonies, the act of forcibly enslaving Africans was a precarious issue that haunted the country and which continues to be a scourge on the annals of American history. Slavery provided the basis for the deadliest war in the history of the United States, and it claimed and destroyed the lives of countless victims. First brought over in the 1600s by colonists, African slaves became the backbone of the American agricultural economy. The livelihood of the country, and particularly the Southern states, depended on the institution of slavery, and for that reason, many citizens, both Northern and Southern, turned a blind eye to the matter. However, abolitionists who sought to†¦show more content†¦She connects with them through the descriptions of her childhood, the sadness of motherhood, the first-hand atrocities of slavery that she witnessed, and her terrifying experience of hiding. First, Jacobs begins her na rrative with a discussion of her life as a child. She starts off powerfully, stating, â€Å"I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of a happy childhood had passed away† (Jacobs 11). This simple yet profound statement is enough to illicit the attention of anyone sympathetic to the abolitionist cause. The thought of being born into slavery itself is horrendous, but then hearing that it only got worse for a child of six, makes it even more deplorable. She continues by giving background information on her family. Their story catches the reader’s attention because it is not the typical slave narrative in the beginning. Jacobs’s parents lived comfortably in a house, and her father was a skilled carpenter who was given a certain amount of freedom; he was allowed to â€Å"manage his own affairs† and â€Å"work at his trade† (11). He had hoped to earn enough money to purchase his children, but he was never able to. When she was six years old, Jacobs’s mother passed away, and her realization of being a slave came to pass. Still, she lived comfortably with her mistress, who taught her to read and write, until she died