Harriet Jacobs and Booker T. Washingtons Conflicting Views on Slavery - Connor Guarnieri
The biggest difference between Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington is the author's portrayal of slavery. Harriet Jacobs writes about her sexual abuse as a slave under Dr. Flint, how similar things happened to other slave girls, and paints a picture of slavery being a system built on abuse of African-Americans that should be stopped. Washington on the other hand, doesn’t exactly applaud slavery, but has a more liberal approach, he said that it built resilience in African Americans, and almost downplays the effects of slavery. Harriet herself admits that she didn’t feel that she was enslaved in the beginning as a child. She frequently played with other white children, and lived a “carefree” childhood according to her, before everything went wrong. After her previous, more generous master passed away, she was sold to Dr. Flint, an evil and selfish man who had a certa...