Autobiographies and Activism: Comparing and Contrasting the Autobiographies of Harriet Jacobs and Booker T. Washington
While both Harriet Jacobs’ and Booker T. Washington’s autobiographies detail their experiences of suffering and oppression during and after slavery, the stories and messages they tell are shaped by the times in which they live. Jacobs is writing in a time where slavery is still legal; her struggle, the struggle of millions, is an ongoing story which she wishes to end. Her anecdotes of cruelties are ongoing, written in the present tense; in chapter 21, she writes, “God pity the woman who is compelled to lead such a life!” The audience of “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” is limited to those who have access to literature and literacy and are inclined towards the issue of slavery: white Northern women. On the other hand, Washington is writing during Reconstruction, and thus is dealing with the chief problem of his time: life after slavery. He writes of his time in slavery not to bring awareness to the issue (for his readership is both those who’ve also gone through such atrocities a...