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Slave Narratives and African American Women’S Literature UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA Facultad de Filología Departamento de Filología Inglesa HARRIET JACOBS: FORERUNNER OF GENDER STUDIES IN SLAVE NARRATIVES AND AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE Sonia Sedano Vivanco 2009 UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA Facultad de Filología Departamento de Filología Inglesa HARRIET JACOBS: FORERUNNER OF GENDER STUDIES IN SLAVE NARRATIVES AND AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE Vº Bº Tesis doctoral que presenta SONIA LA DIRECTORA, SEDANO VIVANCO, dirigida por la Dra. OLGA BARRIOS HERRERO Salamanca 2009 UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA Facultad de Filología Departamento de Filología Inglesa HARRIET JACOBS: FORERUNNER OF GENDER STUDIES IN SLAVE NARRATIVES AND AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE Sonia Sedano Vivanco 2009 a Manu por el presente a Jimena, Valeria y Mencía por el futuro People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. (Maya Angelou) Keep in mind always the present you are constructing. It should be the future you want. (Alice Walker) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When I decided to undertake this project, enthusiasm and passion filled my heart. I did not know then that this would be such a demanding, complex—but at the same time enjoyable and gratifying—enterprise. It has been a long journey in which I have found the support, encouragement and help of several people whom I must now show my gratitude. First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Olga Barrios for all her support, zealousness, and stimulus. The thorough revisions, sharp comments, endless interest, and continuous assistance of this indefatigable professor have been of invaluable help. Thank you also to well-known scholar of African American literature Frances Smith Foster, whose advice in the genesis of this dissertation served to establish a valid work hypothesis. I would also like to thank my workmates, both in Salamanca and Madrid, since some in the origin and some in the conclusion of this project have provided me with unconditional support and encouragement. Thank you also to my friends for their understanding, optimism and infinite cheerfulness. My family has played a crucial role in the realization of this dissertation because, from its outset to its final termination, they have not ceased to support— admonish when necessary—and comfort me. They have also endured my absenteeism, which this document would hopefully now compensate. Thank you, therefore, to my parents, Toñín and Mariasun, and to my brothers and sister, Óscar, Guillermo and Miryam. They all must be proud of this dissertation, for they are part of it. Thank you to my nieces Jimena and Valeria—and the forthcoming Mencía—because they have awarded me with unforgettable fun moments that have procured great encouragement. My in-laws are also responsible for the termination of this document since they have endured comments about it for several years and have understood my necessary absence at important events. Thus, I must thank Manolo, Mari, Carlos, Marta and Rebeca. Since the last shall be first, I would like to thank my husband, Manu, most especially. Not only is he an example of dedication and tenacity (an example I would like to mirror), but he has, more than anyone else, suffered the consequences of living with a Ph.D. candidate; he has, more than anyone else, given me the strength to accomplish this goal; he has, more than anyone else, made me laugh on difficult days with his fantastic sense of humor. Hence, my most sincere and profound gratitude to Manu. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 5 CHAPTER 1. LIFE AS A SLAVE ........................................................................................ 25 1. The Slave Codes: Their Impact on the Life of Slaves ........................................ 29 2. Jobs Performed by Male and Female Slaves: From Childhood through Adulthood ........................................................................................................... 58 3. Slaves’ Means of Resistance to Slavery ............................................................. 86 CHAPTER 2. SLAVE NARRATIVES: THEIR VALUE AS HISTORY AND AS LITERATURE ................................................................................................................. 113 1. Antebellum and Postbellum Slave Narratives: Their Value as History ........... 118 2. Slave Narratives as Literature ........................................................................... 126 2.1. Slave Narratives vs. Other Contemporary Literary Genres ................ 127 Autobiography ............................................................................. 129 Confessional Literature and Spiritual Biography ........................ 143 Sentimental Novel ....................................................................... 149 Picaresque Novel and African Folktales ..................................... 163 Criminal and Captivity Narratives ............................................... 174 Novel of Ordeal ........................................................................... 178 2.2. The Slave Narrative as a Literary Genre ............................................ 185 CHAPTER 3. GENDER AS DIFFERENCE: HARRIET JACOBS’S INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL (1861) AND THE LITERARY TRADITION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS ...................................................................................................................... 226 1. African American Women Writers and Female Slave Narratives before the Civil War ................................................................................................................... 229 1.1. African American Women Writers before the Civil War................... 230 African American Women Poets ................................................. 230 African American Women Essayists .......................................... 234 African American Women Novelists ......................................... 239 African American Women Autobiographers ............................... 244 1.2. Female Slave Narratives before the Civil War ................................... 255 2. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: A Womanist Approach to Slave Narratives.......................................................................................................... 297 3. The Haunting Memory of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: From Postbellum Slave Narratives to Contemporary African American Women’s Writings ...... 335 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 353 APPENDIXES ................................................................................................................. 366 - Appendix A: Illustrations ................................................................................. 369 - Appendix B: Documents and Maps .................................................................. 383 - Appendix C: Slave Songs and Poems on Slavery ............................................ 395 - Appendix D: Instruments of Torture Used by Slaveholders ............................ 409 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 423 INTRODUCTION See these poor souls from Africa Transported to America; We are stolen, and sold to Georgia, Will you go along with me? We are stolen, and sold to Georgia, Come sound the jubilee! (Traditional slave song)1 Slavery still exists today. It might be called human trafficking, forced labor, sex trafficking, etc., but it is, nonetheless, slavery, and it is widespread all over the world. It is estimated that between twelve and twenty-seven million people are caught in one or another form of slavery, and that international trafficking involves between 600,000 and 800,000 slaves. Almost three out of every four victims are women, and half of modern slaves are children.2 Nowadays, slave labor is used for a variety of purposes, among which are prostitution, pornography, domestic servitude, agriculture, construction, mining, sweatshops, and child soldiers. Being a current-affairs issue, slavery is present in contemporary literature. It has been revisited in modern autobiographies, like Slave (2004), written by Mende Nazer with Damien Lewis,3 and Escape from Slavery (2003), by Francis Bok with Edward Tivnan.4 However, it is also persistently recurrent in works of fiction like A Mercy 1 See “Appendix C: Slave Songs and Poems on Slavery,” p. 395, for the complete lyrics of this song. 2 This datum applies to the year 2009 according to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. See more information on its website <www.freedomcenter.org/slavery-today/> 3 Mende Nazer is a Sudanese who was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a girl. She managed to escape to freedom in September 2000 during a stay in London. Damien Lewis is a British journalist and filmmaker. 4 Francis Bok is a Sudanese who was kidnapped as a child and lived in slavery for ten years before escaping imprisonment in Kurdufan (Sudan) and traveling to freedom in the United States. Edward Tivnan is an American journalist and author of several books. 6 Sonia Sedano Vivanco (2008), by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. Therefore, it seems that as long as slavery continues to be a problem in society, it will not cease to be present in black modern letters. This is why literary works like Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,
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