Write a 4-page essay that addresses the following issues and questions using “Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and American History
1) What was life like for Harriet Jacobs and other slaves?
2) What are some specific examples of hardships and cruelties suffered by Harriet Jacobs and
other slaves?
3) How did Harriet Jacobs and other slaves in general cope with their bondage? How did they
survive? Did they fight back? How? Why or why not?
11
4) Based on Harriets experience in the North, how were African-Americans treated there? Was
the antebellum North, like the South, a racist culture and society?
5) If white Americans, North and South, believed the nation was a white mans republic, and if
they accepted that African Americans were inferior, why did northerners fight to end slavery?